sheet metal mechanic

mechanic

welder

cnc machinist

painter

Piper-Aircraft-Inc

What is the best part of working at the company?
After you quit, you get a good laugh from watching how the directors ran the company into the ground as time goes on.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
if your hands aren't moving someone will come up to you and ask you why they aren't moving.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
By far one of the worst I've experienced and I've worked jobs where I was walking 10+ miles a day in summer heat throwing sod, digging around pipes with a shovel 20 feet below where there is no airflow, smashing up concrete sidewalks with a sledgehammer and carrying the 60-80lb+ chunks hundreds of feet to drop it into a loader bucket, because we were removing sidewalks where equipment could not reach, laying asphalt in the heat of summer for 16-18hours straight because we had deadlines to meet .

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Day 1, Learn your job.
Day 2, Get faster at your job.
Day 3, Repeat day 2 until you're faster than anyone that has done this job prior
Day X, Now that you're the fastest skip passed the raise for your hard work and go directly to Day XX.
Day XX, Learn someone else's job. 
Day XX1, Congrats you now have 2 fulltime jobs! Don't expect any money though.
Day XXX, Repeat Day 2 - Day XXX until you leave or work everyone else's jobs. Don't expect to get compensated though.

The paint shop night shift is a good place to work. Depending on your shift and area is how much you’ll like it and managers/ leads make all the difference. You can learn various things from basic touch up to vinyls and it all just depends how much advancement you’re looking for. There are yearly raises and overtime especially with the year winding down so you have to be able to put in more than the forty a week at times. My lead and managers do a great job on giving us the information we need and leaving out the background noise. Casual workplace culture and good coworkers which make it better. At times there is a time crunch which is the most stressful part but I would say that’s pretty typical for most jobs. Overall have been there coming up three years and still enjoying it. Being on good terms with your immediate supervisors and putting in a good days work goes a long way. 

Work 9 hours per day, attend daily production meetings with Program Teams and support groups plan schedule and release shop-orders from the computer ERP/MRP system, work on the Production shop floor identifying issues, expediting the appropriate personnel to resolve issues affecting production, coordinating priorities within the Work-Cells, prioritize assemblies to be worked on and management reporting as to progress of the builds.

Root Cause and corrective Action, continuous improvement, communication skills, computer skills. 

Well managed, very structured, organized, effectively communicating expectations, goals and objectives

Great Place to work, people company, providing training, good paying, well managed, good Team of people, Learned a lot

Long Overtime hours to meet production schedules.

Working with very intelligent good people

It's core management skills there at Piper they don't give you what you were they don't recognize what you do and it's been years that this company has been messed up I don't recommend a lot of people to this place because it's simple fact that their management it has messed up it's been people that's been there for you years will say the same thing and it don't take a person that's been in management to know that they need to fix things they don't pay  you what you're worth, they will lie to you to get you there because they need bodies but when you learn something the performance based off control and quality it shouldn't be about rush rush because at the end of the day person has someone Life in The end mistakes end up happening and a lot of things go through in a lot of planes go down if people don't work together as one as a family and making sure everybody goes home safe and get paid

Piper has a history of over hiring, then having mass layoffs 6 months down the road.  This has been happening since at least the 1970s, according to 3 generations of family members. They will start with selective surprise drug testing to try and eliminate employees. If you pass the first time, they'll test you again within a couple weeks.  When you pass that, they'll test you again the next month. Whatever they can do to eliminate your position without paying unemployment.  The employees are a tight knit group, and if you're in, you're gold.  As long as you're over 40.  Otherwise, you will get that clique mentality, like Mean Girls meets The Golden Girls. elitist and snobby.  I don't recommend this as a career position. You run the risk of disappointment when they lay you off for being the newest employee.

I spent just about a year here, coming straight out of high school I was the youngest person by about 20 years. Everyone is miserable and the gray gloomy walls make everyone mope around and hate their job. You go through your day following a bell for breaks and lunch and if you are late by a minute to clock in you might as well kiss your job goodbye. HR always sides with management and upper management always is right in this situation. Overall I had a tremendous supervisor and I learned basically the whole department and was able to teach many people. It’s a good job to get you somewhere else. Don’t make the mistake of the dozens of employees who wasted their life working here for 30+ years. It’s not worth it. 

Piper is a very confusing company to work for. They say all the right things to get you in the door and then don't come through on any of them. The CEO is really good, if he hears of a problem he takes care of it. The problem is there are way to many directors and supervisors that don't care and don't want to solve any problems. Things that should take a week to solve go on for months and months. The workplace culture is ok, for the most part they leave you to do the job without to much pressure. The hardest part of the job is not getting the support you need, not having the tools you need, and never feeling appreciated. You don't ever hear GOOD JOB at this place. They pay good money but yet people quit everyday and they hire about 30 people a month.

A typical day at Piper for me, I'd start off with a brief meeting with my lead person to discuss the objectives for the day, and then set out to meet them. I learned all about painting and how much time and effort goes into making things look beautiful. Management always looked out for us and worked with me as much as they could to help me and accommodate my school schedule. My co-workers were a bit help, being many more years in the field than I, they never shied away from a question or resisted when I asked for help. Hardest part of the job was probably the painting itself, only because I was worried about messing up. Most enjoyable part was working with my co-workers, they made it great.

I loved what I was doing, but as soon as there was an issue with one of the more liked employee that was there longer I was treated like I was the one with the issue and I needed to have thicker skin. Due to me having to go to HR more than 2× everyone including HR started saying and implying how im too sensitive. Im sorry but when you have numerous people informing similar issues from the same employee, obviously its the employee thats bullying not the one thats going through the "open door policy" with a compliant.

I've been working for this company for years and have barely received an actual raise. The raises are given out to everyone, without being given an individual one on one review of your actual job performance. So basically everyone is given just a 1-2% raise, which is more like a cost of living raise. Hours are horrible, overtime is always mandatory. Management does not care about you and definitely does not help you advance. There is favoritism so if you want to move up in another department, you better be part of the clique, The only thing good is job security, but when you feel unappreciated and you never really get any monetary compensation, for years of hard work, what's the point. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Sheet metal mechanic 3 salaries reported	$31.11 per hour
Mechanic 3 salaries reported	$34.40 per hour
Welder 5 salaries reported	$29.50 per hour
Cnc machinist 6 salaries reported	$30.50 per hour
Painter 1 salary reported	$27.00 per hour

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