machine operator

repair technician

mechanic

cnc operator

welder

Progress-Rail

My personal experience had its ups and downs; so to be fair, I will focus on the overall experience.

The job itself was easy enough, but the fluctuations in management, the hypocrisy of the company’s ‘values’, and the overall managerial methods were problematic and counter-productive. 

In three years, I had four different supervisors, and a period of six months without a supervisor for the entire department. The supervision they do have are appointed and not chosen from applicants and interviews. Jobs are posted to save face, but the positions are already filled before the position is posted, unless it’s a general labor position.

Every department is independent of the others in their scheduling. Three shifts, but all of them have fluctuating start times. They also don’t communicate with one another or work well together. The relationship between any given department is adversarial at best.

There is no effective communication between management and employees. Your schedule may be changed at any moment, we have been told as late as the day of, that the hours would be extended that day. 

Whenever they do get in a good flow, and things start to improve, upper management decides that the supervisor or other parties responsible need to be moved up and take them to another position. Then they replace them with someone as soon as they can, without truly looking at the persons capacity for leadership. Then they wonder why all that progress goes by the wayside so suddenly.

An example of some of the logic; production was WAY behind schedule, thus every department was on overtime do 7 day weeks. This prompted visits from CEO/VP, and other upper level individuals. 

Instead of continuing the work on the units that were behind, multiple days with EACH SHIFT, every person swept and dusted and organized the production areas. The goal was to make it as ‘presentable’ as possible for the visiting big shots. Apparently, the idea of a spotless workplace doesn’t indicate a lack of any work happening, at least in the minds of the people in the upper ranks...

Basically, it’s a good job if you can rub the right elbows and politic well. If you are a skilled worker, welder, electrician, etc. you have great pay and the hours would be ideal if only management knew how to handle the workflow.

Unless you desperately need a source of income, or you work through a Rail temp agency; it’s best to keep looking.

I could say so much more, about my position and what a joke it became. Honestly, if you need any other reasoning to pass on this place, you may as well find out for yourself.

I’m sure there will be a few ‘convincing’ counter reviews for this once it’s been seen by the management team, but I could write an inspirational review too, if my job depended on it.

Very laid back, very different from your normal warehouse work, reach truck drivers (a plus) order(cherry)picker is a high demand. forklift drivers work mainly in receiving. climate controlled a plus, safety glasses, polo shirt and black slacks and metatarsals boots are required inside. Management overall is ok. the culture sucks, its a lot of do gooders when management is around and quite the opposite when its not. Hardest Parts, unlearning everything you learned in previous warehouses due to the overkill in safety policies. Ex..sneezing is natural and everyone does it. here if you sneeze and don't report it, meaning going to first aid for ANY incident. if caught you'll get fired. Tread lightly, VERY! Very easy to move up and transition, just inquire and fill an app for and interview, that easy! 30min lunch, 2 10 to 15mins breaks. theres 3 parts to the whole place. Machine side, Assembly, and DC (Distribution Center). Lets break this down. Machine side is very adult like, welding painting and crane lifts etc. Assembly is elementary because its new so thats where you would want to be (building and engine piece by piece) DC is like high school and college, working while hanging with friends and cool leads, its where the real action is. lots of moving and shaking, the heartbeat of the place and closest to the break room and smoke area outside. No cellphones on the floor. you can have them on you but don't use it or walk while looking at it. pull to the side, view it, reply, and keep it moving! Typical day at work, clock in and go to your section, stretch, talk about stats, work loads, placements of areas to work, demands, the actual work, 10 break, work, 30min lunch, work, 10min break, back to work. 5S which is cleaning and organizing and clock out! I learned to keep to myself mostly because of the DC explanation, altho it was fun. gotta know when to pull back. Most enjoyable part. working there and getting bonuses on your check every month! (Gain Shares) Its worth it to work here. (Insurance is by far the best ive seen at ANY job. trust me!

 Injured on the job? If no one seen it or you didn't get reported by another employee. Keep it moving! (TRUST ME ON THIS) I wish I was still there. Life happens, what can you do?

About the Mobile Rail Crews. You are gone a minimum of 22 days. If you leave on a Friday, you have to be back the following Thursday. Your 2 days of traveling counts as off days. You have to drive if you're working within 10 hours of your home. They will fly you if you're further away, but they get the cheapest flights possible, so you can expect connecting flights and layovers. With all that being said, you really only have 5 days off. About the work. You'll either be following a railroad gang that replaces track, and be doing a lot of torch cutting and manual labor, or you'll be on a load out crew, travelling around loading stockpiles of rail into train cars. Load out crews don't do much cutting or physical labor at all. They have a few new trucks, but most are old and worn out. Depending what crew you get on with, you may work 7 days a week and make a lot of overtime, or 5-6 days a week. You won't have set hours. Some weeks, expect 70+ hours. Other weeks, 40-60. They put you in fairly nice hotels, Quality Inn, Comfort Inn, Extended Stay, etc. Management is fairly new, but they do seem to care about you and will work with you if you need to go home. Blue Cross health and dental is good and affordable. 401k retirement. You get vacation time as soon as you start. You may have up to 2-3 weeks off without pay at the end of the year, again depending which crew you're on. If you're married or have kids, it may not be a good job, always being away from home. But if you like to travel, it's a good job.

A typical day is not overly structured, but the "noise-level" of every problem (small or large) makes the job unbearable at times because every situation that affects production is escalated so quickly and urgently without understanding the entire situation or possible results.

There is A LOT of employee turnover with most of the staff made up of contract/hourly workers. Yet, these contract/hourly workers are put in positions that should be occupied by salaried employees, but treated as salary. There have been numerous recycling and reshuffling of managers. You can never truly understand the organization hierarchy because of this. The management team that I was apart of was absolutely atrocious. They should be demoted (both were) or fired because they performed so poorly and just do not understand the entire scope of what needs to be done. We were always reacting and playing defense when we were supposed to be PLANNING. Totally backwards thinking.

MOST of the co-workers are a treat to work with. You get a lot of people who do not go the extra mile, which created more work for someone like my self who does not like to fail or feel anything under my control will be the root cause failing. Normal office politics in that there is a lot of group-think and cliques within the department I worked in.

The most enjoyable part of the job was to see a locomotive go from a couple big pieces of steel to a showroom-quality finished product. Truly cool, honestly. 

I would not recommend working here unless there were a lot of changes within the management team. Worst part of the job..

Pros: 401k package is about the only positive, as it is better than what I've seen in other industries.

Cons: Everything else! Inept, arrogant, conceited management. No strategic plan or vision; EVERYTHING from engineering to supply chain to quality to production is fly by the seat of your pants. Company values only apply UP the chain, not down...you will be given ZERO respect or courtesy as an employee; you're a tool and a number to this organization. No budget for ANYTHING; you will have to fight tooth and nail to get even basic supplies, tools, or necessary equipment. It was not uncommon to bring items from home, or personally procured, in order to complete machines. Production schedule is completely unrealistic and operationally unsound; project management is non-existent at every level of the organization. Stay away if you have ANY professional dignity or actually want to work for a company that places any value in retaining you; you will be told often that everyone is replaceable.

Advice to Management: REPLACE THE ENTIRE MANAGEMENT TEAM AT MONTGOMERY MoW! These people are absentee bosses AT BEST! In any organization that knew how to use actual metrics and took a true look at its turnover rates, these people would not have a job! They are over-matched for their positions and shouldn't be allowed to even lead lemmings over a cliff.

Some interesting places to find racism.  HR will lie to you any chance they get if it means to the betterment of the company.  Was actually told that reporting somebody sleeping in the toilet is what got the previous guy fired.  Prints are wrong, so building anything is mostly taught from long-term employees (providing they like you).  Otherwise everything you build will be trial and error.  Nothing is updated and it falls on you to do the engineer's job of updating prints to spec.  Which is impossible because even then a new print will never be issued.  Quite a few techs build from memory or have altered prints stored in their boxes.  Could be a great place to work with a lot of potential but too much focus in the wrong areas.  People slacking all day, but will bust work for 4 hours of overtime each day.  Management is either in right field or buried in work to the point where keeping up is impossible.  No pressure relief system designed into the simplest hydraulic loop and that should be a major indicator of engineering quality/attention to detail/safety.  I didn't work there long, but have 20+ years in the engineering industry.  So it was pretty easy see where the trouble issues as a tech/engineer were located.

There’s no job security what so ever even for Alabama being a work at will state if you try to move up they will always pick the Pearson that does the least amount night shift is awful and it’s not because of the coworkers it’s that there’s no order of operation the breakdown department is full of the hardest working people yet looked at as the least they pay the people who sit in chairs all day more because they have more questions on the qualification test then they do yet breakdown has to stay at a fast pace throughout the 12 hour shift no matter how slow production is running on assembly you have a qualification test that your supposed to take but don’t worry because you won’t be using any of that and if your in breakdown and your going home early we’ll good luck because while everyone else walks out the door your still back there working because no one told you that they were finishing up, there point system is indefinitely messed up you could have someone light off fireworks in the parking lot and get a 3 day suspension although you call out and they tell you to wait because they had already terminated you and you will always be short staffed no matter how many people they higher on because there is no such thing as work/life balance they just continue pushing for there production number 

Material handler position they post is a trick and a joke they literally put out on the floor and expect you to know what you're doing with absolutely no training, everyone is to busy to help because their own job so you're pretty much on your own with a sheet of paper with numbers you have no clue what, where or how, parts you may be looking for you have no idea what it looks like, a few of my experiences: I was told on my 3rd day of work after a little frustrating (that this is the way it is and you don't like it you could go home) upon my initial interview we agreed on one pay rate and to later find out I was not getting paid what we agreed on, I was threatening about not having a job on occasion, billion dollar company and the outside equipment ran like junk which would make it extremely difficult to perform my job, supervisor had no sense of urgency does not training, very immature and very unprofessional, would sit around and talk with other employees about another employee making derogatory remarks, I'm almost sure when it came to certain employees race played a factor, I had items come up missing, had personal items destroyed only for them to turn a blind eye when I spoke on it, it was ok for certain employees to do certain things but not for some when we both did the same job.

This company is a joke!!  If you have a family don't work here!!  I worked in the plant in Sherman Texas and at the interview that talk about how they look out for the families and that the employee's are theyre number one concern; that is a lie!!  We worked from 4 in the morning until 4:30 in the evening and sometimes we didnt leave until 1 in the morning and had to be back a few hours later.  You dont have a life (especially if you are a family man) you get harrassed daily, if you have court or anything that you cant miss out on you get punished even if you have documentation, management is very horrible, it's like high school all over again (thats how everyone treats you), backstabbing every where, drug use between staff and employees, I would not have worked their if I knew this before I took the job.  They cover up things if you get hurt, they also will fire you if you do get hurt.  I can go on for days about this company.  If you want to work 70+ hours a week with all this that I have mentioned then go ahead, but there is a reason why this company is always hiring and those reasons arent growth.

I worked at the Raceland, KY car shop location as a carman. They brought me in at $15 an hour. The only reason I took the job was to avoid traveling at the time due to my wife being pregnant.
The plant superintendent was not very bright. However my immediate manager was a pretty smart guy. He was able to make up for the lack of brains at the top. But he could only do so much. We were working with very little tools, mostly left overs we scavenged from when another company owned the facility and had left. The lighting was very dim you had to use a flashlight to look at almost anything. Very little direction is given from management to get things done. You will spend most of your day standing around "guarding" rail track while cars are switched. 
I once asked the superintendent why he didnt just order a bell system for switching on the tracks so everyone knows what track and when they are switching. He said it costs too much money. But having 5-8 people stand around for 1-2 hours isnt costing money? Does that not add up to cost even more between car down time and the pathetic wage that you pay? Like I said he wasnt very smart.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Machine operator 42 salaries reported	$21.45 per hour
Repair technician 55 salaries reported	$19.71 per hour
Mechanic 4 salaries reported	$22.62 per hour
Cnc operator 17 salaries reported	$22.51 per hour
Welder 11 salaries reported	$21.28 per hour

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