machine operator

forklift operator

maintenance technician

quality technician

technician

Refresco

A Typical Day at Work:
The role is primarily reactive, defined by constant "firefighting." Most of my time was spent resolving avoidable issues: payroll discrepancies, incorrect onboarding dates, and correcting policy misinformation spread by leadership. I managed frequent claims of favoritism and conducted investigations into broken promises made to employees regarding pay raises or promotions. It is a high-pressure environment where you are constantly repairing trust that leadership has broken.

What I Learned:
I developed extreme professional resilience and learned how to maintain high standards of work even within a toxic infrastructure. I gained experience in staying employee focused despite significant organizational odds and a lack of resources.

Management:
Management is the company’s largest hurdle. There appears to be a "warm body" hiring Steiner, filling vacancies quickly rather than selecting quality candidates capable of driving positive change. This has resulted in staggering turnover rates, which is incredibly discouraging for the remaining staff and prevents any operational continuity.

Workplace Culture:
In my opinion, there is no constructive culture to speak of. The environment is heavy with negativity that is felt the moment you walk in. Employee morale and spirit are quickly stifled by the lack of appreciation, support, or positive reinforcement from the top down.

The Hardest Part of the Job:
The most difficult aspect was attempting to implement positive change without any support from local or executive leadership. There is a glaring lack of accountability; frontline employees and HR are held to strict standards, while leadership mistakes are overlooked or excused. Additionally, I often observed a lack of adherence to established HR policies when they conflicted with leadership's immediate goals.

The Most Enjoyable Part of the Job:
The saving grace of this position was the opportunity to advocate for the employees and provide them with a voice. I also had the privilege of working with a small, dedicated team that made the daily challenges bearable through mutual support and collaboration.

The Bottom Line: 
I cannot recommend Refresco to anyone with genuine goals or aspirations in the manufacturing industry. If you are looking to be treated as a nameless number, this environment will suit you. However, if you value a culture where you are included, respected, and recognized for your contributions, I strongly suggest looking elsewhere for employment.

I don't recommend working here. Most people appear unhappy in their jobs and many are very negative about the company and the ways they have been treated by the leadership team. Despite the rhetoric, people come last after profit and process. The top management believe the way to get the most out of people is to beat them with a stick constantly, finding every opportunity to take money away from people and beat them down. They seem to think that their employees should be grateful just to have a low paid job and nothing more. There is no attempt to make people feel like they are part of the company, people here are supposed to just feel grateful. Every decision is based on whether the company can save a few pennies. Management take the view that everyone should do as they say, not as they do. All in all it's an inhumane, robotic, miserable place to work. Better management is needed to make it a place where people actually want to come to work. Literally everyone on the shop floor resents the company and their job which makes for a very difficult working environment. 
At the end of the day I'm sorry! I need to be transparent this place is awful and needs to change. No one is happy and no one cares or at least it seems that way. A happy worker is a good worker! If there respected you'll get more as well! The culture needs to change so the associates are skipping to get to work instead of looking at the clock and dying to leave. My advice is take the information and change it. Offer incentives. Holiday party or dinner, Summer activitiy someplace, Pizza parties. Little things go a long way. Improve scheduling. These people deserve better and the buisness will prosper when they figure that out!


Pros
• Competitive hourly pay before deductions
• Friendly coworkers who help make shifts more manageable
• Occasional perks from RPO (point card system, food trucks, complimentary drinks)
• Opportunities to learn and take on different tasks across departments

Cons
• Frequent last-minute task changes during production create extra pressure and increase the chance of errors
• Persistent urgency to complete work quickly; employees are often held responsible for delays
• Supervisors sometimes express frustration in ways that feel unprofessional and stressful
• Limited hands-on guidance; training for new hires can be assigned to relatively new employees without additional pay
• Overtime is common and can be difficult to decline, making work-life balance challenging
• Staff are regularly reassigned to cover shortages, even outside their primary department
• Paychecks can feel smaller than expected after deductions (taxes, union dues, pension contributions)
• Communication about job requirements was sometimes unclear, leading to confusion over physical expectations

Overall
The core work can be manageable and coworkers are supportive, but inconsistent management practices and frequent overtime make it hard to maintain balance. Candidates who prioritize predictable schedules and clear communication may want to consider these factors before applying.

A typical day at work begins with checking my email for any urgent requests from either my boss or customers. If nothing is urgent I pick up with either daily reports that need to be run or where I left off from yesterday. This job has really helped me to become better organized, the importance of communication, and knowing what you are doing. This last point I learned from working with a co-worker on an Inventory report. We had items that were showing up as not  assigned when we pulled them into our report. I went and researched these items only to have some of the people that had their names on it from when they posted the entry that they did not know what it was for only they were told to post it. this was frustrating but also a learning experience because I do not want to be in that position of not knowing why I'm doing something just because I was told to do it. Hardest part of the job is dealing with the time crunch. Sometimes we have all the time in the world to get what we need done but other times it becomes so hectic and busy with time sensitive material it gets stressful. The most enjoyable part of the job is my team and whenever I complete a big project. I love the team I work with they are funny, understanding, and intelligent. The other part is whenever I complete a task. I don't get many of the big projects but when I do and I complete it and get a thanks or great work from everyone, that is the best. I get that a lot with everyday items but it means so much more after putting a lot of work into one of the projects we have.

This company markets itself as a Private Label Beverage Manufacturer, but the reality is that they are struggling to regain momentum in the industry as a Co-Pack manufacturer. When I joined the team 2 years ago, they had recently acquired Cliffstar ( a juice manufacturing company). However, they terminated many employees who had the knowledge and capabilities to do the job. My heart goes out to the people who still remain and try to work through the sludge of a mess that they have on their hands. There is no organizational management, and most people have been there 18-20 years, just waiting it out until retirement. The leadership at the company is struggling with unethical and immoral practices. Unfortunately the HR Manager in Columbus was pushed into position   from a Consumer Affairs and dry cleaning background, and does not have the necessary skills or training to be effective. The company paid for her to go to school and receive training...but she is an entry level beginner, at best, and does not have the background to aid the company as needed. My advice to anyone looking to work here, is get in, and get out as soon as possible. There is absolutely no room for growth or advancement, so your expectations need to be very low to succeed here. They are operating in an extremely limited environment and have not made the necessary technological advances needed to prosper in the global marketplace.

A typical day at Refresco was chaotic and poorly organized, with constant material shortages with no support from management. The environment is Toxic from the moment you walk in, and employees are left to figure things out on their own and management is quick to criticize.
My experience there taught me to keep to myself and stay cautious. Teamwork and professionalism were lacking, and many employees are unhappy, unmotivated, or only there for a paycheck. Management appeared disconnected from the everyday issues on the floor with no effort to improve the issues. Management is focused on numbers and bonuses rather than improving working conditions for the employees who are their most important asset.
Training and support were minimal, and favoritism played a role in how employees were treated. The workplace culture is Toxic, negative, and unhealthy making it difficult to feel respected or supported on a daily basis.
The benefits are terrible, health insurance not good, 401K was a 3% match .50 cents on the dollar. The worst 401K I’ve ever seen for a manufacturing company. I would only recommend this job as a temporary option while searching for something long-term. The best part of my experience was leaving for a healthier, more productive work environment.
I rated it 1 star because zero was not an option…


Cott has potential to be an amazing place to work, but Management does not put effort into creating an appealing culture.  Management is segregated from the rest of the organization and really has no interest in knowing it's employees or recognizing their efforts.  The morale overall has taken a rapid decline in the last 6-12 months.  There has been a huge number of people leaving and the positions are not being backfilled in most departments.  However, other departments are replacing and adding headcount.  The sale of the traditional beverage division was announced recently and many people have left or are leaving; some are leaving without other jobs to go to, and that message is being overlooked by management.  There is extreme disparity in the treatment of employees from department to department, some departments allow full or part time work from home, while others do not allow that perk.  Workload is unbalanced and managers don't even understand the roles of their direct reports.  Work/Life Balance is almost non-existent in some departments, and the rules for individuals are not consistent within departments.  Hard work will not get you recognized.

Started off as a temp for the first 4 months at Cott. 
Was supposed to be hired for a Loader/ Unloader position but was moved to a Machine Operator without a choice after a month. From the start there was no communication with Management on a steady schedule and/ or position. When I tried to reach out to Management to change my position to either another “Line” (Machine Operator) or back to being a loader they refused my request without any consideration and threatend firing me if I refused to work that Line. Personally I have a medical heart condition and it was too stressful after the first couple of months. This job was literally one of the hardest jobs in Warehouse and I managed it alone. At times Management did acknowledge my hard work but in the end they did not reward me by giving me other options to either move up in the company or changing my position even when there were openings. This company runs on favoring seniority although they lacked good work ethics. The pay was fair but not great for the amounts of work load. The only upside of working here was the Medical coverage that helped pay for my medical expenses. I hope this place will change for their employees best interests and not their own.

This place is all about trying to meet production and will try to short cut on important matters to try and meet their goals

•Preventive maintenance would take 6 hours when I first started working here and now it’s barely 2 hours because their so behind on the company’s goals

•Downtime is huge here due to nearly the entire maintenance staff being new and unfamiliar with the machines

•RUN-RUN-RUN! There is no such thing as everyone going to break together all at once. Every time a Relief Operator or Team Lead would break me out I would have to work twice as hard coming back from break due to them not watching my machine and trying to break 2 people out at once 

•Sweat shop! They would leave one fan in my work area which you couldn’t feel unless you were standing directly in front of it and then they had to nerve to build a mini office in the middle of the production floor with air conditioning in each room. It was definitely a slap in the face to us workers

•Easy to move up due to favoritism but people get placed into positions that their not qualified for or don’t know how to handle leadership

Refresco - Carlisle is always laying employees off. We have been laid off our Max amount of time for this year already and have two more months to go before our time starts over. This factory just did a total workforce reduction and permanently let go 11 employees and a supervisor. There is no volume in this factory to keep it running. The one shift of employees they kept are still only averaging one week a month of work. Management is horrible. They have supervisors there running the show that don't know what they are doing because they have had no training and just aren't supervisor material. What is left of the managers know nothing about how to run a business or take care of their people. The interim plant manager is being ran over by the HR lady, who has only been there for 3 months. Pretty sure she lied to get the job. The stuff she said she could do in her interview was all a lie. She knows nothing and is worse than the lady before her. Benefits suck. Even though there is a handbook the rules are written in pencil and it's all based on who you are and who you're buddies with there. The factory isn't air conditioned so it's extremely hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Starting wage is $14 and trust me it's not worth it.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Machine operator 195 salaries reported	$21.44 per hour
Forklift operator 124 salaries reported	$21.37 per hour
Maintenance technician 121 salaries reported	$32.04 per hour
Quality technician 94 salaries reported	$22.64 per hour
Technician 46 salaries reported	$22.23 per hour

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