production supervisor

quality assurance manager

maintenance mechanic

maintenance manager

maintenance technician

Richelieu Foods

If your are looking to start a career in manufacturing this place will give you entry level experience. If you have any experience or education you will compete with under-qualified candidates based on ethnic backgrounds and favoritism.  The culture is that of which you only hear horror stories about. It is densely populated with those that will work for the least amount due to their citizenship (which is staffed through a temp agency).  The supervisory and management staff is controlled by the dominating culture and leaves those with darker skin and qualifications little to no room for advancement or growth. This particular plant was a start-up. The turn over/ retention was so rapid, by the time I left, the entire management and supervisors had changed COMPLETELY (most were FIRED). And when they rehired,  it still did not include one person that looked like me. Keep in mind I am college educated. Don't work for this place unless you have that certain UNNAMED privilege or have NO OTHER OPTIONS. You will not GROW HERE.

A typical day at work is frustrating because you never know if you are going to have the parts you need to fix a piece of equiptment. Things are constantly being broke because the employees do not care. I have learned alot from doing my job. Being able to tear into a piece of machinery that you have never had apart before and repairing it is quite rewarding. Also having something break and being able to figure out what the problem is is also quite rewarding. My co-workers are all fighting with the other shifts because that is the way management likes it. Hardest part of the job is not having the parts you need to repair the machinery. Most enjoyable part being able to troubleshoot a piece of machinery and figure out the problem and repair it.

Richelieu was a fairly standard place to work but with the influx of migrant workers campers (prisoners) and the recent upheaval of the past few years of the higher ups the company has decided to cut corners to save money, more temps paid little and few ever get hired on despite being proficient at their jobs so they in turn can be replaced by another batch of low paid temps. Many long time employees have quit. People that worked their 30-40 years only to be told their pension is no longer supported. Much of the machinery is antiquated and breaks down every so often. If such a malfunction occurs and maintenance crews cannot get the machine running again you would expect to go home as it wastes your time and cost the company, however Richelieu may end up keeping you there simply because one maintenance man things "he'll get it working in 10 minutes" which may stretch on for seven hours.

The job was easy to get into. Easy to learn. I recommend for a temporary job or quick income but it's not enough to make a living. They start general labors off at 12$ an hour. I've known 2 employees there that worked there for 30+ years. One retired while I was working and the company showed no appreciation to their loyalty over the past 30+ years. None of the long time workers made more than 14$ an hour. They make false promises on growing with them. They dont appreciate or compensate for the years you put into the company. !! And you only get 38 hours a week. They make you punch out for your 30 minute lunch every day! They should at least schedule you 10.5 hours so you make 40 hours a week at least. They dont make the Spanish communicate in English so it becomes stressful having them tell at you or talk to you and you cant understand. !!

A typical day at work is walking from your car to the door, there is pizza cheese and pepperoni on the way in near the entrance. you can see the geese trail as you walk in. As you slide around once you get in to go to your office, you may hit a stretch where you shoes stick to the floor when you walk. The smell inside gave me headaches.  Its slippery in the pizza line area so you need to be careful, I almost fell many times.

The employment agency located in the basement seems shady.

I learned how a toxic company culture operates.

Management: Out for blood, pointing fingers.

Culture: Toxic

The hardest part of the job was difficult people, people not knowing what to do, uneducated management, bad leadership from the top down. 

Most enjoyable part of the job was: getting fired.

A typical day at work involves testing finished products, ingredients and samples from the plant for microbial counts.  I have learned a lot here, especially about Food Safety, Food Quality and the proper way to perform Microbiological techniques.  Management is focused on production, but is also supportive of maintaining a clean, safe plant.  The workplace culture is good; people are supportive of one another and want you to succeed.  The hardest part of the job is doing inventory, since I don't enjoy doing that.  I enjoy doing the Micro lab work.

At Richelieu they play favorites and the HR team does nothing to help if you have a problem at hand. The majority of the line employees do not speak English  nor like to do what they're told.  There's barely any leadership or guidance as the company has a very high turnover rate (during the time I was there about 20/30 people in upper managing including the vp and two different directors of operations left). Also as someone in upper management if the planet is running on a Saturday you only get paid $150 dollars for working an entire day shift. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Serving the employer 31 years, keeping it running.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Being laid off, after 31 years without reproach.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Upbeat, friendly, and always moving forward.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Never without line issues.  We're always there to solve, repair, implement, as needed, to make repairs go swiftly and efficiently as possible.   We're always learning our trade, teaching the best of what we do to others learning the skills of the maintenance technician trade.

When I first started working at Richelieu I liked the job because I was able to catch on to the work very easily. I was moved around to areas in the factory to pick the slack where some areas were lacking. After a while, they  They had me in an area where not a lot of people could keep up with the pace of the machine. Eventually, they just decided to keep me there and the work felt really repetitive. Overall good experience, except that the  management doesn't have good communication skills when it comes to regarding the schedule. They would tell you that certain production lines were off certain days, then change the schedule again without informing anybody.

Every mornings routine is to get the schedule of the production for the day by communicating with upper manangement. Going out to prepare the line with food products. Getting all products log down to keep track of the quanity we should use or over use. Every thing runs smooth when everyone works together. Here everyone found out that team work does matter especially when the schedule has to change over to different product because the store is running low of pizzas. I love this position because I work independently and keep my self motivated .

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Production supervisor 6 salaries reported	$77,500 per year
Quality assurance manager 4 salaries reported	$27.06 per hour
Maintenance mechanic 43 salaries reported	$34.50 per hour
Maintenance manager 2 salaries reported	$117,500 per year
Maintenance technician 9 salaries reported	$31.78 per hour

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