machine operator

maintenance technician

quality assurance inspector

machinist

manufacturing engineer

To preface this review, I will say that I was laid off as part of new "restructuring" of the company, and while I am not upset by this as the job and environment were a far cry from when I started and I was already considering leaving due to an increase of stress over the past few months, it is worth mentioning for transparency's sake. That said; the criteria for the most recent layoffs that I was apart of was not explained and my coworkers were surprised that I was someone who was let go. I suspect it was due to my questioning recent changes to policies as several others in my department who were let go also did so regardless of their general performance. This would be in spite of the regular reminders from management and HR that SKF fosters an open forum for employees to speak their mind without fear of retaliation, which seems to generally not be the case. Admittedly, this is pure speculation, but my former coworkers have been fearful to speak up for some time prior to these layoffs.

SKF started out very relaxed with a consistent workflow. My peers were excellent for the most part but a handful would regularly shirk responsibilities and/or blatantly disregard responsibilities by not leaving notes, not following required process or closing customer requests without any sort of response. Serial offenders were reported, seemingly talked to and then would continue this process; wash rinse repeat. Luckily this was not the majority and many performed their duties very well. 

Initial training felt robust in the moment with about 5 weeks of learning, but I came to find that this did not prepare me fully for the job, but I chalked this up to remote training during the pandemic. I came to find later that new coworkers trained in person had similar if not worse experiences culminating in a two week period of all new hires within a year receiving more additional training later on, but even this was somewhat disorganized and felt like an afterthought, with some of the 'key subjects' having never been taught 2 years on.

Management is disorganized, often unavailable and can be pulled from a department that functions completely differently with no prior training into the differences for the new department they now have to manage. Personally I had my direct report change about 5 times in just under 3 years. Managers will often be away from their desks and unreachable for 90% of the day and do not communicate where they are to the team. Many times tasks that require manager intervention will not be handled for an extremely long time, such as changing the accounts an employee has assigned to them, even when the account is for a completely different department, or just having the correct manager assigned to them in the system directory ( I was still appointed to my second manager, who had stepped down from the role, well into my 5th manager). Managers don't plan for absences in advance despite having a publicly shared calendar for PTO and reporting daily PTO usage and call outs to the team. Despite this, managers are generally quite knowledgeable and at least immediate managers tend to genuinely care for their team. When you are able to reach out to them, managers can be quite helpful and will work with you to resolve almost any issues. Upper management feels removed and unaware of what goes into the jobs of their subordinates.

Customer engagement feels like a dumping ground with more and more responsibilities being tacked on regularly such as being responsible for several acquired product lines that require unique processes and programs to navigate through. Most recently the department became responsible for investigating customer charge backs, which felt more in line with an accounting or billing role. The department regularly reported feeling overworked during anonymous reviews. This was addressed regularly in department meetings and we would be told that a new initiative or software would lighten the load. The changes to our way of working typically helped for about 2 weeks at best before devolving into the status quo. Promised tools would either never come or start a beta implementation only for it to be cancelled shortly after launch. New employees weren't hired to replace old ones even after a year, due to a hiring freeze with the aforementioned programs being cited as a better way to ease the overworking than hiring and training more employees.

SKF is generally diverse and inclusive, and while mileage may vary for your experience here, they do regularly promote these values. Both management and staff are fairly diverse in age, race and orientation/identity. SKF provides avenues to report anything that goes against codes of conduct, and provides regular training for recognizing behavior that goes against these codes of conduct. Good mental health is promoted by the company,  and while it may often feel like the opposite in practice; the company provides resources to help with physical and mental health improvement. PTO is plentiful compared to most other companies, though it is worth noting that PTO has been temporarily revoked, and usage has been limited which tends to increase call outs. The benefits package is robust and gracious and allows for customization of different options.

The work for a customer engagement rep is generally not very difficult, however the workload is where things can get challenging. Primary responsibilities generally include answering phone calls and emails that come through a ticketing system, and replying to these customer communications swiftly. Other responsibilities include; understanding a vast array of product types and brands and providing technical knowledge on them, collaborating with product planners and warehouse associates, communicating with sales reps, and submitting and following up with various types of request forms. On average an employee may answer about 30 phone calls per day, with calls typically ranging in 2-10 minutes in length. Longer calls can and will happen for larger or more involved requests. Emails can range in complexity in a very similar manner to calls, but usually have a higher average of complex requests compared to calls. Additionally your coworkers will all move at different paces which can affect the amount of calls and emails handled per individual.

Compensation: Was hired through a staffing agency under a job title that paid less than half of what my team should have been making for the work we were doing. In the end, myself and two members of my team were directly responsible for the company achieving $250,000 OVER their projected quarterly profits, yet did not qualify for the bonus because we were technically temps. There were other people there referred to as "perma-temps" because the company was on a hiring freeze for so long that these "temps" had been working there for over three years.
Values: The company as a whole seemed fine, but the particular location I worked at was lacking values in general. By the end of my first week, the only other guy they hired to work alongside me had left and I was alone for the next three weeks before they could hire anyone else. During this time, I was taken aside by my manager and offered a pseudo-supervisory promotion and a dollar an hour raise - which never happened. It was just a way to try and assure that I would stay because they needed someone to do the legwork for this contract they had just acquired. I was fine with the labor, they didn't have to lie to me.
Job Security/Advancement: Like I said, the company was on a hiring freeze and they didn't take anyone other than temps, which means no matter what you'd done for them or how hard you worked they could let you go on a whim. Despite working a BARE MINIMUM of 40 hours/week for the six months I was there (all but one week I had at least 48 hours clocked and most weeks was closer to 60 or 70), I was fired after taking a Monday off to spend extra time with my children.
Management: My direct supervisor was the warehouse manager and while his work ethic seemed unmatched, he did spend a lot of time just running around unnecessarily to look busy when he truly wasn't and put a lot of the responsibilities of the project on me which, as team leader, I had to delegate to my team. Unfortunately I was also given no OFFICIAL authority and my delegation was often met with opposition and insubordination.
Work/Life Balance: As I mentioned above, I was expected to work nearly 70/hrs per week the entirety of my employment there, and the first week I wasn't able to make 40 hours I was let go despite how much blood and sweat I'd put into that place. There was little comfort in the environment, always much too hot or cold and we were rarely given the proper tools to do our job. We counteracted the heat by splitting up our breaks into shorter ones but more often so that we could at least step outside and/or sit in the AC of our vehicles in the parking lot for a short time. Even then, management complained that we were taking too many breaks despite our work consistently being done ahead of schedule, and being severely underpaid.

A typical day would be coming in and handling a busy phone system, assisting other departments with their overflow of work, Assisting the sales dept. with matching PO's to invoices, processing credit cards, mailing, scanning, faxing invoices, in coming/out goingmail, restocking office supplies, and assisting with any other tasks needed. While working at SKF, I learned how to use Expense Net of expense reporting, processing credit cards with a credit card machine, coding checks, and entering energy costs in to the Compass online application. I learned to be more accertive and confident when dealing with business issues, and issues concerning our CEO's. Management was good, some showing favoritism and being impartial to others. My Managers however were for the most part very fair, good and easy for me to speak with. My co-workers were the best!! So many different personalities and I got along with almost everyone, 45 out of 47 people at the facility. There are very few there that can say anything negative about me and I about them. The hardest part of my job was finding a "job" that could be exclusively mine. Most of all my work/tasks came from other departments, and were NOT originally my tasks, but became my duties, for me that was hard. The work that I was given I did and did without complaint, but I would have loved to have had a job that was a little more challenging and detailed. Not being utilized to my full potential, I would love to have learned and done more. What I enjoyed most about my job was knowing that the tasks I was given made the jobs of others easier and lighted their load. Coming to work knowing that I am the first point of contact for callers/visitiors and that my demeanor can and will set the tone for how their experience with us. Enteracting with ALL co-workers in all departments, establishing a great repoire. Making things happen, being busy and being trusted.

Each day was a challenge in that there was always a different set of bearings or components to inspect and test, each with their own sets of challenges and problems. I learned about the many different types and makes of bearings that were available and used in our aeroengine and commercial markets. Management was nice enough, however, many of the problems on the manufacturing floor stemmed from a lack of good management practices. Too often, management is not coordinated with other management, and the disconnect of  "one hand not knowing what the other is doing" affected the flow of the work, as well as the quality, and has cost the company money and customers. Also, management refuses to listen to ideas of the guys doing the actual work on the floor. Subsequently, due to the loss of revenue and customers, they've begun laying off their employees. Most of my co-workers were really good people and are great at their jobs. There are always those that are abrasive and difficult to work with however, as with any place you go. The hardest part of the job is contending with gaps in the flow of work. We'd either be overwhelmed with work, or there'd be times when there just wasn't enough. It could make the days very long. The most enjoyable part of the job was when the product was manufactured perfectly and there were no problems. Everything flowed nicely and could be wrapped up and sent to the customer without a hitch. It made you feel pride that the mission was accomplished in a timely manner, and it was a superior product that was shipped.

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity that has a revolving door, no career growth and well under market pay? Look no further than SKF. You’ll hear wonderful things like, “You have a blank check for anything the business needs!”, “We promise things will get better!”, and my favorite “I can’t believe people don’t want to work on a holiday that’s a scheduled paid off day.” 

From the top down, it’s a scramble, at least in the aerospace division. They will take the most profitable sector, bleed it and its people dry to support other branches that operate at or close to a loss. Keep in mind those people make more money and have much better equipment and support. Wonderful trade, huh? 

Truthfully, I’m embarrassed to say I worked there. I hate that my name was tied to that company and I had to represent it. I hate that I believed the lie and I contributed to it. 

The worst part of it all are the legacy employees that have been there for 15 plus years. They are so buried in it, they know no other way of life. These people give their all everyday and just get kicked, repeatedly. Most of the legacy employees were nice and helpful. I can only think of a select few that were larger than life and had no motivation to give up any control or adhere to positive change. 

If you are looking to join this company, best of luck. Have realistic goals in mind and be prepared to stay in your same role with minimal pay increases for a very long time. Every position is thankless, overworked and underpaid. You will join the red headed stepchild team. 

This is by far the worst job I have ever had. They’re currently laying off a huge slice of their workforce due to mismanagement and a lack of common sense. The surveys aren’t actually anonymous as they’re categorized to let individual managers know if someone in their department is complaining and at that point you will be marked for termination. 

It’s really disappointing management has been put in charge of an operation of this size because most of the layoffs could have been prevented with a little common sense and effort. I found the root cause of hundreds of thousands of dollars (per year) worth of scrap and it was shrugged off because of their deeply entrenched toxic gatekeeping culture. 

Management is more concerned with drama than they are meeting their workplace obligations. Most quality control machines required to produce automotive bearings are always bypassed due to uninformed department leads that aren’t willing to put in the work to keep them running.

If they ever get the customer base to start hiring again I would avoid this plant like the plague until corporate makes the necessary changes to make this a functional workplace.

I really enjoyed my job while at SKF. I began with Vogel Lubrication ( a German based company) in 2005 and soon they were acquired by SKF USA, Inc. (also a European based company). They gave me the position as The Administrative Assistant and after 2 years I was given the title as Executive Assistant to the CEO until the company down sized and changed my title back to Administrative Assistant. I gained so much knowledge in many areas of the job and due to my willingness to learn in ALL areas of the business, I became the woman that wore many hats. I Loved my job, but my position had little room for advancement. SKF has some of the most fantastic individuals that I had had the pleasure to work with, people that I a still in contact with to this very day! One of the things that I quite enjoyed was attending the Trade shows; keeping all those 40 - 60+ engineers in check with Hotel reservations, dinner plans, and any leads generated from the tradeshows.

A typical day at work would start with a walk through the manufacturing and say good mornign to all employees. Then there would be the daily follow up meeting with the management to review the important KPIs. Then there will be a short review of the business development efforts and a deep dive into the the level of service quality to the customers. After that, I will see the production management to ensure stability and ask whether they need support in amy way. Before lunch I would attend to emails after having made sure the operations are running smooth. 
After lunch there would be various improvement meetings on a variety of topics such as safety, kaizen, quality, finance etc. 
The hardest part of the job is to find time to respond to all demands with correct priority. The most enjoyable part is to experience the business and the organization develop as a result of hard and focused work.

During a typical day I would come in to work, do the inventories required, then I would layout the overtime for each person depending upon the jobs needed. Then I would take care of all loose ends in all areas, tubing, phosphate, cement room, and turbo spray. My supervisor would come to ask me how everything was running, I would then report any problems that might need to be discussed and handle them as decided. I spend most of every day in tubing. I enjoy all of my co-workers in tubing because I trained each of them, so I better know what to expect of them. One of the hardest parts of my job, is having a small crew, a crew of no more than 6 people in each area. If one person leaves early or calls in it throws everything into a bind. But that is also what brings out the most enjoyable part of the job. When someone calls in or leaves early no one has any problem with working with anyone else so it is no problem for us to all pull together and cover the empty slot.

Highest level of nepotism combined with lowest level of professionalism make this place a nightmare to work for. Disgraceful place. If it wasn't for the good people there (employees) this place would've been unbearable to work in. Promotions only happened with very close friends or family members and if it wasn't for the union's involvement, the retaliation twords all the good employees that stood up for themselves, would've ran unhinged. Not to mention all the "intimate" relationships going on between HR and management and  upper management with lower management. Last I checked that wasn't even allowed. I would love to work for the company again as long as SKF gets rid of current management. I know this looks like I'm crying a river but trust me over 90% of the employees, with the only exceptions being the close friends and family members, share this sentiment. Go and apply if you wish by all means. The pay is actually great but you'll soon find out it's better to get payed less than to be treated so unfairly. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Machine operator 1 salary reported	$29.17 per hour
Maintenance technician 2 salaries reported	$29.55 per hour
Quality assurance inspector 1 salary reported	$28.50 per hour
Machinist 1 salary reported	$35.48 per hour
Manufacturing engineer 12 salaries reported	$81,000 per year

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