welder

customer service representative

production associate

erp analyst

installation technician

Senneca Holdings

Was super excited to go to work for this company in this area (OR). Was hired as an inside sales rep, given the basics but should have noted the caveats spewed by the person who hired me, growing pains, systems have changed, lots of moving parts, be patient, etc. Be aware that it is an investment banking owned co. My job was to coop with 3 outside sales reps, 3 cust svc reps, process orders, generate quotes, solve cust issues, be the 'fixer'. I was let go at day 90 days abruptly called into HR office at 10am. Benefits kick in after 90 days. Hmm. Outside of a 1 page job description I was on my own, forced to reach out to anyone who could direct me. Some very nice people tried to help. The lame explanation of 'growing pains' was  due to a new ERP/CRM system that was regularly complained about with customer svc people, the system was sold to mngmt by someone who was promptly fired I was told, yet they (mngmt) stayed with it. The first week the person assigned to train me bailed for a new dept. after 4 days. I was left with a cust svc rep who did her very best while juggling nat'l acct's as well as being receptionist. I have been in sales 30 yrs and have never experienced dysfunction on this level. Each day I was given a stack of paper stapled together to 'learn' the software system. Errors & reboots daily, I was placed in a cube 3 ft from the central printer, no phone for 60 days yet sent emails to return phone call customer issues. To describe this as a customer svc job is an outrage to anyone who performs this, it is a farce. I spent extraordinary time seeking out who to contact for customer issues form, damaged doors, incorrect doors sent, overcharges, reimbursements etc. While tasked with churning out orders & quotes at the same time. In the end, at precisely 90 days I was sent in to HR to hear the person that hired me say, today is your last day, performance just isnt there, not a good fit. What can you expect from a company schill. In spite of that I don't blame her, she was given a directive and followed it. In spite of not having next to no product training & brief system training I looked forward to each day. What I realized was that the wage I was given was killed in the budget which is why I was booted before the 90 day turnover. Outside sales reps I worked with (briefly) told me, thank God they're independent, no way can you learn this deal in 90 days. The main person I got most help from was someone the hiring authority told me 'couldn't sit still' yet she was a total trooper, rarely took lunch, when she did she still sat there in front of her workstation, always had to get permission to work through it for overtime approval. Bottom line, remember, investment banking owned, multiple divisions, remote, detached manager (beware ASpran) who can sit down and be a blowhard in front of THEIR authority will kill you first.

Typical day begins with a meeting where each department depicts issues but there is never solutions or accountability for what should happen to solve problems only blame.  The day goes on and it is chaos in production and usually results in wrong or bad product ran due to no schedule or no build plan.  Shipping never knows what to ship and trucks that arrive but sit for hours sometimes over night waiting for production to complete an order.  In the mean time suppliers cannot meet commitments, ship product out of spec.  Eng is understaffed and our BOMs are broken.  No training on how to use systems and no initiative from the upper level to make this a priority.  It causes much of our issue.
Which results in money bleeding out of the company.  Additionally, the company doesn't pay its suppliers or properly accrue for payables.  Since my tenure here the management has been very poor with one senior level manager demoralizing supervisors, managers and employees with words.  It created a very hostile work environment and this senior managers direct reports also behave in this way mistakenly thinking this is good leadership.  Then we went to another senior level person who was in and out and just would blame for issues that came up instead of understand root causes.  The current senior level manager seems like the right fit for this facility however we have an empty seat with someone in charge of production.  The current culture is still one of hostility.  I do not feel respected or valued by certain colleagues due to no response to questions in meeting, emails and no information shared also the local HR manager here has created an environment of distrust and looks hard for ways to write up our employees and seems to deny at every turn benefit of management.  For example making salaried employee take their vacation time for plant shut downs but expecting them to be in on Saturdays.  Its not right.  The employees do not feel that there is anyone on their corner and really there isn't.  The is a bit of light at this location however, all the higher level of people are gone the good new manager is in and out and supports correctly.  If locally this team could begin to work together admit that they don't know how to do something and not blame or point fingers we could begin to scratch to surface of a good team.  I am hopeful that this will happen and will give it the first quarter.

This job has an insanely high turnover rate due to management and how they treat employees. Most don't bother showing back up after their first day or first week once they see what this jo is like. Depending on where you pick to work, you will either get 4 10s with mandatory overtime Fridays every other Friday (production schedule), or you will be on 5 8's with absolutely no overtime allowed (shipping, receiving, and inventory) which isn't very fair. I learned very quickly this place is basically just like high school all over again. Unless you go out drinking with your bosses, which not everyone gets an invite for, there is no leeway, kindness, or understanding at all in the scheduling. If you are friends with the bosses they work with you to make sure you don't gain your points if you cancel last minute or are late, however that leeway is not given to everybody. This place has a horrible attendance policy. They don't allow ANY time off unless you put in PTO for it 7 days in advance and even if you put in PTO for a sick day if you wake up feeling ill, you will still receive points towards your termination (8 points means termination) because you did not give at least 3 days notice that you were going to cancel. There is absolutely no work-life balance. At most other jobs you can take time off and have the option to not use your PTO. Not here. If you take time off, you HAVE to use PTO. It's a joke. This job does not pay you nearly enough for what the job entails being on your feet for hours upon hours and acting like they own you and your time. There is absolutely no opportunity for growth in the company. People who work hard within the company for months or years get passed over repeatedly even when they have great experience for more management positions for employees that are outside hires or employees who are so new and have no idea what they are doing. There are so many better companies out there. I suggest you find them because this company is just not it. Look elsewhere and don't even try here. 

This was a great place however like most companies there were cons of course. The culture and work environment was great! No micromanaging at all and they helped guide you in the direction you wanted to grow in the company. The workload was a lot when they were understaffed but it wasn’t hard work at all. I loved that it was more of an office job and not a call center job. The things I did not like is that I feel the pay was not enough, I feel like they lacked in showing their employees appreciation, they put too much pressure on the customer service department to please or make other departments jobs easier, and they would not allow of us to keep working remotely when we had the ability to do so and still performed excellent. I don’t feel the manager in the office took COVID serious enough for me. And it’s also hard to take vacations because if too many people (4-5 people) are off in the department on one day then it’s blacked out. Also they do the whole seniority thing with that which is not fair because it allows the same people to get those same days off making it unavailable to everyone else. I feel they should’ve spent more money to provide their people with better Christmas (holiday) parties and allowing it to be after hrs and fun. Or just fun events in general. 

I still loved the people and it was a fun job I did gain new experiences and learned new things and would definitely recommend it for a place to work for other reasons, however COVID really showed me how much they really cared about us and our families.  Hopefully things have changed. 

Pros: When you are fortunate enough to have a good manager, you will feel supported through your challenges. A lot of great co-workers working hard and trying to make improvements - really, the people are the best part of this company! Because the company continues to grow, opportunities to advance or at least grow in your profession should continue as well. Benefits are decent and company is making efforts to offer more things to employees in terms of access to training and recognition. 

Challenges: A lot of changes over past several years at executive and department manager level, including a new Private Equity owner and very recently a new CEO. This has led to what seems like a never-ending exercise in changing directions and focus, while not having the benefit of solid processes or systems. 

Senneca desperately needs to simplify and standardize core functions and processes and hold people accountable to following those processes. The more they acquire, the worse this will become if they don't get it under control. Investments in technology and the time needed to BUILD THEM RIGHT are desperately needed to help those core support functions do their jobs effectively and provide the company with the data and support it needs to operate effectively, make more money, and provide a better work-life balance for their employees.  A lot of people are working A LOT of hours, and sadly just spinning their wheels on things that should already be automated, or at least much simpler to complete.

A typical day at work is hectic but when things fall into place it can be quite rewarding.  I have learned a great deal while working at Senneca.  I enjoy my job and look forward to coming to work daily.

I really like working at Senneca and my managers have gotten better as time goes on.  

Management in other departments have been a little puzzling for me though.  For instance, HR management telling you that you should fight a whole department instead of taking care of the matter themselves was odd to me.  In addition, there are a lot of clicks at Senneca that I don't understand.  For instance, departments being only about their department and not including anyone else.  If one person in AR doesn't like you they turn the whole department against you.  When new people are hired they like you until that individual turns them against you too.  So sad, it's like being in elementary school around here sometimes.  In turn, HR management rectifying the situation by stating that Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable don't usually get along and that it's no big deal was quite shocking.  I have worked for both departments at one time throughout most of my career and, when not, I have gotten along with my co-workers in Accounts Receivable.  A company is a team and not a department right?

The hardest part of the job so far was answering angry emails when I started but that has changed now since management has changed.  The best part of the job is that I like what I do and enjoy learning new tasks as of late.  Things are changing and it's for the better.

At first glance for a few months, this company was great to work for.  But then management started getting... worse.   They eventually started treating me with disrespect, humiliated me, singled me out, and left me out despite my hard work.  It started turning into power/control games...  The other employees are always screaming about management on break.  I started screaming internally too after awhile.  I have too much self respect to continue employment here.   It was as if they wanted me to quit.  As usual, there is a "war" between 1rst and 2nd shift.

I believed in what I was doing 100%, the job itself is great.  Good equipment, the employees are very friendly.

This job is a good opportunity for a beginner MIG welder to hone in on 1F, 3F, 4F, 1G and 3G positions.  They will train you how to do almost everything and that is a plus, (they refused to train me on forklift!)

If there is extreme heat, they DO follow the law and give extra breaks.  Also, as many popsicles as you want that have electrolytes in them.   :)

They will provide ALL the PPE gear that you need including auto-darkening welding hoods.  NOT including steel-toe boots.  

This is not a hard job to do, but there is no time to be lazy here as there is always something to do or another department to hop into and help out in to boost production if you are stocked up in your own.

All in all, I am extremely grateful for the experience gained here, it has helped me to gain healthy attention from other employers as a welder/fabricator.

Loved this company when I started but leaving due to high turnover in management and poor decisions in terms of expansion and lack of scaling plan. The company does not set goals for employees, does not take feedback from the expert employees in functional control areas, no clear advancement or incentive program outlined by the corporate office. Employee morale is very low both on the shop floor and in the office areas. 

Ultimately I would say this company was a great learning experience while my career was young but I have learned everything I think I will learn here and it was really easy to find a better company to work with in developing myself and my value to the company. 

In parting with the company I would advise that there needs to be more focus on retention of talent than acquisition of small fish in the market. You are growing in terms of revenue but dying from rot on the inside as you neglect the core issues that could make your company a great place to work. You take care of the people who take care of you and if your employees are happy they will generate more positive and caring relationships with your customers, this is where you fail the most.

Overall the daily "run" of Senneca is fairly fluid and meaningful with keeping the customer in mind. I have certainly learned many things over the years but the most impactful is being adaptive to change, especially at the corporate level is critical to the success of the manufacturing facility. The amount of change and direction of leadership from the corporate level feels chaotic, with large important decisions being changed on such a frequent basis that it feels like we run in circles just to keep up. Overall the workplace culture at each facility is very open and inviting. There are never times when I feel like I am not welcome or my opinion is not being heard. The hardest part of the job for me is the interaction and disruption that the leadership team can have on the overall operation, causing wasted time and effort in us being able to run a very tight and fluid manufacturing operation. The best part of the job is the employees that I have the pleasure of working with and that we are constantly looking at how we can run our operation more efficiently, never accepting "We have always done it that way" as a reason to not change.

Senneca Holdings took over ownership of our company back in April of 2019 which created some anxiety throughout the company.  Often times with these sort of acquisitions the larger corporate structure means downsizing,  process assessment, change in culture, etc.  Thus far Senneca has done none of these things leaving a very light footprint so we can go about our daily routine "business as usual".  However they do offer additional resources when we reach out for support to help grow the business both physically and financially.  The benefits package is also infinitely better than what was at our disposal prior.  For example the health insurance premium was reduced to about one fourth of what I was paying subsequent to getting on board with Senneca.  Senior management and HR are all very approachable and the Talent Acquisition Manager has been a tremendous help with my requiting process.  The short time that I have been part of the Senneca team has been a very positive experience and I am excited to continue down this road to success in the years to come.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Welder 11 salaries reported	$17.55 per hour
Customer service representative 6 salaries reported	$22.33 per hour
Production associate 10 salaries reported	$17.35 per hour
Erp analyst 6 salaries reported	$77,500 per year
Installation technician 1 salary reported	$20.00 per hour

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