merchandiser

route sales representative

truck driver

route driver

maintenance technician

The Schwan Food Company

Early on in the recruitment/orientation process you are told so many wonderful things about working as a Route Sales Rep. Quickly you realize that HR either flat out lied to you, or has drunk so much of the company kool-aide that they are completely out of touch with the harsh realities RSR's face. Schwans claims it is a 10 hour day Mon-Fri. I can honestly say that very few of my days were 10 hours. Unless you have a route system that is close to the depot, you are working a minimum of 12 hours a day and often you will be up against the 14 hour maximum that DOT will let you drive. They will tell you that there is no cold calling and you will be assigned an "established route". Two lies for the price of one. You are expected to generate a particular number of new customers on a weekly basis by going door to door like a 1950's vacuum cleaner salesman. If you have a route that services highly seasonal areas of the state (snow birds, summer/vacation homes etc) or economically disadvantaged communities, this will be a problem that leads to near constant harassment from management no matter how good your sales are against previous year. The routes are totally screwed up and any attempt to fix them or make them more efficient is stonewalled by corporate. That's right, corporate in Minnesota believes they have a better grasp on what is happening in rural northern Michigan than the people who live/work there. It is not uncommon to pass another RSR going to an area you just left, while you are on your way to an area they just left. As a result, you will spend ridiculous amounts of time back tracking or going 10-20 miles out of the way for one customer who may or may not even be home. This is even more frustrating when the customer calls and tells you they will not be home, but you still must drive to their house to mark them as "not home" in your handheld. Then there are the customers that will tell you they no longer want you to stop. Whatever the reason as an RSR you can add people to the route all day, but you cannot take anyone off the route. The customer has to call corporate, who will not make it easy for them to cancel, or you can put in a request to management who may be able to go in and change it. I would not hold my breath on that happening though. I placed those requests regularly and some of those people were still on the route 3 years later taking up a time slot that could be used for someone that actually did want service. The company policy was to keep going no matter what. I had at least 2 people threaten to call the police for trespassing if we came again and was told to go anyway. Needless to say, I do not go but they remained on my route and I would get hassled regularly about those "Unserviced Customers". Last time I checked, a customer was defined as someone who purchased good or services or desired to. Then there were the people that had passed away, sometimes years ago, that Schwans customer service regularly resurrected at a new address. There was nothing worse than goign to the door and asking for someone only to find out that the person you were trying to get in touch with was a deceased mother/father/child. Just as a voter is never too dead to vote Democrat, Schwans customers are never too dead to want to purchase ice cream.

Speaking of handhelds and other electronics, the devices they use are at least 15 years behind the times technologically. Heavy, clunky, and always malfunctioning. The software is not any better. It was originally designed for use by FedEx or UPS and is completely unsuitable for a job that is customer service/sales based. Still, corporate insists on using it and pays second rate "programmers" to continue trying to cram that round peg into the square hole. Every update to add "new features" that nobody asked for, breaks something you need to use multiple times a day. The GPS map packs are hilariously outdated and will try to send you down ATV trails, or 2 tracks that are abandoned logging roads from 30 years ago. Then that same GPS will try to route you in a huge circle in order to avoid a road that it considers unsuitable for truck traffic even when there is no logical reason not to use it. I can laugh at it now, but it can be highly dangerous to RSR's that are not familiar with their route area. Seven ton trucks are not meant to be in certain places for good reason.

On the subject of trucks, most of them are 5+ years old, have known issues that would immediately place them out of service if found on a roadside inspection by DOT, and are poorly maintained because Schwans will not spend the money to fix them properly. They break down constantly. Seriously, the tow truck company will know you by your voice when you call. The tow companies drive newer, well maintained trucks financed by Schwan's tow bills. Again, it is funny until it is you sitting and roasting in the summer or freezing in the winter while waiting for a tow back to the depot. Then, even though it is the company's fault for putting these rolling wrecks on the road, you will get to work on your next day off to complete the route you couldn't finish. No, you don't get a choice in the matter. Whatever plans you had with your family, who never see you, you may as well cancel them as soon as you call for the tow. Don't plan on being home early when it happens either because the company expects you to sit at the depot afterwards calling your customers as well as everybody else's, for the week to hound them to "get their order in online" and remind them what day/time they are scheduled for service. Schwans rationale is that they pay you a salary for the day based on 12 hours and they expect a "full days work work for a full days pay" even if three or four hours of it was spent sitting in a dead truck on the side of some God forsaken back road. It is an all or nothing thing. If you go home, they will not pay you for any of your time that day. Nope they want their 12 hours out of you. Never mind that because of their incompetence in keeping the trucks running you have to give up time with your family. 

Schwans pays lip service to this huge safety culture and "taking care of their employees". It's all well and good until you get sick or injured. If it is an injury on the clock, they will conduct an "investigation", and find a way to blame it on you. After all, "All accidents are preventable". I had the misfortune of being attacked by a dog while delivering to a customer. A blood infection set in and I was off for nearly 6 weeks healing. I was called constantly asking when I would be back. I sent them the reports from the doctor after every appointment, and held nothing back from them. The calls were just another form of harassment along with the "investigation" that tried to blame me. I had never seen a dog there before, and had no idea there was one there that day. In March of 2020, my girlfriend that I live with was put under quarantine with Covid 19. I reported it immediately to my supervisor who told me to continue with my route anyway. I called another supervisor who had a bit more common sense, and instructed me to return to the depot and go home. While in quarantine with my girlfriend, I also contracted Covid. We both have asthma and I have other under lying conditions that caused it to really hit me hard. I did everything Schwans asked as well as what was required of me for FMLA leave. I was told it was approved. After a few weeks, and while still extremely ill, I was somehow copied in on an email chain between our new Zone Manager, and HR at corporate. The contents said that there had been a re determination on my status under FMLA and that it was denied. Further more it stated that because of that I was terminated under the three strike rule for missing work 3 days in a row. I was under quarantine, and sick with Covid 19! I attempted to call HR, and when I could not get a single message returned, I emailed them. I was never contacted by management or corporate until I received a letter by mail claiming that even though I was no longer employed by them, that I owed them $200+ for insurance premiums. Seriously!? 

No matter what they claim or tell you, don't believe it. Local and Corporate Management have no qualms about lying to their employees. There is no work life balance, and if you mention that fact you get a long dissertation about how RSR's today are "spoiled and have it easy" Management loves pointing out how hard they had it when they started and the days started at 6am and they didn't get back until midnight etc... People, customers that is, mostly do not want their Schwans guy stopping to sell them ice cream and frozen food at 9 pm at night. They are mostly trying to wind down, get the kids in bed, and have a little quiet time before they go to bed to start another busy day. Not so says Schwans. According to corporate people sit around waiting all day for their Schwans driver to show up so they can buy over priced ice cream and a $3.99 delivery fee. The food and ice cream used to be better, but the product has went downhill quickly after Scwans sold the production facilities a couple years back. It is not the stuff we grew up on, and the price has continued to skyrocket while the quality has went down. $10.00 for a half gallon of ice cream after they tack on a delivery charge? It is driving customers away, which is making the RSR's job even tougher. It is a sinking ship that just cannot be saved at this point. The company's ideas about "turning things around" amounts to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It is sad to see what was once a great company go the way of the dinosaurs. Like the T-Rex, Schwans failed to adapt to the current Environment.

I have an interesting history with Schwan's.  I have worked as an RSR for Schwan's before and plan to return in August.  (I'd go back now but I have an issue with my DL and have to wait)

Here is my objective review of Schwan's.  And it's different then the one I would've written years ago.  I'll tell you about my first experience and the effect it had on my family then I'll tell you - in my opinion - the type of person that I think would be a great fit for Schwan's.  

Schwan's is not for everyone.  In fact I would go so far to say that only the very few will make this a successful career.  But that doesn't mean it's not worth it.  When I first worked as an RSR it was 25 years ago when I had two very young children and a new marriage.  In fact, I was quite young myself and hadn't been in the work force very long.  The very long hours took it's toll on my young family and I missed them terribly.  At that age it was hard for me to look down the road and think long term.  I could've had a very successful route by now if I had stayed there 25 yrs.  (or gone into mgmt)  Back in those days there were no cell phones, no gps...none of that!  We actually used the blue route books and you had to write directions to the next stop on the back of the previous stops page.  Guess what happened when you tore a stop out?  You guessed it...the directions would be totally screwed up, lol.  I remember MANY nights trying to find a house and couldn't see the address in the dark and I had to get out with a flashlight just to make sure.  We also would use cassette tape recorders to record our route.  (quite effective really) i.e. "Ok...after you get done with Mrs. Wilson, continue on Main St. and turn right on State Street to.....blah blah blah".

Since that time 25 yrs ago I've learned a lot about myself, had different jobs and was self employed for 18 yrs.  Everyone dreams of owning your own business but guess what...unless your Bill Gates only a few very lucky people are really doing well.  Sometimes you can work your butt off and it's not enough.  Sometimes it takes luck to really make it big.  At least big enough to give yourself benes, 401, etc.  

ENTER SCHWAN'S!  It took me forever to understand this but Schwan's is perfect for the person that wants to own their own business.  You HAVE to treat it like your own business.  After the base goes away, it's 100% commission folks.  But UNLIKE being self employed, you get health insurance, retirement, uniforms, a truck, fuel for the truck, brochures and on and on and on.  IT'S THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!  I should've returned to them years ago...I've been such a fool.  But I think being self employed before coming back will just help me be that much better of an RSR.  I know what it's like to feel all alone...no one behind you....no support...it sucks!!!  Schwan's is not for the lazy...it's for entrepreneurs plain and simple.  It's about the cheapest way to go into business for yourself.  That's the way I see it at least.  What about earning potential?  Read on....

I have a friend in our local depot that made over $70k last year.  Does that get you jazzed up at all?  It sure does me.  He and I are very similar in personalities and work ethic so while I don't expect to walk into whatever route I get and make 70k the first year, I know that it's possible.  My friend told me that he could take any route in our county and make it successful.  That there were no bad routes, just bad (or maybe lazy is a more accurate term) RSR's.  That was good enough for me.  

The job itself....Schwan's is really unique.  I mean how many home delivery companies/jobs are out there anymore?  Remember the days where the iceman, vegetable man, milk man, etc delivered door to door?  Yeah, me neither!  LOL But I'm telling you there is nothing like driving up a farm road, seeing the dogs barking and all excited and hearing the kids yell "it's the Schwan's man, it's the Schwan's man!"  It really is quite nostalgic and I'm an old fashioned guy so that's why I loved the day to day stuff so much.  There's nothing like sitting down at the kitchen table and having the dog plop his head in your lap waiting for a pet on his head while you're entering in codes.  Treat your customers right, stay on your route, and you'll become part of the family for many customers.  Some people say that the whole way Schwan's markets/sells (there's a fancy word for that that I can't think of right now) is outdated and behind the times.  I don't buy it...especially after I see what my buddy is doing in sales.  People will still buy from the Schwan man...you just have to remember they have to buy you!  Be nice!  Treat them like royalty!  I promise it will be worth it!   

That's my review.  If you're young and have a young family but you're a go getter?    Then dedicate yourself to it and know that in the long run it will better your life and the future of your family.  The hours you put in wouldn't be any different then going to grad school or working in other high pay demanding jobs.  I'm in my 50's now...kids are grown....I'm single...but still hungry....and I got time on my hands so it's coming at the perfect time.

Schwan's expect their depot-level employees to be flawless saints up to and loudly including the dictating how and what you can do in your off hours. Found doing something they do not approve of at any level and you will be terminated under their "Zero-Tolerance Policy" as quickly as possible. And this policy will be repeated, and your position at the company threatened, every time to interact with management or any of their support staff/infrastructure through either automated messages or company-wide issued statements. 

Schwan's expect their depot-level employees to build their business from the floor up with a failing business model that hasn't worked in 30 years with equipment and infrastructure that cannot begin to cope with the demand placed on them. I am unable to recall the number of times my assigned truck for the day was ill-prepared for any of the goals set out by company policy and/or request. It became a daily routine of finding out what is wrong and planning out how to spend the entire day apologizing to the customers for the situation and trying to find a way to sell around their disappointment. e.g. we are told customers who pre-order get priority. We are told to let them know pre-orders will make sure the product they want gets on the truck for delivery. Frequently this failed to be true. And (God Bless them) many customers of decades of patronage would shrug and reply, "Schwan's has been this way forever now." All the while expecting RSRs to sign up two new customers a week, minimum.

Schwan's expect their depot-level employees to step up and cover staffing shortages, in particular the depot-level supervisors who are often expected to leave behind their work the company wants done and/or submitted daily (sales reporting, attending frequent phone meetings, and so on) to cover routes. And this expectation does not come with overtime, you get your standard daily salary plus commission (unless you are a supervisor which foregoes commission). And depending on your depot, staffing shortages are rampant with turnover.

A typical day for the RSR is arriving at the depot at 10AM to attend daily morning meetings, double check their trucks for safety and secondary supplies like bags and catalogs, fill out DOT required paperwork, sign into the RSR handheld computer, and be out of the depot by 11AM. From then until the route day is complete the RSR is driving around to their stops and servicing their routes. Depending on the supervisors at the depot this can be or must be til 7PM at the earliest. Once back to the depot RSRs are expected to essentially do the process again in reverse sans a meeting. In some areas a typical day is not what you will be regularly dealing with. With rural routes I have seen the expectation be arriving at the depot at 8AM, be out by 9AM, drive 120 miles to their first stop, service 70 stops (with an expected average stop time of eight minutes), drive 40 miles (or more) to the hotel with reservations made for an overnight stay, reverse the starting process, and finally be done. These kind of days commonly stretch the 14 hour DOT daily limit thin, and compliance with those DOT standards must be followed or face termination of the position.

The RSR position with Schwan's (or now Cygnus after the re-branding post-selloff of a portion of the company to a South Korean company as reported by Bloomberg, etc.) is a position for an able bodied single man or woman with few social strings attached and monk-levels of patience. For urban-focused depots in metropolitan areas the position is probably different, but speaking as someone who saw the rural side of the position it is a demanding role hindered by regular, out of the RSR's hand complications as above and more (having not touched on things like hardware reliance on 4G connections, inclement weather, road construction, seasonal complications such as farming and calving weeks/months, local economic depressions and timing, so forth and so on). The benefits of the position comes in the form of middle-class pay opportunities or better on lucrative routes with regular buyers, fair insurance options, up to 40% off of Schwan's food for the RSR, and for the ambitious who are not opposed to relocating a lot of opportunities for growth within the company to fill in positions at depots with needs. All that said be prepared to work hard for long hours away from home and to keep your record absolutely spotless at work and away.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Most (not all) team members are fun people and reliable.  They will help you learn the job and not laugh or make you feel dumb for asking questions.  
You also look forward to meeting some (again, not all/ like , 30/70%) of your customers.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
They really push you to spend as long as it takes staying out to meet a goal they set for you.  Some days are realistic and others the goal is unrealistic.  
Even if you’ve finished your route for the day, they make you stay the full 10 hours and want you to go back to people that weren’t home or start cold knocking.  They will put you down for not meeting goals and you’re going to work a mandatory 8/8:30-6pm.  Occasionally they will let you leave 30 minutes early on Friday if you hit a high sales.  Which can be great for drivers with close routes, but sometimes you need to drive over an hour there and then drive back in traffic.  Some Fridays , it is unrealistic.  
They will give you a route that the stops (towns are spread out up to 25-35 minute drives) and they don’t put them in order so you need to figure out the towns and you’re route for yourself, which can stressful especially if you’re unfamiliar with the area.  If you take off a day for being sick, they expect you to come in Saturday and work. 
Trucks are occasionally not loaded correctly and you either tell the customer that you don’t have specific items, then you  look and there’s several of the item available or vice versa and it makes you look bad.  Sometimes customers are down right rude and you can go into some sketchy areas.  
They expect you to get 2 new customers every day because their customer base is literally dying off from old age/health issues.  Estimated customer age is 65+ and they complain about everything as if you can fix anything and just don’t deliver the food. 
Customers complain about quality and price every time, management encourages you to not even mention the price if possible except the total.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Work, work and more work.  It’s a grind culture.  You essentially make $14/hr (140$ a day for 9 1/2 - 10 hour+ days) I’ve worked up to 12 hours before just to try to get a few more sales.  It can take a toll on your family relationships and life.  They make you work so much, it’s hard to look for other jobs, much less go to an interview unless you say you have a doctors appointment and it’s an early interview.  Again , MOST managers and employees are great but some are terrible.  
If they reward you, it’s in points the get food off the truck and you need to add up points because anything worth buying is expensive.  They will occasionally treat you with different things. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Wake up and rush to work to be there by 815-820, you don’t want to be last wearing your uniform. 
Gather all your equipment and have a small meeting where some employees will just not stop talking.  
Spend the next 9-11 hours in your truck, driving all over several counties and almost begging people to buy from you and hoping it’s in your truck.  
Return to the depot (some routes are close and some are over an hour drive too).  Get home earliest at 630 if you’re quick, eat, shower, sleep and wake up and do it again looking forward to the 2 days you get off at the end of the week.  
It’s not a terrible job, there’s plenty worse. But if you learn to leave work at work and not take it home, it’s definitely better than other jobs but also definitely not the best.

This company has hit rock bottom and then somehow managed to go even lower. Their ideas, while somewhat decent, are so terribly implemented. Since November 1st Schwan's introduced a steep increase in their delivery fee. Delivery fee you say? Yes, Schwan's, the company that comes to your door asking if you want food, charges $3.99 to deliver. Unless you go over $49.99 then it drops to $1.75. However, if you pre order you lock in the $1.75 delivery or if you go over $49.99 it's free delivery. So a company that was founded on at the door service, their only niche in the market, is moving away from its foundation. You earn $100 per day you run and a pretty terrible commission bracket. This commission is also paid on a weekly average. One day can ruin your pay and it will. Anything under a $900 day average is 1%. You truly don't make money to live on until you run a $1200 average. If you run 5 days a week you might be able to get by on an $1100 average. Back to how bad it is: Since this delivery fee change happened the depot I work at has lost probably 33% of our customer base or more. I say or more due to the fact as the route person we can no longer remove customers who have quit service. Schwan's may not comprehend that once someone tells you to not come back it is trespassing to continue going. How do you change this? That's right, you have to build new customers. Building new customers is going out and knocking on doors to see if people want to sign up. Which to put it lightly, sucks. Also, Schwan's does not have soliciting licenses so you can get fined if you knock on the wrong door. Then there is the issue with equipment. Trucks breakdown routinely and will not be replaced due to the company stating employees don't take care of the trucks properly. Handheld devices are from 2007 and routinely freeze or error. This can cause a possible "rekey" which you must perform the next day prior to leaving and takes well over an hour. Now each depot is different for management. I've read many reviews and the management parts are accurate. Most ZM's or zone managers are complete morons. Very few have any route experience or food sales experience so they're great candidates for their positions, not. My area manager is great, he tries to help out as much as possible and treats us well. He's also quitting due to how horrible this company has become. Our scheduled hours are 11 am to 8 pm. However, employees are being written up for not working a minimum of 12 hours per day. I'm not a mathematician by any means, but I'm pretty sure 11-8 is 9 hours. I could be wrong though. The company has been having constant recalls on food which hurts your pay. You must return the item and give the customer a refund, that's completely accurate and what should be done. However, that dollar amount is subtracted from your sales. You could miss out on a commission bracket because of a recall and there is nothing you can do. Another hard part is that Schwan's prices are always going up. Take the ridiculous delivery fee and add on increased prices, which Schwan's is already known for high prices, and you have a recipe for disaster. I truly hope anyone reading this considers all other options before coming to Schwan's. It was once a good company with strong values that has turned into an abomination of what it once was.

Look elsewhere for work. You start very early (can start by 2:30am depending on the route) and that alone makes quality of life an issue because nobody should be awake and busy at that hour. After some needless busy work you have to do on your issued iPad, you go to your stores and deliver the orders. Some days have light loads (small orders) and you will finish in an average number of hours, but heavy load days, like around holidays or when there are big promotions, are a slog to get through. Some stores have receivers and managers that are not difficult to work with (or have backrooms bigger than a typical living room), but some (I should say many) are an absolute nightmare that will make you rue your life choices. Expect to have to placate vile people and do whatever they tell you, because the store personnel are in charge, and whatever inane, counterproductive company policy they have, you must submit to it like a sniveling dog. Remember, the company makes money selling product to grocery chains, and they will bow to their demands like a bunch of weaklings. You will frequently encounter the kind of people that are selfish, stupid and want to destroy others to fill the gaping hole in their pysche and the vendor, also known as a second class citizen, is perfect for that (just hope they are in a good mood that day and they might act like a decent human being!) 
Oh, and there is the fact that you not only have retailers like Walmart to deal with, you have your employer, and they are a real piece of work. Every aspect of your work will be monitored in some form. Anything that can be measured, quantified or ranked is. Their obsession is safety (i.e micromanaging all behavior). You will wear stupid looking bright yellow polo shirts just because they are brightly colored and that means safety! You will have a procedure for everything you do- and I mean everything. Trucks are speed limited to 57 mph (go and drive that speed on a busy interstate) and will soon have cameras in them observing your every move. It isn't passive monitoring that the cameras are there for- you will be "coached" on all behaviors that the company deems negative by your manager (who might be a dirtbag, considering they work for this company), ranked on a scorecard, and privacy will be nonexistent. The company says cameras are there to "protect drivers"- actually they are there to help the company reduce costs of insurance claims. Just to be clear the executives don't give a you know what about anyone but themselves except maybe for someone who might be off immediate use to them who can then be discarded. Just be a mindless cog in the machine and every two weeks, you will get  a paycheck that is probably not worth the hassle. What a dehumanizing, demoralizing cesspool of a company. Stay far away.

They fill you full of lies to accept employment then after you get suckered in they will abuse you. Not pay you what they said they would and make you work 70 hours a week. Average that out for what you will make... About minimum wage. But that is for 70 hours. LOL  Base pay after training pay is okay. They tell you that you can make all this money on commission. I never made over 1% EVER! I worked my butt off for 1%, And your best is never enough. They demand you get one new buying customer everyday. It is tough to do. Sounds easy, wow, just one new customer a day? It's not. When people see the prices they will say no thank you. Like any big company they will cheat you out of pay as much as possible. Have you work at another location and never pay you for mileage that they told you they would. 

A typical day starts out 8am. You go out and face a tough fight to get people to buy. While you beg people for referrals. They don't want you coming back in with out a new customer and not before 9pm. Then you have to close out your shift and do your paperwork and make your deposit. It's 10pm by the time you are finished and on your way home. Hope you don't have a wife or kids. You wont get to see them much. Except on the weekends. Oh yeah.... They try to make you work on Saturdays too. They tell you that you will make $45,000 a year. We had a driver that has been with the company a very long time said he has never made that much. They show you drivers that sell $25,000 a week but what they don't tell you is that they are out in the country and most of the high selling RSR's work the oil field workers in ND and just back their trucks up and sell them out! It's just not going to happen in the city. To many grocery stores where you can get the same stuff a lot cheaper. 

The trucks are always breaking down and they make you drive unsafe trucks. They take forever to fix anything because they don't pay their mechanics much. And they aren't very good either because of that. 

My boss would always lie to me. I would be told one thing in the morning and at night they would say something completely different. 

You will have a lot of daily frustrations too.  Product not on the truck, missing product. The Hand Held Computers (HHC) will always crash several times a day. Making you look like a idiot in front of customers. The HHC's are 10 years old and the company refuses to buy new ones. They said they don't have the money to buy them. Probably because they are paying out claims for drivers backing over children and killing them. 

The honest and only good part of the job is getting to know your customers and their families. 

I wouldn't recommend working here unless you REALLY just need a job and one just until you can find something better.

I came into this job from a temp service. I was told I was going to be making frozen pizza's and get paid 16 dollars an hour since I was second shift. Even though I was going through a temp service, I still had to attend an interview at the location, so if you are thinking of using a temp service for this job, I would recommend just doing a direct hire instead. Orientation was held that following monday and it lasted 1 1/2 days. It consisted of watching the typical boring videos that all companies make you watch. Throughout the orientation we were introduced to different important people in the building, and even had a pizza lunch with them, so they could demonstrate the product that is made on the production line. They made the place seem like it was going to be the greatest place ever to work, and with the newly raised pay rate, they acted like it was a no-brainer to come work for them vs. their competitors across the street. (Durobag in kentucky). They have you start work for around an hour on your second day of orientation, and lets just say, if you are not a spanish speaking person, this job might not be for you. So my first full day they have me on line 3 packaging and the job isnt too bad at first, its cold in the warehouse, but on a hot summer day it can be enjoyable. After a couple days though, I felt that there was more to be desired, I wanted to make the pizza's, not just deal with the finished product. Also, I felt as if the foreign people that I was working with (99% spanish) did not like seeing me back there, and would come back from their break and seek me out to come replace me in the certain task I was doing on the line, as if they thought I was out to replace them. I went to talk to HR to express my concerns, and was told that a position in the bakery department would be more of what I was looking for. I was told to check back on the status tomorrow. So i checked back that following day, they told me to come back tomorrow, so I did, for almost 2 weeks straight. Finally I got a call from my temp service one morning after my 3rd week of working there, and they told me that the Schwan Company was ending my assignment. When I asked why, they told me it was because I thought the job was "too boring". This company says they do everything they can to keep you there, but they do not if they actually have to "do" something to keep you there. They just hope they can get people in the door that do not speak english to do the job, and that the foreign people will do the job no questions asked. In the end, with the poor practices I seen in that warehouse with the pizza's, I would never recommend any Schwan company made pizza's (red baron, freschetta, ect..)

I want to start by saying schwans isnt a bad company to work for. The money is decent as are the benifits. My managers and co-workers are great people. The customers in general are fantastic. Now I will say this, I generally work approx 60 hours a week and make approx 40k a year. 12 hour days or just short of are common, and you will work the occassional Saturday which is also generally around 12 hours. Commission structure in my opinion is poor as your ability to reach higher brackets is largely dictated by the geographical area you run and the wealth of those in the area. Hours are not indicitive of family life. 
My issue with Schwans is that it pretends to be several things that it isn't. For example, despite saying they are family oriented there is a general disdain for taking off for family emergencies. They also say that they care about you as a person, yet like with any large company you are just another number. They put safety as the highest priority, not because they care, but because accidents and the like cost large amounts of money. I've also noticed that there is a massive disconnect between what is needed to make a route successful, and what upper management thinks is needed. Corporate policy and method of operation is ever changing to the point where trying to keep up is just frustrating. To be blunt, the company is a reactive company rather than proactive, meaning they react to market trends instead of getting ahead of them, this downfall has left the home service division slowly failing and grasping at whatever they can to try to become profitable. Dont get me wrong, schwans will be a round for a long time, they are far too large to just disappear, but this decline has led to the drivers generally being told that giving 100% isnt good enough. Which makes for a stressful work environment, that is only worsened by the exhausting nature of the job, and long hours.

In closing I want to say that the manager and asst manager i have are hands down the best I've ever had at any job, they are geniunely good people with a great sense of humor. My co-workers are equally fantastic people, and they all truly care about you, if you are fortunate enough to have those things the job can be tolerated. If not it will be the worst job youve ever worked. Once you take your depot out of the equation you are just a number.

I have been with the company 15 years. 
I started as a Material Handler and worked up to a Senior Material Handler. I finally got a job as a Warehouse manager and then the company got rid of this position and bumped me back down to a Senior Material Handler making us do the WM job with no pay increase. 

I have asked multiple times about career advancement and I have put in my resume for different locations throughout the US for many positions and even though I have the time and experience with the company they keep denying me advancement. 

At the beginning of 2018, they dropped me and my team all down to part-time employees for the foreseeable future.
The company does not care about the well being or cares if their warehouse employees are able to make a living wage. 

However, if you are looking to become a Schwan's driver then you're in luck. They made the job a super easy way to make at least 40k per year. If you want to work for this company becoming a driver now is your best bet. The company caters to the RSR's and they are doing a great job at making a real work/life balance for them. 

I think the company vision is heading in the right direction and I don't see the company going away anytime soon, but upper management does not understand what it actually takes to do the warehousing part of the job. 
They have unrealistic expectations. They assume we are robots with the inability to ever get burnt out trying to get everything they want us to get done in 30 hours or less a week. 

The hardest part of the warehouse job is probably offloading a semi with two people. This is something you will do at least once every two weeks. Sometimes every week. It takes a lot out of you and then you have to do your nightly workload after (or before depending on when your semi arrives). 

The most enjoyable part for me is the freedom and not having someone looking over what I am doing all the time. However I am the leader of the crew, but I don't look over my team either. 
We typically turn on music in the freezer and just start working. I spend the night pulling loads and loading trucks - Inventories. etc. just singing in the freezer or out in the truck bay. 

I honestly would not recommend becoming part of the warehouse team unless they are paying you really well.

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