laborer

forklift operator

accounts receivable clerk

maintenance person

production

Tyson Foods Incorporated

Typical work day:
1) Morning meeting with shift personnel, management, and schedulers. Get a run-down from previous shift and receive daily workload.  
2) Head out to area, depending on shift you either do start-up or speak with previous shift maintenance personnel quick and check on all equipment.
3) Conduct PM and CM as required or available. Answer calls and respond to down equipment, get it back up and running, manage jobs in queue, create and close-out jobs as completed.
4) End of day, go through queue and complete and update jobs.
5) certain days do required online training in computer/training center

Work Culture: When I first started there and even at interview walk through, people were happy and smiling and had an overall good vibe.  After being there for a while and company change over, the morale plummeted, people who had been there for 20-30+ years decided to leave, which said alot to me.  The lunch room talk turned into very negative connotation.  There was alot of pressure on employees and a turnover rate.  You felt like you became just a number, and if you're into that sort of thing cool.  You're there to do a job an earn a paycheck. There are some "inappropriate" things that happen at Tyson, racial/sexist/aggressive behavior etc... not well monitored or handled properly when reported.  This is among the whole workforce and not maintenance specifically. Maintenance, like many other places, is kind of a separate category, the work environment really depends on management and what shift you work. Overall, it's factory work and they want to have the best quota and output, when it comes to maintenance, they are more concerned with that than getting the job done correctly.  So, get it up and running and create yourself a corrective maintenance job for sunday on the down day, where you can tear it all apart again and fix it correctly, GOTTA LOVE RE-WORK! but it works out better for company if it doesn't break down again before sunday.  Also, because this is the case, many employees never go back and fix it properly, so depending on what area you work in, you might have alot of repair work to get things back in order.  

Okay, all that being said, I enjoyed my time there.  Any job is what you make of it, honestly, the pay and benefits make up for much of it.  Just hope that you get put on a good shift with a good manager.  Its like any place, elbow rub with the right people, keep your head down and do your job and you should be safe. Also, take advantage of the discounted food you can get! 

Most enjoyable part of the job: working alone by yourself on sundays where you can properly get things accomplished and off your queue knowing it isn't going to break down again and be on you for not fixing it correctly.  That part is satisfying. I also like that Tyson invests in educating you, if you take advantage of it and apply yourself rather than just clicking through, you can gain knowledge or a deeper understanding of something you already knew.  The environment is cold (and wet alot).

Oh I also want to state, that when I was there, there were only 2 or 3 people willing to help and educate you on the specifics of the equipment. There were stingy on sharing knowledge, hopefully that has changed a bit. Best advice is to dig into the manuals. The manuals are you will learn how to PROPERLY do something and can always point back to the manual if it doesn't turn out right, so it doesn't fall on you.  Good luck.

I drove Class A CDL for Tyson Transportation out of Springdale, AR, and in my experience I was consistently among the higher-performing drivers on my board. I'm writing this to give other drivers an honest picture of what I personally experienced, so they can decide whether it's a good fit for them.

In my time there, the workplace culture felt heavily policy-driven and closely supervised. My interactions with dispatch often came across as one-directional rather than collaborative, and I personally felt more managed than supported. For OTR drivers, the schedule demands were significant — long hours, limited home time, and what felt to me like occasional pressure to work through holidays. The company's approach to personal conveyance also felt more restrictive than what I'd experienced at other carriers, and that combination made work–life balance very difficult for me personally.

In my opinion, the pay did not fully reflect the demands of the role. Unpaid wait time at plants and shipper facilities was something I experienced frequently, and some of the facilities I visited felt poorly maintained in my view. Getting reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses was a frustrating experience for me personally — I learned fairly quickly to avoid using my own money for company needs because the reimbursement process felt unreliable and slow.

Freight availability was another challenge I experienced. On more than one occasion I felt there was an inconsistency between what I was told and what I observed on the road, which was discouraging as a company driver. Committed home time also did not always match my expectations, which added stress to an already demanding schedule.

Equipment was also a concern in my experience. When I reported mechanical issues, I sometimes observed the same units continuing to run, and when I returned to the yard I noticed what appeared to me to be more maintenance-related problems than I had seen previously. I personally felt that follow-through on reported issues and overall equipment standards could have been stronger.

Overall, my personal experience with the combination of strict policies, communication challenges, long wait times, reimbursement difficulties, and inconsistent home time made this position unsustainable for me. I'm sharing this solely as my own opinion so other drivers can make an informed decision.

My day at work is like a rat race after clocking in waiting in a long unorganized line and being around loud ignorant people yelling for no reason to get your work equipment. The smell is foul you will never get used to it when walking to your department. If you are working on a line its fast paced have to catch on quickly or else you may get sent to another department. The supervisors here tend to show favoritism to certain individuals and let certain people get away with doing things they don't have no business the men supervisors tend to let ladies that are attractive do what they want to do and supervisors that are related to the employee or known the employee before they got hired gets favored as well. this is the most strict plant I worked for I feel like Im back in highschool get suspended for sagging and or cursing but its ok because I guess they want you to look professional the hardest part about the job is depending on where your at because all departments don't work the same but theirs some that will try to force you to work in other areas after your work is completed for the day. And when the plant operates on Saturday most of the time the job that you do isn't even available for work and you get sent to another department to work or if you go home they give you a point and what's the point of doing that if your job is not running right? I don't suggest people eat out the cafeteria because the cafe workers have good days and bad days and they are so slow at giving people their foods and the line is long and most of the time if your not the first when its time to go on break you going to be spending ten minutes of your thirty minute break in line. Ten minute break is horrible most departments time you soon as the person gets to your spot think about that you are still in the processing area when you first get timed for break it takes a minute to take your stuff off another one to put it on when you get back thats two minutes lost and the minute it takes you to walk out the production area thats three minutes so you technically got seven minutes on your ten minute break thats messed up right and to top it off most supervisors expect you to have your stuff on and on the line at the tenth minute some of them will let you slide with an extra two but thats still not enough. When I worked on the line everyone else would get rotated to the floor I said something about it to the supervisor they did nothing about it and still let their favorites walk around and chill while I'm busting my butt on a line making sure theirs no bones in the meat. Everyone won't go through this but some will so don't let this post scare you from working with the company but just be aware.

I worked on the breast fillet department. Beside the cone line.

A typical day involved working throughout high-risk production areas verifying equipment-specific Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) procedures, identifying hazardous energy sources, and ensuring machinery could be safely serviced and maintained. The role required close coordination with maintenance personnel, operators, and management while balancing operational demands with strict safety expectations.

One of the most valuable things I learned was the importance of real-world safety verification versus paper-only compliance. I gained extensive experience identifying deficiencies in hazardous energy control procedures and understanding how critical accurate isolation methods are in preventing catastrophic injuries such as electrocution, amputation, crushing hazards, and unexpected energization incidents.

Management expectations were often heavily production-driven, which at times created challenges when advocating for thorough, equipment-specific safety verification practices. The workplace culture emphasized fast-paced industrial operations, teamwork, adaptability, and accountability in a complex manufacturing environment.

The hardest part of the job was balancing operational pressure with maintaining uncompromising safety standards, especially when procedures did not accurately reflect field conditions. The most enjoyable and rewarding part was contributing to safer operations, improving hazardous energy control practices, and knowing the work directly helped protect employees from serious injury.

Throughout my time at Tyson Foods I received excellent feedback from leadership and everyone I worked with. After months of making great accomplishments and progress, meeting deadlines, etc. my manager began to acting negatively toward me, communicating less with me as my time ended abruptly. One day, out of nowhere, I was invited to a meeting titled, "Action Plan," and it only included me, my manager and a team member from HR. At the time, I didn't think anything of it, until the meeting began. My manager began speaking allowed and stating that I was being put under a 30 day Action Plan due to "lack of collaboration." My reaction was a huge surprise, because up until that point, I was told I was doing everything great! My manager then assigned me to create a Brainshark video over the 5C's (which I completed) and told to put together a proposal for leadership (which I spent days working on and gathering information and also completed).  After receiving positive feedback from my manager about how great I was doing, I had not heard anything else. 

Fast forward, Tyson lays 500 employees off, thankfully I was unaffected, or so I thought. Then the COVID-19 pandemic sends the entire company working remote. One day, at random, I get a Zoom meeting invite from my manager and HR. As I feel fully confident going into this meeting that everything was going great and we were going to drop the Action Plan. My manager begins by stating that this will be my last day with Tyson and I am being terminated, I am in total disbelief (so is every single person I work with). I tried asking my manager why this was happening or what the reason was, he immediately LEFT the call without saying anything (real 5C material if you ask me). I tried asking HR the same question and why my manager left the call. She said, “well, we decided that we were going to go with performance issues as the reason,” without any details or reasoning. 

Short story, my manager took my proposal, never even looked or commented on my Brainshark video (which I now realize was just busy work), fired me for no real reason and didn’t even have the courage to stay on the call.
I would consider taking the position back if I didn’t have to work for the same manager. Especially considering we are in the middle of a pandemic, my entire family is sick and my insurance was cut off on the day of my termination. My manager knew I had a family, he knew many of my family members were sick. The chances of securing a job during this time are little to none. Talk about no heart.

Things other people complain about that are real:
- turn over is VERY high
- no leniency for breaking rules set in place
- the culture can be toxic 
- benefits for people with families are not the greatest
- some leads and managers really arent great at all


"Managers are clueless" is not exactly true. A lot are very knowledgable and helpful if you come to them wanting something normal. They will listen and try to help you when and where they can. They have to make tough decisions based on a workforce that really isnt the greatest.  

I would say there's some favoritism at play no matter what system they try to put in place to get around it. That's not as bad as the toxic nature of communication between the various departments. That can be EXTREMELY immature with a lot of finger pointing and no one taking responsibility for their actions. NO ONE. It's so bad that they bias towards promoting people who can help combat toxic culture with more negative behavior rather than promoting those who are trying to get the job done right and start a positive working example. Right now leadership is stuck very deep into this issue and I don't forsee it changing anytime soon, so don't waste your time here if you're smart, honest and capable. 

This is a great place if you're looking for a second chance. They do not background check here because they need the bodies, but managers and employees have had various personal histories that they have overcome and made a life for themselves here. 

This plant does actively listen to the employees and tries to make changes. This is only happing because their hand is forced to do so because of the strength in numbers of people quitting or not showing up to work. It has nothing to do with caring and everything to do with not meeting bottom-line expectations. Honestly cannot blame the people for that. 

There's about 200 programs and degrees you can sign up for FREE. It is paid for in advance so you don't have to mess with money at all! The only downside is you're limited to just the 200 degrees, but again, it's free. 

Overall i'd say this place is best suited for people who need a second chance and want to grow, someone who wants a higher education but can't afford one, or people who are decent workers but also good at that toxic side of things in order to get promoted. 

There is something to be said about working for a company that breaks the $1 Billion barrier.  There is money to leverage which allows you to take risk and chase opportunities which may break a smaller company.  We had a lot of fun.

While working for Advance Pierre Foods, I worked with an extremely talented group of individuals with laser focus.  We had access to our top leadership team and the ability to make strategic decisions on the fly.  Each of these teammates were extremely helpful with new hires and wanted to see everyone succeed

Learning was a key to victory at APF.  There was a lot of information available through our learning cafe, and we were tasked with getting deep into the data available to better understand our markets, our products and our competition.  And people used this information to be successful.  We won at every turn, which is why Tyson paid $4.4 Billion to acquire APF, when they could have bought it 2 years earlier for $1 Billion.

The management at APF was unlike anything I had experience before.  They actively encourage the workforce to make mistakes.  So long as we learned from those mistake and became better at what we did.  They actively promoted grown and gave the tools necessary to do so.  Management at all levels was accessible and promoted interaction with teammates.  They didn't want "the chain of command" to become a hindrance to the company's goals, so they were there in the trenches with us, empowering us to do better, be better and win.

Working at APF was amazing.  We had flexible hours, the ability to travel, and we were empowered to make decisions.  All of the associates at APF worked in harmony towards the company goals and we were ALL in it to win it.  It truly was an amazing culture.

The hardest part of my job was staying clear with myself.  Since there were so many talented people at APF, it was easy to question my own capabilities.  But any time I found myself doing so, management was there to lift me up and keep me focused.  The rest was pretty easy because everyone knew their part and was willing to jump in as needed.

Everything was enjoyable at APF.  I yearn for another company with the same culture and environment to be successful.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Some great peers that support you and lean on you during stress. Recent change to immediate health insurance when you start. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
You never know who will be in charge tomorrow, CEO lifespan is about 18 months.  Corporate constantly making knee jerk policies but have zero concept of what really goes on or what it takes to support the copious amounts of policies and initiatives. Prime example: implementing new HR software without any training beforehand and we are told ‘You will make it successful. We will be positive about Next Frontier’.  This has been the biggest debacle, next to another program Corporate was certain would work about 3-4 years ago….it didn’t last 60 days. Corporate isn’t held accountable for not playing by the rules. They can hire whomever, whenever they choose. If you’re at a plant you can forget it. Corporate doesn’t help support the field but we keeping adding more and more layers there, including plans to build a new corporate office in Springdale that will cost several hundred million dollars. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
VERY TOXIC! VERY, VERY POLITICAL.  If you’re asked to share what is / isn’t working be prepared to be on the naughty list for the rest of your career. There are very small pockets of professionals within this company but corporate is nothing but pit vipers. 

It wasn’t like this 5 years ago. Too many egos at corporate and no accountability. WAKE UP FOLKS! You’re absolutely driving this once thriving and great company into the ground.  Progress isn’t the issue, we need to always be improving, but you have to give loyalty to get it. Employees are not valued in the locations where the money is actually being made. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Constantly fighting fires. Waiting on the next ‘EGO’ to roll a new policy or process out. HR manager that cannot keep information confidential and within their department. So nobody wants to deal with that HR manager. It’s a widely known issue but is constantly overlooked.

Coming into the shift would be a challenge due to team members being absent and upper management wanting production down the line at start-up. Not having positions filled by qualified members was not a concern. The only concern was that a position was filled. Being a production supervisor for the company was not what I thought it would be. There was no job security for us. We were blamed and held accountable for everything, even new hirees poor job performance and lack of experience. Too much demanding and not enough coaching. assistant management were young and inexperienced. I was depended upon suggestions in situations but when production was at a halt I was penalized. I asked for assistance and answers would be we are working on it. then I would get blamed for low numbers being produced or poor quality of product.
My co-workers were awesome. Co-supervisors helped each other out tremendously. we did this because we were more experienced and knowledgeable of what needed to be done and how to go about getting things done. Asst Plant Managers did a good job at carrying the title. If they like you you had nothing to worry about no matter what. if they didn't like you, you had to constantly be on pins and needles not knowing what they were going to do. 
Everyday I would come in wondering whether or not I was getting fired. Never did I felt like my job was secured. whatever they said was set in stone no matter if it was rational or irrational. 
I loved the team members for doing their best to strive to be the example for each other and willing to learn new positions to make the job easier for everybody. I love the team members attitude and positive outlook.
Friendships, army buddies, frat brothers, and personal organizations need to stay outside of business and not brought in to the workplace. If upper management would be more serious about the lives that they are affecting while at work instead of forming mini posse, maybe the turnover rate for supervisors would not be as high.  Supervisors would have more than just a job. They would have a career.

A typical day is working with never ending insanity, endless email chains, and completely clueless co-workers. A few employees have great knowledge of the company and how to get things done but they typically hide this fact or they would be training people non-stop.
The computer systems are a mess and most employees receive little if any training. The datawarehouse and other systems were out of date decades ago. It takes layer after layer of menus to find anything. As though this were not challenging enough, you will see the same metrics on different menus but you will have access to only one of the paths.
Furthermore, if you check the same metrics on different systems you will find the numbers don't often match. Thankfully, accounting firms have been focusing on "soft skills" such as hand shaking, and not "hard skills" such as the application of complex accounting rules - or this company would never pass the annual audit.
The environment is hostile as most employees fear for their jobs after the numerous layoffs. People are thrown under the bus on a regular basis. Management seems unwilling to step in and stop the madness even if it has reached ridiculous proportions. People are yelled as and called out on the carpet for things they are not responsible for and management usually pours gasoline on the situation, instead of telling employees to chill out or whom they should contact. Given the number of office/plant closings/layoffs - I guess they have other things to do.
At almost every level employees are treated like dirt. Plant employees are being replaced by temps, many times spending hours waiting unpaid, sent home, or pushed to make up for some worn out machine's breakdown. Office workers are often pushed to make up for endless layoffs and management is consolidating overhead staff in states with terrible records of supporting any basic employee's rights.
My only solace is looking for another job and my boss and I cover for each other as we interview in our cars.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Laborer 607 salaries reported	$17.91 per hour
Forklift operator 241 salaries reported	$19.42 per hour
Accounts receivable clerk 347 salaries reported	$18.97 per hour
Maintenance person 223 salaries reported	$25.88 per hour
Production 131 salaries reported	$18.59 per hour

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