operator

senior operator

senior welder

material handler

director of marketing

Watlow Electric Manufacturing

It's a great job as far as the culture.  The company treats the employees well and might be a Christian company (we get Good Friday off, most people don't).

They match 4% to your 5% 401k with a 5 year vesting.  Maybe they don't expect people to stay that long.

The benefits are great with regards to cost (only about 12$ a check for health insurance for me and my 2 kids, which is very cheap compared to most, however there's a 6000 deductible).  So if you don't get sick much is great you don't have to pay much.  If you do get sick often then the insurance sucks, because the deductible is so high that you're practically paying for everything except pharmaceuticals and preventative.  They do have a more expensive health insurance plan with a 3000 deductible for families, or 1500 for single person, but you're paying 100+ per check instead of 12.  I don't think the math makes that worth it.

The best dental plan costs $750 but only pays out a max of $1000.  So if you're for sure going to spend $1000 this year, you save $250.  If you don't go or spend less than $750 you're losing on this deal.

Pay isn't great for operators.  After one year you get your biggest raise, but then you're capped.  So no real advancement.  You could be there 15 years and make roughly the same as someone who's been there 2.  Which actually makes no sense because this isn't a job where you're putting cereal in a box that any joe can do.  Many of these jobs require experience of a couple months to really be proficient with high quality.  An experienced person will do better work, scrap less parts, and overall put out a better quality product.  So you should encourage the experienced people to stay.  Instead there's a revolving door as the good workers find better paying jobs, which means there's always someone new making the parts, with results in crappier work, crappier parts, more scrap, more time and money lost.

The benefit of working at this location for me is that it's relaxed pace compared to most factories (which makes sense because the parts require precision), and it's nice not having to always be running.  It's also one of the only factories here that you can work 1st shift.  That's really it's biggest benefit.  If I could get onto one of the other factories in 1st shift I would leave.  Not because Watlow isn't a great company, they are.  I love them.  It's just that they don't pay enough compared to the other factories here.

What is the best part of working at the company?
set schedule, nice lunchroom, free coffee, pay for shoes and safety glasses

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
zero accountability for mistakes, very poor planning, lack of good leadership 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
used to be really good and a happy place to work. You actually felt valued as an employee and a person. Now you are just a number on the floor, no training, leadership is very lame and they treat the production floor workers as less than people. The CEO actually referred to us as "lower level" people in the last meeting. Moral is very low...

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Busy. I average about 16,000 steps a day because the schedulers and planners cannot think ahead to ensure or communicate with us that we indeed have the parts. So we run our butts off back and forth looking for things and attempting to locate what we need and keep the lines running. The line workers know more than the supervisors do.

I never thought that I would be able to utilize my college education in a manufacturing facility, but I am making the most of my communication background to interact with, and help support, my team(s) and other leaders develop into more productive employees.  Watlow has given me the opportunity to grow and develop within the organization and I cannot express how grateful I am for all of those opportunities.  They take time with their people and want their team members to be autonomous and get involved with problem solving and daily improvements.  I have learned an exponential amount about Lean manufacturing from my leadership team and utilize that knowledge in my personal life as well.  I love the company, the products we make, the people I work with and the constructive culture Watlow is striving to create on a global scale.  I would love to retire as a Watlow team member.  It would be wonderful to make this the last place I work.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Flexibility of hours

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
No proper management and not enough people to do the job. The team is always undervalued and they always expect one person to do all and everything but also expect tasks to be done in a timely manner at the same time.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Super stressful. Not very friendly team members. Most of the staff members are pretty seniors and have been around in the company for quite a few years and that makes it even harder for newcomers and new team members because they are always being judged for not knowing things and for asking questions. It feels like everytime you ask someone a question for your confusion, people are not willing to help and instead just judge you and basically tell you that it’s not their job to answer your questions.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Very unorganized. Stressful. No timely breaks. Cant take lunch breaks on time and people judge you for even taking breaks.

I really liked this job. The people were fantastic, always interested in discussion. The management were all incredibly helpful, and understanding when it came to illnesses or other unfortunate circumstances.

I worked in their Hybrid, AB Prep, and AB Finals lines. Hybrid is widely considered to be their hardest line, as the amount of hand-intensive labor is higher here than anywhere else. AB Prep is another one of their hard lines to run, as everything has incredibly short cycle times and almost no room for error. AB Finals is an incredibly easy line, as almost everything is automated.

I really had no complaints about Watlow, except for their long waits for advancement or "conversion" from being a temporary contractor to being a full-time employee. The expected wait time was between 6-12 months.

TL;DR: Pretty solid company to work for all around.

What is the best part of working at the company?
It is only good to work for this company if you like a lot of drama and are in with the right people. If you have an issue with anyone in the company you will not be given any opportunity to rectify the situation and will not get ANY opportunities in the plant!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The supervisors say one thing to the workers and then another to management above them. If you ar not in with the right group you are doomed!

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They preach blue culture and the Watlow way but do not practice either. They are constantly making fun of and talking bad about their target happens to be at the time

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Very stressful. Way to much work for not enough employees. There are also to many people micromanaging at ever chance

I work on the floor 3 days a week and the office 2 days a week. In the office my typical day would consist of an 8:30am sales meeting. From there I check my personal e-mails as well as the incoming inquiries from customers. Being the quote facilitator my job is to analyze the e-mails, formulate quotes, and then assign the quotes to the correct Product Specialist for that particular account. If the customer's request simple technical questions I have the ability to answer them directly.
The days that I am on the floor consists of making heating elements to customer specification. I need to analyze specs sheets to gain the information I need to correctly build heating elements for that particular customer.

It's been almost 9 years since I've worked there.  I can only hope it's improved.  Last I heard, an engineer with whom I worked with took over.  And he was a good person.  So again, I hope it's improved.  Strongly disconnected management, team leads who didn't know if it was tuesday or raining.  And a CEO, who instead of taking care of his employees, would send letters at Christmas time, of how they adopted another child.  Don't get me wrong, that's a wonderful thing, but not everyone wanted to see it.  Worked with some of the best people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.  The knowledge in the Richmond building is daunting, people know their stuff.  The worst thing they ever promoted was that "Lean" manufacturing.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Learning how to make the work and friendly employees. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management was no good. Have some leads that were very unprofessional. Night shift management and lead were very stressful and not helpful 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is good on day shift nights is not so good very prejudice not a good team 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
On days good when I worked nights very stressful no type of recognition on nights and no help. Supervisor leaves early and the lead is no where to be found when in need of help. And always on the phone watching movies and talking and on tik tok

What is the best part of working at the company?
Really poor management, poor communication and they can't forecast. Ton's of overtime and then layoffs. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
You get in trouble if you're late from break, but supervisors can take extra smoke breaks all day???

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Poor, they give away shirts and have a meal every once in a while thinking it makes everything better. Try listening to your employees instead.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
The work isn't bad, and when you aren't working tons of overtime it's tolerable, but the poor management overshadows everything.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Operator 21 salaries reported	$19.85 per hour
Senior operator 4 salaries reported	$25.49 per hour
Senior welder 2 salaries reported	$29.01 per hour
Material handler 1 salary reported	$19.06 per hour
Director of marketing 11 salaries reported	$220,000 per year

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