maintenance person

maintenance mechanic

high school teacher

manufacturing specialist

metallurgist

Waupaca Foundry

Well it’s a great company to work for regardless of what people say. If people say bad things about Waupaca then it’s them and not the job itself or HR. If they have an issue with a direct foreman then I’d say they were the problem. Wether that be they’re lazy or have a bad attitude or bad attendance. I’ve worked off an on inside of Waupaca for 11 years. I truly love working at Waupaca. It’s definitely a place one could retire from and if they play their cards right they could do so comfortably. I enjoyed my co-workers and my foreman’s. HR are fair. If you’re a good worker then they recognize that. And well if you’re not they’ll still keep you around as long as you show up everyday. Just like anywhere else you have your rough days but majority of the time I can honestly say that I had a lot of good days. They take care of their employees well and pay the most starting out in their area. The hardest part of the job is your first few weeks. But if you tough it out you’ll be fine. The most enjoyable part of my job was my co-workers. It was like a bunch of brothers in my opinion. But I got along with everyone and vice versa. I worked in shakeout which is a tough department to work in. But if you had the right guys on the lines and in the right places it ran smooth. If you work together as a team and pick up each others slack and just put forth effort it’s easy. Good benefits. Good people. Great job. 

This is a great place to get a introduction and experience in an industry. The work can be dirty and hot, but after all, it is a Foundry. The pay is very acceptable (the weekends is where you make the most money, compared to the weekdays), and the hours are questionable. I personally work every weekend (not by choice) in maintenance. Production employees have every other weekend off I believe, which would be nice, but I understand why Maintenance cannot. The Foundry is a very dirty place depending on which department  you work in, and I would fear for my lungs health if I were to stay for a considerable amount of time. I do not expect too finish my career here, but only because I personally believe that it is not good for my health. Other than that, I personally love working here, the people that I have met are easy to get along with and fun to be around. As a electrician, I love the work that I do here, and it seems like the others that I have met (in mechanical maintenance and production) do as well. Also, the process of making iron castings is very cool and interesting to learn about. I can honestly say that I enjoy coming to work every day, and if you are looking to get your start somewhere, this is the place to do it.

It's physically HARD work in the plant and you become a zombie if you work on 3rd shift. Some of the people are OK to work with, but some are real A-H's. You HAVE to work 2 12 hour days per week and weekends whenever the office people deem it necessary. The front office gets 3 bonuses a year and they do NOT have to work OT. The plant people are treated like slaves and only get 2 bonuses. The bonuses for plant people are based on successful castings but the front office people's are based on how much iron gets poured - thus the reason for the mandatory OT.
1/2 hour lunch ONLY. Supposed to get a couple 10 minute breaks too, but management only lets you have them to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water, which you need LOTS of. The plant is overwhelmingly HOT in the spring and summer, and sometimes rain gets into the work areas. You have to keep a fast pace and often manipulate heavy products that should be done by the robotic machinery (which breaks down a LOT on certain machines. But if you like the work, you can make decent money, since you get an "incentive" bonus (which you work your TAIL off for). It is not a fair place when comparing the front office to the plant. My manager was awesome, but some are real jerks. There is NO work/life balance - you LIVE at the foundry.

My main responsibilities were to grind cast with a jet grinder, pencil grinder, disk grinder, and a 106 grinder. 
I was also responsible to clean up the area I was grinding in. 
I had to grind car parts, tractor parts, and parts for all types of vehicles.
I had to work along with my team, but I did my own work individually.

Good communication, time management, leadership, cleaning, organization, attention to detail, team work, and little window for error.
Produced materials and supplies to complete daily goals and to make piece rate
Conducted safety inspections and followed safety rules and procedures 

I enjoyed all the new and different people I was working with day in and day out. 

The hardest part of the job for me was working 12 days on 2 off. I enjoy having time to myself from time to time. I was working 3rd shift, I dont mind working 3rd shift but the 12 on 2 off made it hard for myself to enjoy life as a whole.

the most enjoyable part of the job was working with people everyday I enjoy meeting new people and working with new people.

As an Electrician we were the only employee that was responsible for the entire plant.  With a "production & quality' base plant where those 2 factors are key & yet "safety" is a predominant factor that is stressed & most of the plant's production workers pay rate is based on "the amt of production" any amt of down time is critical!  Although we at times have sufficient "down time" when the orders were in we ran 12/2  12 days on & 2 days off!  We as maintenance workers had only 2 days to fix all of the issues of the 12 days to replace the issues that caused breakdowns or even a suspect breakdown!  The management creates an atmosphere of one where we have to "know"every aspect of every machine of the entire plant! If any link in the chain is weak (cause the entire system to go down) millions of dollars a min are at steak & we have to be on top of that.  We were paid 22-25 dollars an hr to deal with that!  I was there for 10yrs!  I dont think Ill say much more, sure we had good insurance, good benefits, it was extremely dangerous as it was a Foundry! Although I enjoyed the experience.

Don’t be mistaken, this place doesn’t care about its employees and goes to great lengths to silence those who would say otherwise. Low morale from the workers during this slow season and days getting cut with no overtime to make up for it. 

We’re sold as a company every 2 years to new owners, barely any information gets properly communicated from the higher ups so you’re constantly walking on eggshells, most of your coworkers will have your back to a point, then you’re on your own. Everybody watches out for themselves.
 
Drug use runs rampant in all departments, and makes for an unsafe work environment most shifts. But, of course, management doesn’t do anything about it bc those workers produce high numbers.

Overall it’s a plant, you’re a number on a clipboard not a human being with a family and life outside of this place. You will always be replaceable and management will make sure you never forget it. 

10/10 do not recommend anyone work here. Just a lifeless husk of what the company use to be years ago. 



Spent my whole career in the millroom (7  years) and there just kept being less of a reason to stay. Work is hot and dirty and wears on the body but can be rewarding at times.  Incentive pay isn't always rewarding as management likes to tell you, if you get unskilled or unwilling workers placed on your line it can drop your paycheck up to 4 dollars an hour or more. Millroom is always short staffed so expect to work 55 hours a week or more. Management has unrealistic goals and expectations for workers (especially being short staffed) and all they care about is making a good impression to the person above them and don't care about how their workers feel or how they treat them. Vacation package is poor for how often you are at work(approximately 4 days off a month). Benefits are not nearly as good as they used to be and continually decline as years go on and bad employees get the same base pay as the good ones so there is no reward to make the extra effort.

Waupaca Foundry is a very fast paced, dirty and hot job environment.  It is also extremely physically demanding.  The pay, however, is production incentive based and can be excellent.  That said you can make really good money one week and the next work just as hard and not get paid nearly as well.  The work rotation is work four days and off two days.  Every scheduled shift is 12 hours and  your days to work will often fall on weekends.  Management is not bad and my supervisor was a really good guy.  My fellow employees, however, are very rude, abrasive and vulgar.  The parts you work with are usually very hot, sometimes glowing, very heavy and awkward and coupled with the personalities of many of your peers there an average day can be beyond frustrating and mentally and physically exhausting.

I would not reccomend to work at this place to anyone. There's always a toxic co-worker that will do anything he/she can to throw you under the bus for their own personal gain. The management is absolutely horrifying. The pay has gone down from what it has been as well. Sure, there are people that you get along with fine, but If you miss a day of work or even during the day you'll hear from them that someone else was talking trash, or starting rumors about you. Upper management only cares about numbers and nothing else. Production production production. Insurance is a joke as well. It's just a toxic place in general and I would highly reccomend not applying there.

This was once a renowned place to work many many years ago but unfortunately has succumb to what can only be described as modern corporate America. Management does not care about it's employees. Certain people in management are ruining entire departments because they can't be "wrong". There is a reason so many temp workers work at the Waupaca Foundry. It's because management is so incompetent and don't realize what the workers want or need despite being told how to fix the issues directly from workers. I would not recommend applying here unless you don't mind not having a life outside of work and want to be treated less than human. There is nothing competitive about their wages either. In fact the millroom there recently took a 20% pay cut due to an incompetent manager. They also discourage wage discussion which is against federal law.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Maintenance person 20 salaries reported	$65,000 per year
Maintenance mechanic 21 salaries reported	$65,000 per year
High school teacher 3 salaries reported	$17.03 per hour
Manufacturing specialist 1 salary reported	$31.02 per hour
Metallurgist 1 salary reported	$77,500 per year

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