Pros
Depending on the department, you are treated fairly well by those in some position of authority over you. Coworkers are generally welcoming and friendly on first shift. Your pay rate is supposed to go up either 1% or 2% a year, at the start of the next season, every year you stay. As long as no more two others are on the calendar to have the day off, to start late or leave early, you can submit a request and still get approved to have time off when you are not eligible for PTO. You don't necessarily have to make a lunch at home and bring it to the workplace as they have a miniature marketplace run by Canteen in the break room and also allow you to order food for delivery to the building. Also, since lunch breaks are not paid, you are allowed to go to your car to eat if you want to be alone and to leave the perimeter of the building to go to restaurant or somewhere else if you want to. As a warning, don't go too far from the plant or else, you won't get back in time and make sure you take any shortcuts you can find to get where you need to go. Lunches are 30 minutes, but you get a 15 minute grace period if you don't get to clock on time for some reason or another. After 45 minutes you get pointed, but sometimes your higher-ups will let you take a long lunch. I'm not sure what the qualifications are for one though. You also get two paid 15-minute breaks. Sometimes they have red tag sales, which are small auctions where they sell some things that are no longer useful in the plant. (all the money earned goes into the employee fund which company will occasionally use to treat employees to some snacks or other things, such as Christmas gifts) They also let you partake in a group Powerball ticket purchase, but I don't do that since it would go against my religious convictions. They also allow you to listen to music or podcasts, as long you don't use headphones and have only one earbud in. You are also allowed to talk to your coworkers in moderation, if you do talk a little more than that, most departments will most likely look over it. You get a lot of overtime in the busy season, if 9 or 10 hours are called its most of the time mandatory (they will say if it's voluntary). Sometimes they will do 12 hours, but only in the order stream, CR department and proof stream and it is always voluntary. Certain flavors of coffee from the machine are free.
Cons
Well, I enjoy working on first shift as long as there is smooth sailing, that's not always the case. The biggest pitfall of working here is that you are only guaranteed to work 5 to 6 months and then you will be laid off for the rest of the year, unless you manage to get into a higher position. I've been working here for three years now and still don't have PTO or have gotten into a higher position. Some departments will work you like a dog during the busy season and will not consider your limitations. They will question you every day that you don't meet quota (something that they only started doing last year) and will ignore any answers you might give them, such as getting tired after doing the same thing for so long or your body starting to ache from the repetitive movements. One department is not at all ergonomic and require you to be very fast paced, quotas are set so high that just a few workers (the ones that have been in that department for a long time) will be able to reach easily. They have you sit on uncomfortable chairs in order stream, seated high up off of the ground. Submitting time off requests can become sort of a competition in the busy season. The coffee machine is down frequently, putting out only cloudy water some times. One of the men's urinals break down about once or twice a year. This will cause a problem because no more than two men can use that restroom at a time instead of three if that occurs. They only have one sink, two urinals and one handicap stall in the men's restroom, and it is the only one in the building. They have a small unisex restroom which they used space taken from the men's restroom to build The women's bathroom has plenty of stalls, several sinks, and even a sofa. Calls for overtime sometimes end up backfiring, a lot of times that ends up almost completely or even completely wiping out the work for their employees on one shift and they have to send people home. Sometimes one department will make calls to have data another do some of their work differently than they had been doing it for a while that worked so that their department will move more quickly. Often, this ends up backfiring on them and actually making them slower in the long run. Employees in authority positions in one department usually don't have very much experience, if any at all, in another yet will still make decisions without much or any input from the other. First shift has their own way of doing things and second shift will have another way. This causes unnecessary conflicts between the two shifts, usually because both shifts' ways of doing their job often creates problems for the other shift to deal with. Second shift is full of younger, more self-centered, less friendly, and more confrontational employees. One time, I made a "mistake" on second shift that they let on was a really bad issue that I could potentially be fired over, but it was something first shift had taught me to do and they said there was nothing wrong with it. When that happened, some of my coworkers on second shift began whispering to each other and acting like they were having to work really hard to keep from having an outburst at me. That specific event was mostly what drove me to first shift because they are way more friendly and understanding, I had also become depressed on seconds because I couldn't spend time with my family or doing things I enjoyed, only to spend the majority of my time with a bunch of people who could have cared less. Sometimes higher-ups will freak out about something an employee said when they have misunderstood them. I had them nearly fire me one time over a misunderstanding.
