Now onto the bad.
1. No incentive structure. Whatsoever. Employee sanity not a concern
Management has complaints about work not getting done, always pushing for higher quality work although all they use is the proverbial "stick" to encourage their employees. The only instances of management commending an employee for their accomplishments consist of the occasional "working hard? That’s why I like to see" type comment as upper management passes through the shop floor during the busiest of times. This has to do with pay-rates, overall management style and the culture that the company (at least this branch) has been run under.
THERE ARE NO RAISES. THERE IS NO VERTICAL PROMOTION (only horizontal, expanding responsibilities but never any expanding pay). Starbucks workers in Washington State make the same rate and have their college paid for by the company. There is a high level of technical skill required for much of this work to be done competently; pay and raises do not reflect this. Because of this there is an overall attitude between many of the shop workers to do the bare minimum. Doing more than the bare minimum will only get you tasked with more work, more stress, more responsibilities and thus a proportionally decreasing rate. "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down". This finds the company with an extremely high turnover rate, consistently losing skilled workers. Management doesn't seem to understand this is where most of the client complaints are originating. Being proactive is not rewarded (it’s almost punished) and doing a subpar job is seemingly rewarded. You will be overworked, undervalued, and underpaid.
2. Employees are treated as extremely replaceable. Acts like Wal-Mart rather than Cost-Co.
On the wall inside the atrium there is a company description, featuring a sentence along the lines of "our most valuable resource are our employees". Although this may be technically true, the posturing and attitude management has couldn't be further from this platitude.
Not one of your legitimate complaints or concerns will be addressed; to even have them or speak of them is taken as an affront to management. Having a discussion about said complaints with a manager in a position of power will likely result in being verbally assaulted with expletives. < That is not an exaggeration. (To be fair not all in management there are equally unprofessional, just the ones that make the decisions. Some are great people). One employee, after working at the company or the better part of a decade put in his 2 weeks notice. He was escorted out of the building immediately. This is the attitude.
There is absolutely no attempt at keeping employees satisfied or keeping them around. Because of this they hire many low skilled, low cost employees who cycle though quickly. This leads to much of the lost or broken gear in the shop. Paying fewer more qualified people slightly more would lead to a much smoother and efficient operation.
Interns are kept at intern rate, well after their internship ends with the promise of full employment always dangling, yet never materializing. Bringing that fact up to management would make you seem ungrateful for the internship and terminate you anyway. Similarly new workers are kept at "temporary status" much longer than the 3 month trial period, this helps to avoid the cost of benefits or including them in end of year raises. Many promises are made and never kept. To be unhappy with that is to have a “poisonous attitude”.
There are no standards within departments. No manuals for how run a department. This is dangerous with such a high turnover rate. With knowledge leaving the building and under qualified new hires coming in, it is a recipe for long-term disaster.
3. The Union you must join
I’m all for unions, they're extremely important and the treatment and demonization of unions in the past few decades is unfortunate. I was excited to join the local. Then I found out more. This particular local, local 59, offers almost no other work. PRG is really the only reason for its existence, thus it finds its self at the mercy of PRG. Per the contract there is no collective bargaining. There is no strike power. There is no real recourse for issues. The initiation fee is nearly one entire month's pay. When you have bills to pay, transportation to pay, etc, being paid the shop rate of 15$/hr... 1600$ (Application & Initiation) is completely unacceptable. Its unacceptable when it offers little to no apparent benefit and the union knows EXACTLY how much their members take home. Further this shop needs skilled labor, as people retire or quit taking their knowledge with them, it is going to be harder and harder to find people to fill these roles. Even as an entry level job, keeping your head above water and paying dues to a spineless union is a perilous position to put yourself into.
There are good people here. Ones I respect tremendously. Unfortunately those with power in upper management are not those people. Middle management and general staff is not the problem. There are those in upper management who know the issues and wish to correct them... though they lack the ability or power to do so.