Local Leadership Abusive to Salaried Employees - Engineer Georgia-Pacific Employee Review

1.0
May 26, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Significant personnel reductions since Koch acquisition (2005) provide exceptional opportunities for new college graduates to take on responsibility far beyond their experience. Front line employees for the most part are conscientious, hard working, and keep the faciility operating safely and productively in spite of poor leadership.

Cons

Compensation increases and bonuses are virtually non-existant for salaried employees. Work hours for salaried employees are long and unpredictable (constant middle of the night call outs). The 10 guiding principles of Charles Koch's Market Based Management (MBM) are Integrity, Compliance, Value Creation, Principled Entrepreneurship, Customer Focus, Knowledge, Change, Humility, Respect, and Fulfillment. It appears that local management attempts to "maximize value creation" by maximizing hours of salaried employees without comp time or any other form of compensation. The result is an extremely stressful environment for salaried employees, which is getting worse as strong contributors are finding better opportunities in the marketplace. The guiding principle of Humility is clearly not followed - it is career limiting to challenge senior leadership (the "challenge process" is supposed to be supported). Respect for subordinates is low as evidenced by verbal abuse in meetings. When combined this makes achieving fulfillment in one's role difficult. My advice to anyone considering salaried employment with Georgia-Pacific (particularly in this location) and likely many of the other GP manufacturing facilities is to understand what you are getting into - long, unpredictable hours and little chance of compensation increases or bonuses, and negotiate your income and benefits accordingly.at a level you will be satisfied with for however long you expect to remain employed here. Join the operation to gain experience in an intense environment, but plan your exit strategy well.

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5.0
Jul 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Flexible. Good team. Fulfilling. Kind people

Cons

Plant people can be irritable

2.0
Jul 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Talented and hardworking electricians, operators, mechanics, and plant personnel. Interesting automation and controls work with opportunities to solve challenging technical problems. Significant autonomy at the local level when responding to production issues. Good compensation and benefits. Corporate engineering resources are knowledgeable and generally willing to help.

Cons

Expectations and priorities frequently changed without corresponding adjustments to workload. Performance feedback lacked important operational context, such as competing priorities, project reassignment, and resource constraints. Communication tended to favor frequent meetings over clear written expectations. Accommodation requests and communication support were difficult to navigate and lacked a clear process. Single-engineer staffing model creates a challenging environment for vacations, medical appointments, training, and long-term sustainability. Heavy emphasis on immediate deliverables can make long-term engineering work and root-cause analysis difficult.

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