1) Extremely toxic leadership across the board in production, at the lower levels. These are the type of people, with few exceptions and no exaggeration, that sit there doing nothing all day every day, right in front of their workers, in plain sight, yet have the gall to try to micromanage their associates. Production leadership, even though they contribute nothing of value, spend their free time (which is all their time) practically attacking the people who make Hypertherm 100% of its income, and it's insulting and demoralizing to say the least; and of course they make 50% more than most of their associates, which makes absolutely no sense. They sit there ALL DAY, laughing amongst themselves like joyful pigs at a trough, organizing football pools and checking email over and over and over. I'm not kidding when I say this describes about 80% of them.
2) An uncertain future. Hypertherm has zero economic moat. We make plasma or water based metal cutting tools. That's it. And you can ignore the wall full of patents. Nothing truly great has been patented by Hypertherm since Couch's original electrode. The technology is essentially the same. All it will take is one guy in a garage somewhere with a better idea on how to cut or form metal, and Hypertherm will be ruined overnight.
3) The lean and CIA culture breeds some dishonesty. I can't count the number of times I've heard someone say this, that, and the other thing are increasing efficiency 10, 20, 30%, or more. It's almost all total lies, of course. These lazy leaders need to justify their jobs somehow, after all. Add it all up and over the last 10 years we're like 350% more efficient than ever before!
4) We hemorrhage workers to other companies on a regular basis. More and more work gets piled onto the good workers every year for no reward, and less and less gets asked of the Lead Operators and low level management. See above. Toxic leadership. That might be starting to change in some areas, but it's too little too late. We've lost a lot of good people already, and EVERYONE I know is on the lookout for other opportunities.
(5) Outside hires always questionable. Hypertherm often hires its lead operators from outside the company, rather than promoting from within. This demoralizes the entire production floor on a regular basis. None of the outside hires have ever worked out well, so far. Just because someone interviews well does not make them effective in the workplace. And of course NOT ONE of these outside hires has any real idea what is going on in their area.
I cannot recommend starting a career at hypertherm in production at this time. If you are just starting out, you are better off elsewhere.
