Although I was told that I would get used to the 12 hour shifts, I never did. The company bragged about the three and four day "weekends." This would have been a nice compromise to the 12 hours shifts if a person wouldn't have had to waste day recovering from the grueling workweek. In addition to this, it was very rare that you would have an entire normal weekend off. The plant I worked at seemed to be "content" with an 80+ percent turnover rate, since they continually failed to ask themselves why, with the attitude that they could continue to draw people in during such poor economic times. They continue to have to advertise for workers even during the worst of economic times. This should draw a red flag for most job hunters. There was a time that they bragged up the moniker "work hard, play hard". For most of us there, it was "work hard, pay hardly."
When raise time came along, there was the continuing excuse that the company was in debt due to the Worldcolor acquisition and could not afford to pay more. Despite this ongoing debt, it never prevented the company from buying out other printing companies in the same timeframe. It may have been great from the mind of a stockholder, but for the employees trying to survive during this economic downturn, it forced them to look for something better paying. Over the several years I was there, I only received $1.00 an hour worth of raises. In my current job I have increased my income by $2.00 and hour in the first year.
Even if you advance in the company, it seems like you are a lame duck, meaning you have to oversee 4 out of 5 people that probably won't be with the company the next year. This means they don't give a crap about your success and are only there until something better comes along. I saw people with a great deal of skill be demoted, and other people, basically "yes" men advance even though many of them were unable to help you if you were having issues with your machine and had a habit of ignoring you if that was the case.
