Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories reviews

Low pay. If they can afford 4 corporate jets and offices around the world, they can afford to pay the people on the floor more than $10 an hour. An 'at will employer'. Basically they can fire anyone they don't like, but you can quit anytime as well. I knew 2 people who were fired because their supervisor would complain about them to HR and 'document' the 'problems', put them on an 'improvement plan', and then the first slip-up, they were gone. Another colleague was not allowed to switch shifts because of a perceived 'quality issue'. Things like this are just completely asinine and show the level of ineptitude in bottom and mid-level supervisors/managers. A huge gap between salaried and hourly employees. When I say gap, I mean both in pay and general respect. "Oh you work in manufacturing" = you are automatically seen as an outcast compared to others. No cell phones on the floor for worker bees, but anyone else is not questioned about it. The only reason this company made it on to the Best 100 companies is because of all the non-manufacturing, salaried employees that do nothing but push pencils across a desk and get paid for it. Of course they will think it is a great company.

You are placed in pullman. It is a small university town which has only limited things to offer. The nearby city is spokane which is one and hour drive and seattle is 5hr drive. Weather wise it snows quite a bit during winter, but it is not really bad.