Watts in Kansas City has VERY high turnover...so high that they have used staffing agencies to stay staffed along with their own hiring. The work area is dirty, hot, and brutal. Air conditioning is only available in the small break room with thin walls and no insulation. The shifts are VERY long (atleast 12 hours) and most work weeks are atleast 60 hours most of the time. Family/home time is quite limited. While the senior managment is ok, the production managers (there are only two) are like fire and ice...one guy is known for his blazing temper, while the other is known for his cold, inhumane indifference. One production manager will openly complain about their salary and compensation, and that same one also told me that 5 years is about how long the factory will last before it is moved. One of the employees told me Watts only leased the building for two years.
Overall, the turnover and poor investment Watts makes in employee comfort along with the unprofessional attitude of the production supervisors, and the low pay employees get can clearly be a sign of a factory that never planned to stay long in Kansas City, and only intends to stay here long enough to take advantage of a sudden desperate need for plumbing pipe.
