Vari-Form

CES is a very unprofessional company to work for. They don’t tell you during the recruitment process that you will be mandated to work 6 days a week. When I say mandated, I mean, you have to work Monday to Saturday. When your on afternoons, you don’t get off of work until 11 pm on Saturday night, than your next shift starts at 7am Monday morning, so you have no time for anything. Vari Form will not be hiring any full time employees for another 9 months, so expect to work just as hard as the full time employees for a lot less. I was hired on with Vari-Form after working with CES for less than 3 months.  You owe CES 600 hours, so they refused to allow me to be hired on because I hadn’t worked the 600 hours yet. Vari-Form bought out my contract . You need lock out to fix anything really in the plants, CES will take months before giving you the training, so that will put your learning behind. I know Teppans gets on the lock out training really fast. VariForm is having a lot of issues right now, and will most likely be closing their doors. I would recommend finding a job where you work for 3 months than get benefit, pension etc... you won’t get to far with this company. They will string you along, and work you to the bone. Not one person who works here likes it, management is terrible, when your a temp, you get treated like 💩 . It’s all about popularity there.  If you are middle eastern, expect to get treated poorly by management and your co-workers.
So from all of this Vari-Form, terrible company
CES, Terrible temp agency.... go with teppans

VF has really changed in the last 2 years but its been a longer downhill slide for over 10 years.  Ownership and management styles have contributed to the downfall of Vari-Form.  Some recent changes have improved things some but more cuts needed at the top.  Old style management needs to go.  There is a culture of favouritism and not merit based advancement.  The mandatory OT has driven away many great and long term employees.  Basically you have to choose between work and having a life.  Many relationships have dissolved or are suffering.  Wages are very competitive and there have been incentives to work the long hours but many of them disappear with little to no notice.  Benefits have been cut as well as the pension plan is now employee contributed since 2015.  If your single and want to work 6 + days a week this job is for you.  If you want supervisors that just interact with you when you have screwed up then this place is for you.  They have forgotten or never knew the 80/20 rule.  Management takes 80% responsibility for making the job doable and for the reason it doesn't get done properly.  If you don't give the employees the tools and training to do their jobs you can't put all the blame on the employee.  20% blame to the employee usually attributed to entitlement or just plain laziness.

VF did have a good culture until a few years ago. People were involved with work and community, Social Club, at one time had an amazing Christmas Party but has been at least 10 years since a good turn out. Top management is very authoritarian and has everyone in fear of loosing their job if you make the simplest of mistakes or voice an opinion. They want "yes" people, even if it's border line unethical. Was not a good atmosphere to walk in to each day. Some people are promoted with-in based on their relationship with management and HR, not skill and ability. Work/life balance was not good but started to get better with the addition of weekend crews. Salary and benefits were both good and competitive. 
Best things about VF - Good pay and benefits, co-workers - even though attitudes have changed a lot over the last few years due to a diminishing work culture, I have made a lot of friendships. 
Worst things about working at VF - Distrust with upper management, diminished work culture, working in fear of having a job the next day, some management are friends with subordinates outside of work and promotions given based on relationship.

Variform has terminated a large amount of its workforce with Fiat Chrysler Automotive purchasing the company. This comes after management continuously ensured workers this would not be the case. With that aside, 

Job pays well. Very good pay for relatively easy work. 
Management is very poor, with favoritism playing heavy bias on the work floor. you will not be recognized, of commended for your work you do, only acknowledged for your mistakes.

You will start employment being told of a Monday to Friday schedule with lots of opportunity for OT. It is not opportunity when they now actively mandate every weekend, regardless of your situation or plans.

Benefits have been slashed as of recent years, while still remaining decent, they've definitely used the benefits as a way to cut corners financially. 

If you start low on the food chain as an unknown production associate, do not expect heavy opportunity to climb the latter in later years. heavy bias is placed within personal relations in the company instead of performance.

Breaks are also very short, but with an average 8 hour work day.

I have been with Vari-form for the past 10 yrs. Things have changed with the times as the company endured tough economic times when other companies were closing or laying off. It's reasonable to expect that employees who are given everything from uniforms, work boots, custom PPE, pension and benefits, birthday acknowledgments, paid BBQ and meals a few times a year, are bound to see cut backs. When we are given everything, it seems that some people begin to feel entitled. I have never heard of anyone being let go unless they had done something to put their job at risk. there are laws that prevent companies from firing people for no reason. I show up to work every day and do what I am paid to do and I have only been treated with respect. Upper management doesn't communicate the way they use to and we seem to be short on maintenance and resources. I've worked at a few different companies over my 38 years and I can honestly say, there very few companies left that offer the things vari-Form does.

vari-form used to be a good place to work and now it is horrible.  There is no room for advancement except for a chosen few .  Supervisors and managers are terrible.  They bully and harass the workers  Pay is good but not worth the stress.  This company forces the same employees to work 6 days a week while letting others off every weekend.  FCA has bought this company and while I hope there will be changes I doubt we will see any.  In my opinion in order to cut some expenses they need to get rid of supervisors and management as they have 2 supervisors per shift which is a big expense instead of cutting our benefits as they have.  This company is all about the office as the supervisors rotate having weekends off with their families.  There is little to no support given to the employees

As others have said, there is rampant favoritism. You will never get ahead here unless someone up top likes you. Working here currently at least is very easygoing if you can listen and understand instructions as well as keep up and be competent. But not to worry as that doesn't seem to matter anymore, so if you can breathe and show up to work on time then you'll have a job here waiting for you. (Not at this moment though as we fired every employee that wasn't fulltime and won't be hiring for quite awhile)
A major problem here is the lies that management will feed to you and you'll never know what's going to happen to your future here. The only inkling of information you'll get is all the rumors from your co-workers, which there are many.

The pay is alright at the very least

This company has gone to downhill for the last few years now. FCA has bought the company but continue to keep old the management intact that has killed morale and culture.. They mandate overtime when it’s not needed. They have a lot of unnecessary salary positions that is costing the company huge dollars.. They have 2 supervisors on each shift. Not necessarily . Management deligates everything.. They are more worried on how the floors look instead of more important things...No recognition to long time employees, get walked all over...FCA better make some big changes or they will lose the most important employees they have

They want robots that come in, be quiet and work 6 days a week. They don't care about you or you spending time with your family. It now takes SIX (6) years to make full wage when it use to be 2. They have major favoritism and they are not flexible with shifts at all. They use to have lines with a 2 shift rotation for flexibility but took that away and now force everyone to work 3 rotating shifts. They yell at you for all these stupid little things and have total disregard for people's health issues (diabetes, asthma, exc.)  The only good thing about this employer is its decent pay and decent benefits. If you enjoy being treated poorly this is the place for you. 

Run fast. 

Vari-form will pay for your schooling, if you wish to enroll on your own time. This is a great opportunity to advance in a career of your choosing. 

Ping pong tables for employee use is nice! 

Work hours are 40h/week with optional overtime. Sometimes there is pressure for OT because of shipping requirements, but that's pretty much par for the course with any industrial establishment. 

Lots of "temporary" workers there and a couple departments are understaffed, maintenance specifically. 

Salary, benefit package and pension plan are all top notch!

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