Terrible management, no training, and forced overtime. - Process Operator Domtar Employee Review

Terrible management. They solely rely on peer-to-peer training which is a very ineffective training method. Overtime is forced. No quality of life. Full review below: I just wanted to make this review to let people know exactly what "material prep" is like before you get hired in, and exactly what you're getting into. Your first three weeks in training will make you think you have stumbled upon one of the best jobs ever. They act like they truly care about you and your safety. They will brag about the "work families" infrastructure, which sounds amazing in theory, but it is honestly their way of training you all over the plant and pulling you off your main job to do whatever is necessary somewhere else. The work family is supposed to have two floaters in each job group, yet the turnover rate is so bad that the job groups are always understaffed. I will touch base with the turnover rate later in my review. Not only are the work families ineffective, but the peer-to-peer training is a horrendous idea. The whole principle of Domtar relies on seniority. And with your peer-to-peer training, overzealous employees with even one month's worth of experience over others act like they're a superior. Expect lots of micro-managing from your co-workers. All of the crew leads are not native to Tennessee. They have all come from up North and only care about their job and the plant. They do not care about you as an employee. The plant is unionized, so you have the typical issues that lie within a union itself. You will have some of the laziest workers that are represented by a union rep that will never have to worry about being fired. So this plants a seed of laziness throughout the entire facility. The success of the plant solely relies on one harder worker out of a crew of five laziest. They will be doing the work of the whole crew, while the lazy workers reap the benefits. Each shift is just one shift trying to survive the day and handing their mess over to the next shift. There is no true sense of teamwork, and the morale is atrocious. Let's talk about overtime. It is mandatory and forced. Expect to work up to 13 days straight, with your one day off only truly being a half day. Due from the transition from day to night shift scheduling with 12s. And due to the work families, even if you have moved up to a higher job position, you can still be forced to work overtime on a lower job position because you are trained on it. So 4 days out of the week you can be working your actual job, and the other three you will be pulled back to work a job directly from the bottom of the work family. Touching base with the peer-to-peer training again. Nobody truly wants to train you, they are only concerned about moving up in the work family. So the training you will receive will be very brief and extremely underwhelming. Leaving you confused on what to do. This in return creates an extremely hostile work environment, because if you don't pick up immediately on what to do, you are creating extra work for them. They want you to learn everything they have learned throughout their career all within a day. In hopes they can have you doing their job while they sit in a break room micro managing your every move immediately out of the gate. The actual jobs themselves are not that bad. You either clean-up at the basement of the paper machine all day/night or unload bales of cardboard on a fork truck all day. Fairly easy work, just very boring and repetitive that makes your 12 hour shifts DRAG by. The real issues are the workers themselves, they bank on the unions so they do as little work as possible without retaliation. Which puts strain on the others that actually show up to work. The management is even worse because they only about their head counts, and not the quality of the workers hired. They claim they have "performance evaluations" but they are text book questions that you are asked during a panel interview. They never watch you perform your job at task. Also be sure to contact HR and MAKE them buy you a pair of rubber boots before you step foot into the pulper building. Otherwise they will make you pay out of pocket to buy steel toe boots, and have you walk through 4 inches deep worth of liquid recycled cardboard, which consists of literal garbage. If you bought regular work boots, prepare to have swamp feet your entire shift. If you have never worked in an industrial setting before, I do not recommend this as a first-time job. You will be operating a lot of heavy machinery including fork trucks, cranes, and skidsteers with no real training. You will be sat down in the seat and taught the basic controls, then you're thrown to the wolves. The training is very underwhelming. Your first 3 weeks of training consists of computer work which prepare you for nothing on the actual field. The current management just needs to be uprooted and wiped clean. It needs a new clean slate. Hire quality workers and always overhire to keep a good head count with people willing to work and it would be a great place to be. You definitely cannot have too many people working there, as there is ALWAYS something to clean up or do. Eliminate the forced overtime so people have a quality of life. Leave it voluntary for those that want to make extra money. Training needs to put people on the production floor within the first week to show people EXACTLY what they're getting into. None of that "perfect scenario" computer garbage.