There are so many reasons not to work for Euro-Pro.
Seeing how this is Memorial Day weekend, one thing to note is their Un-American hiring policies. They have set up a branch company in UK just to recruit overseas engineering and design talent and give them VISAs to work here via cross-company transfer. The reason? They treat their employees so poorly and have a 40% turnover in their company that they have a really hard time recruiting.
Think about this: when I started the employee referral bonus (if you got someone hired) was $1000. Within a few months, they had a promotion to get a new car if you recruited the most people. Then they bumped it to $2500, then to $5000, then to $10K for some critical jobs. They are seriously screwed for getting quality people.
The reason for this: its culture. The people who stay are ingrained in being seriously rude, competitive, backstabbing, and unscrupulous. The products they make are cheaper and perform decently, but they are not anywhere near the quality of the leading products. The reason they sell well: INFOMERCIALS. Who buys from infomercials? People who can be duped easily.
The environment at EP is one of real chaos and acrimony. The president and owner constantly change their minds on what they want to do, and all the people have to adapt constantly to wild fluxes in strategy and basic tactics. Have you heard of an owner just walking up to a product team and saying, "in my dream last night it was purple. Make it purple." Well, I have. Then the next day he might say, "make it chrome and add some buttons." That will have real impacts on the people who work there. All the functions from quality, artwork, owners guides, market research, packaging, manufacturing all have to scramble and curse at each other to get whatever he wants done.
Decision making is ridiculous. Two examples: They completely got rid of their distribution center setup last fall. It was run by third parties, and so they thought, why not create our own. Well, the smart people there thought they could implement SAP, find a warehouse, set up staff and do everything within 3 months!!! THEY ACTUALLY BELIEVED THAT. Well, the company bled money for months, to the tune of about $10M per month because of ineptitude and poor planning.
Here's another: one blender product they tried to commercialize went from one factory (never qualified) to another factory after mass production. That new factory (also never qualified) wasn't satisfactory either, so they switched after they got to mass production. Then they brought the product back to a trusted factory, but then decided to bring yet another factory online. What do you think the quality of those products would be? Would you be doing a great job if your customer decided to pull the plug? No, you wouldn't. So clearly their decision making is terrible.
Why does this happen? People are not empowered to have any decision making authority. ALL THE OWNER AND THE PRESIDENT WANT ARE PROJECT MANAGERS AND EXECUTORS. THEY DON'T WANT YOU FOR YOUR BRAIN OR YOUR EXPERIENCE. THEY ONLY WANT PEOPLE TO DO EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT WHEN THEY WANT IT. DO YOU WANT TO WORK FOR A COMPANY LIKE THAT?
