TAMKO Reviews

Initial experience: After the phone interview I was invited to the corporate office in Joplin for the first on-site interview. Here I was told that certain set of system migration projects were "top on the list" issues I need to work on at the plant. Since I had the the required experience to perform such migration I was told they really like my profile and think was a good fit. Later I had an interview at the plant where the engineering manager seemed friendly and walked me through the plant and explained what they did and I was asked the same set of questions on system migration and technical skills they thought THEY NEEDED. Since the skills they told me they need are in line with my previous experience I accepted the offer. First couple of months at the plant there was no correlation between the job duties I was interviewed for, to the actual day to day projects which were assigned to me. The projects which I was told were “high priority” at corporate during my interview were laughed upon during my first couple of days at the plant. TOTAL disconnect between corporate and plant on the vision for process improvement. The Engineering department: The worst part about this place is the utter lack of knowledge on engineering best practices and people survived all these years by one phrase “We always did things this way”. There are no clear definitions on roles and responsibilities for any of these "engineers" I worked with. These folks would constantly step on each other’s toes and execute projects contradicting each other’s process improvement efforts. Imagine if an IT person with an unrelated background could design, program and install electrical and automation equipment, how blurred the lines for roles in the company are. Everyone loves to call themselves “engineers” at the plant, even if you cannot understand most basic of the engineering best practices, such as electrical drawings. The surprising part is that most don’t realize that their way of doing things was outdated. They continue to live in the mess they created and whine about it every single day! TOTAL CHAOS. It’s also surprising that people at the plant follow outside contractors blindly and do not care about what their own experienced employees have to say (who they would interview very keenly). Company Values: Highly bureaucratic work culture and employees survive in “packs”. If you have to survive here you better be a part of a “group”. People get their ideas implemented through this bully mentality with constant intimidation with the reason that their side of argument is somehow “data driven”. Even between departments they hated each other, you can feel the enmity in the air. They would not hesitate for one second to throw you under the bus if they got a chance. This changed quite a lot since the new management took over and I applaud their efforts greatly. But for most part engineers of all departments still act like they belong to a mafia. If they don’t like you they will harass, attack you personally and intimidate you every chance they get. After couple of such personal attacks from my own team, I realized that they would throw everything they have at me to protect their outdated paradigm of doing things and I was at the wrong place. Benefits and Time off: Horrible 401K and health care options, although some would disagree regarding the healthcare options. Take note that the Paid Time Off would begin ONLY after 1 year of successful employment with the company.

Benefits: 401k- The 401k is a $500 match if you commit 4% of your paycheck. Pathetic. Healthcare - It’s a high deductible plan which really sends the message that they don’t care about their employees well being, given they make a point about how much they care and tell you how great the culture is daily. The nice thing about high deductible plans (if there is anything nice about them) is that you set up a Health Savings Plan, which TAMKO does contribute some to. Nice way to cover the costs that you end up having to pay by being on a high deductible plan. PTO - Perhaps the worst PTO plan I’ve seen for a salary based position. For pretty much every employee, you get 5 days for the rest of the year in which you started. Then at the beginning of the next year, you get nothing until your 1 year anniversary. At that point, you get 10 days for the remainder of that year. Then it’s 10 days per year until your 5 year mark, where you get 15 days. Then you don’t get 20 days until your 10 year mark. Keep in mind that because it’s manufacturing, they only take some federal holidays, not all. And for a company that loves to brag about their military veteran focus, they don’t take Veteran’s day off, which is of course a federal holiday. Every January 1st there's a lot of stress, planning out the measly 10 days for the rest of the year - talk about depressing. Salary - For transitioning Junior Military Officers, they start off at around $100k. Which compared to other jobs you can get through military headhunting firms, is on the high end. However, if you spend your own time finding a job, you can easily start above that. So they will act like they are paying you well to start, but they actually aren't. If you stay long enough, the pay does get quite high, but the benefits don’t improve. However, it seems this is on purpose so you won’t leave. So it’s nice, but it’s a bit of the “golden handcuffs” situation because you’re unlikely to leave. The pay is the only thing that gets better over time. Culture: They spend A TON of time talking about how they have a great culture, but in reality they don’t. One way they attempt to create a great culture is forcing you to memorize “the playbook.” Sound like a cult? Yea, it is; it’s called “Team TAMKO.” And if you don’t drink the “kool aid” you won’t fit in. Ever wonder why they bring in so many former military veterans? Because they take advantage of former military veterans' aspiration to work towards a greater good. But the reality is, it’s a private corporation; you aren’t serving your country anymore. They talk endlessly about being good stewards of “the (owners) family money”...seriously? (it’s still a family owned business) Do they not realize how unbelievably weird and awkward that sounds? Once you’re back to your plant from your trip to Joplin (the HQ), the talk of culture generally is over and you see that none (literally, none) of it is put into practice. Everyone is happy to present their "Five Dysfunctions of a Team" book on full display on their bookshelves in their offices. Collecting more dust since the last time they touched it was when company leadership last visited the plant. This book and others in the series are actually good books; but the executives tout them in a weird, biblical way. As if the author is some sort of godly, executive whisperer. It’s weird. Travel: They usually socialize that you’ll travel 15%. If you’re in the six sigma black belt program, it’s probably closer to 25-30%. Not terrible, but there ends up being a lot more travel than just your six sigma training. If you live in Joplin though, you won’t travel anywhere since that’s typically where the training is. Oh and travel usually begins on Sunday afternoons, and you get home at midnight on Fridays. Even consulting isn’t that bad. Work Life Balance: It’s manufacturing so it’s not great. In the six sigma black belt program you can generally keep it 9-5; however, if you are doing projects on the production line (which is somewhat often), you’re at the mercy of the line production schedule. I spent several late nights at the plant running experiments at 2am. The weird thing is, no one cares. It’s almost this weird right of passage perception. Thought that was done when you left the military? Nope, not here. Once you move beyond the black belt program, it’s definitely not 9-5. Most production managers show up for shift change at 6am, and don’t leave until 5-6. And it’s generally that same schedule for most everyone else in the plant. Most of the plant leadership spends some time on the weekends at the plant throughout the year. Not a lot, but maybe 1-2 Saturdays per quarter. Diversity: They can’t even spell diversity at TAMKO. For JMOs: They tell you that you’re in a leadership/management development program, which is true. Nearly all plant leadership has their Black Belt certification and came through the program at some point. However, what they don’t tell you is that you’re basically interviewing for a role at your plant as a black belt (2-3 years). And if plant leadership doesn’t like you, it sucks to be you. The retention across the company for black belts is probably around 15% or so - it really is pathetic. They’ll tell you it’s because the black belts couldn’t “cut it”. The reality is, those who stay delude themselves to live in a false reality that "everything is great" so they can get to sleep at night - rather than admit they are stuck in TAMKO world. Most black belts last about 18-24 months because at the 12 month mark or so they’ve realized they need to get out. If you want to promote, in reality, all roads lead to Joplin, MO (where the HQ is). So if you don’t want to live there, which most don’t, since they aren’t from there. Don’t waste your time. At best, it was a way to learn about the private industry and understand what it means to work at a company that isn't great. There are plenty of opportunities elsewhere where the culture is better, pay is better, work life balance is better, benefits are better, oh and plenty of PTO. Bottom line, there’s way better options out there for other transitioning JMOs. But if you want to work in a delusional/cult like atmosphere, TAMKO is for you. Oh one last thing - to the reviews that say the company is run by lawyers - yea that's definitely true.