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BZAM Ltd.

I have been with the company prior to the BZAM/TGOD merger, and have witnessed a lot of changes over the years. Safe to say the last 5 months of changes have been the most confusing and brutal to go through. 

Throughout my time here, I was given the opportunity to grow into different roles, and learn a tremendous amount from my peers. For that, I am extremely grateful for.

The vision from the CEO/upper management is incomprehensible. If you are high enough in management, the best advice I can give is to be a Yes Man. If you make too much noise, there is a high chance you will see the door. I have witnessed layoffs of almost entire departments, with no real afterthought into how the company will continue to function afterwards. 

During CCAA proceedings, it is unbelievable what the company has done since. After laying off about 50 staff members, there was a townhall the following week. It was announced to all departments to cut spending, where absolutely necessary, even if it went putting the product of the quality at risk. With the savings gained from cutting costs (from laying off employees without severance, cutting critical services) it was decided to allocate some of those savings to the HR department. They announced they were going to spend more money on the employee recognition program. Approximately a total 5000 $ and a Nintendo switch were to be the consolation prizes given to employees recognized by there peers for doing a good job. The good job in question, is picking up the immense amount of work left behind by the company laying off a massive amount of employees just the previous week. No compensation would be given to employees who just inherited tons of work from their fallen coworkers. 

During the Q&A portion of this townhall, upper management got absolutely bombarded by questions from the employees, which almost all of them were swiftly avoided by the CEO (nice save). This portion was conveniently cut out in the saved portion of the townhall in order to save the reputation of upper management in the eyes of the company (here's looking to you COO). Discussing how there was tons of overtime put in by employees having to travel to other sites, staying at hotels in order to get jobs done, doesn't ring well to the rest of the company. Hearing that the sales department has made it a priority to make all sales employees from across the country fly in, stay at an expensive hotel and dine, all on the company dollar during the CCAA proceedings?? Yikes. 

This is just the tip of the things that have built up over this time. It looks like there is no future post CCAA proceedings, and if there are, I am happy I am no longer around to be here for it. 

Foundational systems where not in place when I started ( designated vault controller, practical aspect of reporting incidents, tracking training). Our department (packaging) was the newest addition to the YEG location and instead of copying or working from the same database as our sister sites the QC department made our separate but not independent info database. This was riddle with needless complicated issues and resulted in frustrating delays. 

After the basic packing function was sorted (order packages and printing labels) Upper management started to push for department increase both in manpower and output but didn't hire more leads or supervisors. Supervisors barely stayed on more than 6 months. We were supposed to have 3 Supervisors, 9 leads, and 75 associates. What actually happened was 2 Supervisors, 4 leads and 75 associates. After upper management pushed for the schedule change (starts as a 7am-3pm Mon-Fri changed to 10 hour 4on/3off [Sun-Wed, Wed-Sat, Mon/Tus - Thur/Fri] with 3 start times [6 am, 7am, 8am]) we had huge increase in downtime as assigned jobs where finished by other shifts, resulting in active shifts scrambling to create work. Push for increased units/person/hour where regularly hounded on but we regularly would finish jobs ahead of schedule. 

Ninety percent of the work, from data entry to vault tracking and employee attendance, was done on a mess of excel sheets. This mess made it difficult to have any consistency across crews and there was no follow up for people who caused damage to tracking files or would just copy paste near nonsense. 

What could have been an excellent work environment with a good work schedule got pushed to grow numbers which only the investors/shareholders care about while ignoring the foundational needs to have sustainable process. As numbers got pushed shifts would do any job available on the schedule (even against site supervisor request to stick to the schedule) which caused increase tension and resentment between crews. 

BZAM used to be The Green Organic Dutchman which had fantastic vision towards community partnership, excellent facilities for organic production and fantastic land and farm stewardship ideals. The Green Organic Dutchman was an excellent employer with great work culture, wonderful community engagement and a wonderful diversity of talented and professional leadership. BUT THEN... 
BZAM merged with TGOD and proceeded to take over and demolish the culture and leadership structure of this facility, suspended all community farm activities and cut off community partners. All social activities that made this company fun were terminated along with many jobs.  BZAM is now in creditor protection and trying to save costs on everything leading to a tense environment where people are not sure who's getting terminated next.  There is very little accountability from management and it seems as though many horribly unqualified people get promoted to positions they can't handle.  I would recommend staying away from this company for at least  a few years until they get themselves sorted out.  On the bright side, I did work with some talented, professional and wonderful people.  I feel bad for many of the employees who are left though.

There seems to be a complete absence of clear direction, strategy, and effective communication from upper management. This has led to confusion and frustration among the employees, causing a lack of motivation and engagement in our work.

There is no clear path for advancement, and employees are left to their own devices when it comes to pursuing career growth.

There is a complete lack of workplace culture within the company. There is no sense of community, team spirit, or shared values among employees. This lack of culture has resulted in a toxic work environment that has affected employee morale and productivity.

The work conditions are often unsafe, with little regard for employee safety and wellbeing. This includes physical hazards as well as psychological and emotional stressors that are not properly addressed by management.

There is no system in place to hold employees and management accountable for their actions, and this has resulted in a lack of responsibility and ownership over the company's performance.

My experience with this company has been extremely disappointing, and I would not recommend it to anyone looking for a fulfilling and rewarding career.

Started off enjoyable but eventually became a workplace I could not stand to be.

Management is disorganized. Supervisors and leads are quick to passive aggressive behaviour with employees when a mistake is made but when they themselves make mistakes, it's treated as just that - a mistake.

While some coworkers are great to work with, there are some who display toxic behaviour that is totally unacceptable in the workplace. These people do not face any repercussions whatsoever and they become even worse if you dare to report them. This behaviour is acceptable if you’re related to or are friends with people in higher positions.

Some people who get promoted to these higher positions lack traits of someone who should be in their role, such as leadership and effective communication. Rather they get promoted because they’re in a clique with other people in management positions. Nepotism will get you far here.

On top of all that, do not depend on job stability. If the toxic people or work environment don’t drive you away first, keep in mind that the company laid off around 50 people in a single day within the last year.

Wouldn't recommend it.

Sales and management rarely interact with the production floor except when they've made mistakes. The sales team put stress on the production staff because they fail to create a timely plan for orders and shipment. They hire temporary workers too often and this results in delays and setbacks in production. Yet, they blame their loyal staff for taking too long to fix the constant mistakes. They don't inform the floor staff of any current orders, expect us to be drones, and punish us for personalizing our experiences. 

Despite my popularity among staff and leads, I was told by my supervisors there were complaints about me. Those complaints are from the supervisors themselves - no HR or investigation was involved. They hide behind their job titles to make decisions for themselves and never for the team.

Their dictations have consistently sabotaged the flow of production, causing discomfort in their staff and they laugh at that. 


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I’m still working here for the sole reason that it’s a very short commute for me and it’s what I require right now due to personal reasons related to my family. If I found an opportunity with a similar commute and even if it was less pay, I’d leave this place in a heartbeat. This company started off quite well, but most of the good people have either left or been let go. The core issue with this company is that no one in the senior management and executive team has any solid professional experience relevant to the field of consumer packaged goods. There is no long-term strategic planning and knee-jerk decisions are taken without any thought or consideration to their impact on the long term sustainability of the business or the well-being of employees. Some personnel changes for the better have recently happened, but it has not made much of a difference to the toxicity and bullying that continues to fester in this place. I would strongly advise against joining this company if you have other options, even if they pay less.

Be ready to go to work thinking putting in more effort will get you further, but instead they look down on you for exactly that. 
Office politics. 
Terrible management.
Terrible workplace.
Gossiping is the main factor of the workplace, with no action being taken until it’s too late. 
Nothing gets reported to HR because the supervisors don’t want the extra hassle. 
Things stolen from you? Get ready to get it brushed off, not once, twice, three time? Nope. 4 times things were stolen from my locker and no action was taken whatsoever, just a simple chat from the supervisor saying it happens all the time and that there’s nothing they can do. 
Get ready to be controlled and then thrown off to the road even after your probationary period is over. With no cause firing, just like you’re nothing after putting in hard work everytime you show to work. 
This place is at the very absolute bottom of my recommendations for anybody seeking to find a stable job where you don’t have to worry about every hassle that I just listed  
 


There are certainly a few very good people working here and they do their best to do the right thing. Unfortunately, they are in the minority and do not have the authority to take important decisions that impact the business and the well-being of employees. For the most part, the show is run by people who lack the fundamental quality of basic decency/professionalism and this shows in the extreme stress levels that everyone works under. Very cut-throat environment where everyone is just out to protect themselves and trying to be part of the “cool club”. Misogyny and lude behavior towards women is rampant here. For the sake of the few good people who work here, I hope things improve. Given the current volatility of the overall industry and mismanagement here, I feel it is unlikely that this company will survive in the long-term. The benefits are good though. 

i’ve been working here for 8 months, my first few months were nice everyone was kind and the job itself isn’t stressful at all; however, the majority of this place is filled with mainly adults who act like teenagers, it’s all drama all the time. Rumours spread about everyone about the craziest things and management & HR will hear about what is being said and will do nothing. 
There are a select few that aren’t filled with drama and are very nice people but hard to come by in this place. How i see the production area is everyone is out to get each other but fake to face. 
There is growth within the company but you have to be a favourite or related to a family member to be promoted. 
Higher ups don’t appreciate the work production staff put in and never get a thank you or a good job,  
It’s not all bad the 4 day work weeks are annas and the benefits are a huge win with most people that work here aswell the pay isn’t that bad. 

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