manœuvre

boucher

journalier de production

électromécanicien

mécanicien industriel

Olymel

Standing for 8 hours all day with a break every 2 hours might sound like it's not that bad, but the truth is you're in steel toe boots standing on concrete which is horrible on your heels... They start you in the hardest jobs first and you have to gain seniority to get into the easier jobs which is difficult when majority of the easy jobs are taken up by people that have been there 15 to 30 years and you have to bid for new jobs which are based on seniority as well.

There really is no easy jobs everything is physical and everything demand's repetitive motion and repetitive bending, either your back will cramp up or your shoulders, fingers,neck.

Some of the trainers are really great the address the issues they see if you're struggling and they make sure that your taken care of same goes for some of the foremen. Office management was pretty good our trainer through orientation was great, very friendly able to answer any questions that we had.

No free lunches during orientation which I thought was kind of cheap. Not allowed to leave the property for your 30 minute lunch so they basically want you to stay there and spend your money in the cafeteria and the food is okay but it's nothing special.

Work there for a year and you'll become a vegetarian. Doesn't matter where you work in the plant you will end up with blood on you and you will end up going home with pork fat all over your pants or your boots.

The store that everyone gets excited about where you can purchase meat directly from the plant isn't available to staff until you pass your 480 qualification hours or your 3 months probation, which isn't fair!

if you do take the job I recommend you purchase ear muffs because the earplugs not only bother your ears if you're not used to wearing them, but you can't hear anybody with the ear plugs in at least with the earmuffs you can hear something.

if you show up for work and you are not on the floor at 6 a.m. ready to work in your proper PPE you will get a verbal warning eventually leading to termination for being one minute late.

And if you listen closely a lot of the staff that aren't foreigners seem to be ex-criminals that have served Federal time.

A typical day:
-You work your 8 hours while hoping those around you do their jobs, there's no overtime, and you aren't injured.

What I learned:
-If you have a sense of honour and integrity and wish to take pride in your work then Olymel probably isn't the place for you.
-Always keep a record of your hours so you know if your being paid properly.
-Quantity is much more important than quality, unless VIP's are touring the plant inwhich case quality becomes priority.
-Getting things done quickly is more important then safety
-Do your Job. Don't help others unless order to by a supervisor.
-The 'line' must be kept running whenever possible. If your backed up or broken down and aren't on a vital part of the line, work faster, fix it quickly, or do whatever your supervisor deems necessary to keep the line running. If their orders violate health and/or safety practices you can refuse, however, this may result in various forms of punishment (if you comply with their orders and are caught by other plant authorities, you may be blamed and punished).

Management:
-For the most part, are honourless, corrupt, and highly favouritist. Keep on their good side and they'll let you get away with many things, get on their bad side and harrasement won't be out of the question.
-care about speed more then anything else, including quality and safety.

Co-workers:
-many are there because they needed a job and Olymel will hire anyone

Hardest part:
-fighting the urge to quit

Most enjoyable part:
-when you tell them you quit

Some of the work can be fairly physical but you will get used to it over time. The pay is pretty low no matter the position you work, 80% of the positions were minimum wage. You will be working overtime and the amount depends on the shift upwards to 2 hours a day; day shift had it daily where on the evening shift it was nearly every Friday each week.

They do raises yearly and there's paid time off after a year. The medical benefits are what you could find anywhere, nothing special. They offer a boot allowance after working there for awhile and till you are eligible they supply a cheap pair of steel toed boots. You can also buy Olymel products directly from them for cheap but the hours are limited, the day shift could buy from them after work with little difficulty but the evening shift would have a very limited window to buy things before work and would end up having to keep raw meat either in their car or in the cafeteria at room temperature. The things you buy also are subtracted off your next cheque which is nice when you're short on money. The cafeteria food can also but subtracted off your next cheque but it's not open to the evening shift.

What really makes it hard to recommend working here is the way injuries are handled, there is almost always an argument on who is to blame; it causes alot of stress and they will have you seeing tons of doctors for notes and calling you daily when you really need to be relaxing. During my time there that was the reason most people quit was from dealing with that situation for a simple sickness/injury.

On My first day I've learned how to hose down the machines, walls, floors, bins, I was a sanitation worker which means I must hose down bloody machines, floors, walls, bins, etc. The staff are all friendly and are great to make you understand what your role is when you are apart of their team and job title. There are three steps to clean your area that you are assigned to. step one is hose down all the bloody, floors, machines, walls, bins, anything you are told to do. step 2 is sanitation, you must use PPE which will be assigned to you once you start. step 2 is using a chemical substance that is used to foam and spray over all your assigned area that you have hosed from step 1. step 3 is repeat of step 1 hose down again using hot water to get rid of foam. make sure you get rid of all the blood in any tight spot while you take your first step then foam which is step 2. then step 3 the rinse down. They take their cleaning serious. if you were to be hired for this position as a sanitation worker your hour would be from 5pm to 1:30 am.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I absolutely loved the job position  I had at olymel. Would definitely do it again if given the chance to do so. It was a great learning experience. Most of the staff and Co workers were easy to get along with and very helpful when need be.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Making sure that all staff were doing there jobs appropriately for example opening the pens in the order they the staff were to do so and all safety measures were met. Also assuring that staff were moving the hogs  in a calm manner so customers had excellent quality meat for purchases. But still the job itself was a great one.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Most people were good to be around and work with other than the exception of a couple who made situations very difficult to deal with.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Good days and bad days. Depending on rotations. Didn't experience other job positions so can't really answer about the company in its entirety.

This is good to work with this company but there are some problems for part time worker. Actually this is not see the mistake of this company. Like part time worker have to go by taxi which charge about 50 dollars in 2 days which is about 4th share of total income.  Because there is no bus services on weekends. 

Next this company provide only 16 hours to the part time worker means workers have to lost pay for 4 hours which is about  60 dollars. 

It means part time workers who work with this company instead of others like Walmart get around 100 dollars less then workers who work with company's in the other cities where companies provide 20 hours for part time workers and city provide bus services on the weekends.

So this should be considering as most of the international student who wish to work part time to overcome their expenses. But no one care about these issues. 

Otherwise the management is up to the mark. 

HR department, supervisors, mechanicals, securities, cleaners and the rule and regulations everything is great.

This plant is more concerned with profits and getting there numbers each shift and not doing it properly the first time. Unless there’s an audit and we will work at a slower pace and deceive  the clients on how a typical work day or night is.

The equipment is falling apart and won’t be repaired properly as management keeps the maintenance budget small and must jury rig every machine until it fails completely and have been known cancel orders for parts without telling maintenance.

Safety is given lip service, but it’s faster and faster and people get injured way to often. Management show clear favouritism to certain employees and turn a blind eye if they cut corners, but will discipline others for every little thing and have habit of passing the buck.

The union is next to useless as they just take there cut off your pay cheque and will side often with management and won’t help staff that they dislike. If you want to keep your friends this isn’t a place you want for them to work at.

Every day you are set to start in a certain position and rotate positions every hour. Every individual shares a different job and is in teams. I learned that not everybody is going to like you, I learned how to weigh products and how to tell good product from bad product. Some of the supervisors were laid back and reasonable people, others were pushy and made the employees feel unmotivated to do the job. I enjoyed working with some of my co-workers but some drama was involved and some co-workers dislike each other, which makes it difficult to have a fun work environment when you work with the same group of people every day. The hardest part of the job was keeping up the pace with the machines and rest of the group, it was also very difficult to be in a position in which I was not trained to do the job properly. The most enjoyable part of the job was some of the people and having fun and joking around to let the time pass as we worked.

A typical day at work on weekends is pretty nice. You are given a bunch of jobs and you do them in the order you judge is correct. You never know what your gonna do each time you clock in. I learned a bunch about mecanics and electricity. The management is pretty lame tough because it is a very big company but there is a lack of budget. It is a good place to learn about the industrial domain but its not a place that tends toward continuous improvement. Most enjoyable part is that your not to rushed to do your job on a daily basis. The bad part is that you cant change the way things are because there is a ton of person above you that dont know nothing about technical aspects of the industry blocking. Too much normalization. you also have to be willing to deal with all the rules of the food processin factory.

You have to wake up very early since morning shifts start at 7:00 and right away you are placed on the line. You are treated like a machine really. 

The long shifts and harsh physical labour will make your feet and hands sore. Sometimes you'll have to lift 50 lbs boxes of hams for an hour straight which will destroy your back and they don't slow down. Also your in a cold environment, which might not feel so good during the winter. 

The staff are just as cold as the plant. There are some nice ones but generally everyone is miserable. If they paid $3 or $4 more than minimum it MAY be worth it but they won't unless you've worked there for years. 

They do award generous bonuses for not missing a day for the whole year, and there is a lot of job security since there is a high turnover. It's definitely not a job for everybody though.

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