AlphaGraphics Reviews

Pros

The corporation probably provided good training for management, because they were a cut above an average small print shop owner.

Cons

Deadline pressure was always rough, because sales personnel would not always check with the production manager to be sure if the resources were available to complete a job.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue with training of management personnel, because small print shops usually have newbie business owners who can't keep things organized.

Pros

Absolutely Lovethe People that work there.

Cons

Everything else. They throw you in and expect new hires with no experience in our system to learn on their own. They set people up to fail. Turnover is Dramatic. They expect you to give the job everything including additional hours without paying overtime. No Raises because they don't follow through with performance evaluations. Moral is extremely low.

Advice to Senior Management

Actually listen to what your employees are saying and trust that the suggestions that they are making are to better the company.

Pros

You gain lots of hands on experience working at the small print shop.

Cons

They pay minimum (12/hr) but exploit you to the end. You will be thrown in the process and expect to pick up drops of knowledge (if other employees are willing to share when they are not busy) on the fly, apply and use them with no right on error. You cannot make a mistake, however the old heads screwing jobs as much as you do but they will blame you as a new hire on incompetence. A lot of backstabbing and crabs in a barrel types of situations going on. The volume of work sometimes gets high (20+ design projects, they allocate 30 mins on designing a business card, and 15 on converting a CMYK colors to Pantone in the artwork from a customer full of gradients). You are supposed to follow up with the printing process as well, you will load and unload stocks to printers, clean and maintain them, work in the bindery, with customers and much more. As a new hire who never worked at a print shop you are set for failure. The communication is terrible, you won't know you made a mistake and they wont try working it out with you, you just get fired without warning. When they are slow they tell you to not come, so you don't get paid. The benefits are laughable (they pay 20% of insurance premiums for you, so basically you pay your own with a 20% discount, they set IRA for you, only 3 sick days allowed per year, 1 day for official holidays and your birthday, and 5 days of paid vacation after 13 months of employment)

Advice to Senior Management

Do not hire recent grads if you expect them to be pros working like a slave for pennies.

Pros

The potential for growth is unlimited. You have the personality and warmth of a community business with the benefits of a global network with the latest technology. The office makes up a team, each working together for the good of the whole, not individual players, each trying to get selfish recognition.

Cons

The work is always there. A place like Alphagraphics stays busy, which is good for the business, but at certain points in the week, you begin to wonder if there are enough hours in the day.

Advice to Senior Management

If you would offer benefits to your employees, you'd be a 10 on a 1 - 10 scale. It is really my one and only complaint.

Pros

My boss is great. She is the nicest person you could ever meet and I love her like my family.

Cons

I don't like how they like to charge owners for everything like being late on turning in forms or not ordering their products. Its hard for new owners with the economy the way it is to shell out more money for fees. They should give them a year to get themselves established then they can charge.

Advice to Senior Management

Hang in their we are going to succeed. It make take some time but you have the brains and I have the no how.

Pros

You meet a lot of great customers. You don't have to worry about working too many hours. The job looks great on your resume.

Cons

Traing is terrible, benefits are horrible to non-existant, owners only care about putting money in their own pockets. High stress just because of the nature of the printing industry.

Advice to Senior Management

Train your employees better. Don't just throw them in and expect them to learn. Pay a salary that we can live on.

Pros

the people and management team are great, the small office size allows for great relations, there is a great family feel to working here

Cons

The only down side is there is much room for growth after becoming a manager the next level is owner.

Advice to Senior Management

The leadership at alphagraphics is great. I think because the top person is the owner so they have personal stake in the company success