Darling International Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Darling International full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good benefits. Darling's plan was better before the merger, but the compensation is still the best in the business for drivers.

Cons – Fear is the go-to management tool. Women and minorities can forget advancement. Top-heavy and fantastically inept. Customers are unhappy. Workers are unhappy. Management is headless and heartless.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop abusing the entry level. No one sticks around for longer than a few years, even in a down economy. The result is your first line of customer contact is always brand-new people.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Darling International

Pros – Great environment. Lunch is provided with healthy options. Cubes are spacious and private enough. People are fairly friendly. Irving location is convenient.

Cons – CTO is all about buzzwords but does not know the technology well enough to apply it correctly. Database is a disaster! They do not have anyone on site who has DBA training. The database was developed by non-professionals. When poor coding standards were pointed out (with documentation), management responded negatively and personally.

Advice to Senior Management – You're growing fast but your foundation is sand. If you do not hire professionals and LISTEN to them and ACT on their concerns, your system will fail.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Darling International

Pros – The company has been in existence for a long time, and is in an industry that will continue to be necessary. Many of the headquarters staff are good to work with. The company is successful at what it does.

Cons – Managers are rewarding employees who do minimal or marginal work. Communication is overkill for some things and nonexistent for others. The HR polices are not being handled consistently among employees - much favoritism. Benefits are poor compared to other large companies.

Advice to Senior Management – Train the managers on basic management techniques, such as coaching, communication, delegation, discipline, improving morale, etc. Improve benefits to match other public companies.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Darling International

Pros – *Darling is a company that is growing very fast and they are slowly building their IT Department. They provide free lunch and drinks.

Cons – *You get paid 1 time a month
*Not sure the IT Department, specifically the Software Development department has direction
*No cubes, so everything is open and therefore little privacy

Advice to Senior Management – None

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Darling International

Pros – Decent benefits. The work is hard and the job should be around for some time. The city is working with the company to build a new plant for biofuel.

Cons – Wages are a little low for the area. Big brother watching. Lots of new rules and paper work. Word of mouth is the only way of finding out anything. Poor training, learn as you go. Hours are long.

Advice to Senior Management – Let the workers do their jobs and be more encourageing not looking for wrong doings. Show some kindness just hello would go a long way. More information of the new going ons would be nice.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Darling International

Pros – They are union which offers some assistance to keeping the management on a level field. They also offer a 401K plan and a pension thru the unions. The health plans are okay just alittle expensive to pay for.

Cons – Poor management, no communication, all about the numbers. It's growing too fast and its taking away from the employees. It is no longer an employee friendly company.

Advice to Senior Management – Get back to the basics and forget about the numbers. Communicate better with the employees and be more of the employee and family friendly company it once was and not the conglomerent that it has become.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Darling International full-time

Pros – The company keeps growing, especially after buying Griffin. The work seems to keep increasing at all plants, this translates into a very steady job. The pay is really good, especially for low skill positions. They match retirement contributions and have profit sharing. The health insurance has become outstanding.

Cons – The work is very physical with long hours and harsh environments; hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It can be a dirty and smelly environment. Also, management has earned a bad reputation as being non-responsive, defensive and malicious. In fairness, I see that changing incrementally.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to change the rendering and recycling culture from monarchical leadership toward teamwork and inclusion; your people can really help you achieve your goals.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company