Dean Foods Reviews

Pros

good people to work with. products that you can be proud of to sell and recommend to friends and family.

Cons

uncertainty of the direction for the company and difficult industry dynamics. recent layoffs are the latest change and leave questions about what changes are coming next

Pros

Some employees have been with the company for more than twenty years, and they possess truly valuable industry knowledge that cannot be found elsewhere.

Cons

Company outlook is a concern as there have been many waves of downsizing, and it appears that no one knows what will happen the next day.

Advice to Senior Management

Ideally, things would be great if management can focus more on what would be the best for the company instead of politics, but it's more of a nature of the company as a whole, so i suppose management don't really have a choice...

Pros

They pay weekly. There is always free milk and juice in the breakroom. A safe place to work. Free uniforms and work shoes. A nice locker room to change in. Many restrooms through out the plant. Many of my co-workers are just like me. Lots of new equipment being installed in the last year. Plant is clean and clutter free.

Cons

Promotions go to the friends of the management. Some jobs require many hours a week while hours don't have 40 hours of work. Company hires temp workers that are illiterate and uneducated. Many members of management appear to lack the knowledge to do the jobs asked of them. No job training program that leads to new employees making big dollar mistakes. Won't enforce their own company policies concerning cell phone use in the plant and eating in the plant. Allow some of the older employees to chose the jobs they want to do thus destroying moral among others. Have different pay scales for the same jobs. Older employees make $2-4/hr more for the same jobs than the new hires. Invents new company rules when it benefits them. Almost complete lack of communication among upper management and employees. Management lacks courage to make decisions on discipline concerning employees breaking company rules. Large turnover rate among employees. Benefit program too expensive, not even competitive with WALMART's. Many work areas lack enough employees thus employees being forced to work in excess of 8 hours with no breaks many times a month.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop hiring un-educated, illiterate people from temp services. Enforce your own company rules. Equal pay for equal work. Set company policies and stick with them. Come up with a training program for new hires. Make you older employees do their fair share of the workload. The law says that you must let your employees have breaks, follow it. Terminate employees that refuse to follow company rules.

Pros

Good pay and benefits. And that's about all I'm afraid, not much more good to say about the company. With the exception of some of the people that I work with out in production.

Cons

Bad management, no communication, it's either there way or the highway. As far as management is concern, there is no life outside of the company. Not family oriented. If all your looking for is a paycheck and nothing more, than Deans is the place to be.

Advice to Senior Management

Corporate needs to really look into there current management team. The current management has been there for a long time and they have proven themselves incapable of running a business.

Pros

If the hours worked were reasonable, or the job description/offer accurate, then the salary would be OK. Benefits are comparable to other companies.

Cons

4th person in a year to hold this position. Hours are unrealistic, unhealthy and unsustainable (60-70 hours per week). Originally told I would have 2 weekends a month off and have Fridays and Sundays off the rotating weeks. This was not only changed at the last moment, but I also was required to work Saturdays on less than 8 hours turnaround.

Do not take this position unless you are prepared to work excessive hours or you are desperate for work. Definitely do not leave your current job for this position.

I do not know if this is indicative of other locations or companies within the Dean Foods family.

Advice to Senior Management

Turnover must be killing your bottom line. I imagine the board of directors and investors have no idea. No one in their right mind would continue to allow this. Must not be looking at the fine print of your income statements.

Pros

Short term Pay is very good

Cons

Strategy changes daily and CEO is inconsistent in decision making. One day he is pouring hundreds of millions into the DSD business next day he is firing everyone. His ego will not let him publicly acknowledge his own flawed strategy so he tries to make it look like others fault then fires them.

Advice to Senior Management

To the Board of Directors you need to step up and relieve Mr. Engles of his duties and get a real operating CEO.

Pros

Lots of opportunity for knowledge growth because company is generally ill-prepared for turnover, so you have to start at the bottom to learn something that the former employee did. The leadership team knows what they are doing.....however, mid-management changes the message to suit themselves.

Cons

Internal promotions are next to nothing unless you are in mid to upper management. Also, as a regular employee (non-management), it is not uncommon for your Directors or higher to tell you how money is tight, raises will be low, etc., but you find out they are receiving huge promotions and are hiring new people and paying them $10k - $20K more a year that you are making for the same job you are doing.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't just talk about transparency - show it. Be fair, open and honest with your employees. Value the good employees you have as well as talking up what your new hires can bring to the table.

Pros

The pay is decent and the benefits are on par with other places. When you get hired they make it sound great.

Cons

Management is really bad, they are the blind leading the stupid. No matter how many hours you work you get one 30 minute break. If you get hurt at work you get time off or get fired. Never worked at a place that made me want to throw up.

Advice to Senior Management

Get new mandgement

Pros

Co-workers are very good and care about what they do

Cons

Management is terrible. One of the first things I noticed when joining Dean Foods was the massive waste of money. Because of that the company was totally unprepared for the market changes that have occurred in the past couple of years which has led to big layoffs. Rather than listening to employee recommendations on waste upper level management continued with their "drunken sailor" approach to spending and, as a result, many excellent employees were let go and more high priced management was hired. As long as the current regime remains in control I see little chance that positive change will occur.

Advice to Senior Management

Cut back on unnecessary management and replace incompetence from the absolute top down. The board of directors needs to take action or see the company decline even further.

Pros

Good pay and benefits. I work with great people.

Cons

Unreasonable customers. WalMart is a good example.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop trying to micro manage each individual division. That's what we're here for.