Pros

Work life balance is probably better than most companies. They don't do "google" type benefits but it's fairly liberal about your comings and goings. It's an individual thing, they don't pay nor reward well in house but pay out the nose to get people in from outside because they can't keep good people employed. Toledo isn't an exciting town nor are the plant locations so choose wisely. So if you can come in you can get paid above average pay as others have done. The business has a cyclical nature, so while it's in the downslope now most likely it's going to go back up in 2 years. The company makes products directly associated with the environmental movement (insulation/windmill blade parts etc.) which is nice also. In short, it's worth working for only if all the pieces are right for you. It's worked for me for many years but not for others.

Cons

Pick a consultant driven buzzword, program, or book and chances are OC used it for about a month. OC has a culture that thrives on the soft side of things vice results. Run your business into the ground? Say you tried and did it with zero injuries and you're likely to survive. Candor is non existent even though it's a value they claim to have. True, respectful candor gets crushed and the smart ones know to shut up and go along or get gone. There is no backbone at OC for the hard things that need to be done to succeed.

I don't spend time in the plants or field as much but am close with lots of them. Union plants claim there is zero accountability among the hourly ranks but complete accountability among the salaried ranks (translation - the unions take them to the cleaners daily but they never fight back and just work the salaried harder to compensate and they quit). Non Union plants say they spend more time on moronic programs that drive zero results (Q12, 21 factors, 20 keys, SAFE score, to name a few) than running their businesses.

The salaried system is killing their talent retention - we have this crazy system of paying your base pay below market value but claiming your bonus is what makes you paid better than others. Two problems with that: the bonus for a lot of people was under $1000 for most of us last year because the market stunk, and everyone knows they're lowballing you because base pay is key for everything, not bonuses.

Advice to Senior Management

Love Mike Thaman's business savvy, looking forward to the turnaround, waiting on the hard business decisions to come. Look hard (harder) at your HR organization. They most likely control the message you're hearing. There is a HUGE disparity between the face you likely see of the people side of OC and the reality. Folks are so accustomed to not rocking the boat that there's no way you're going to get anyone to tell you what's going on behind the scenes, so you've got to go with your instinct. They're probably telling you turnover of this level is normal but the only people that are staying are because they've got a nice setup for themselves, not because the believe in the direction we're going. All the passionate folks have left, the rest are just riding along. With a workforce like that - do you think they're going to really make brilliant aggressive business moves?