Guardian Industries Reviews

Pros

Many new projects to work on if you have good technical background
Relatively stable company with long-term view; no need to worry about being layoff as long as you are doing a good job
Autonomy

Cons

Limited career advancement opportunity
Low salary and bonus
You are expected to work a lot of extra hours without rewards

Pros

Benefits, 401K matching and at the time use fo the Palace Entertainment and Sports.

Cons

Brag about what a great place to work. Poor leadership that makes decision such as price increases to customers then blames lower level account managers for their decisions and displeasure from customer. Then let people go only to place new job openings on Monster.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit thinking in terms od profit only and treating employees poorly.

Pros

Company has a tradition of autonomy and self-direction in the workplace. Some needed and positive centralization taking place from a corporate level to bring more stability between the plants. Large, global company with several divisions giving it sound stability in difficult economic times.

Cons

Some plants (especially the one in Corsicana, TX) have problems in the management levels that include lack of competence, lack of forward thinking, fragmentation and cliques. Much of the failure of managers is due to extreme politics, "nesting" on titles and constant finger pointing/excuse making. There is also a very bad tendency for managers to blame subordinates rather than seeking solutions at the floor with subordinates. The Corsicana plant was ALWAYS playing blame games and daily firefighting or being reactionary. Hope improvement comes and establishes a positive atmosphere for the workers there.

Advice to Senior Management

Better corporate control and structuring. Recognize the politicians in manager circles and fire them. Fire managers who undermine progress out of political motives. Managers need to have more desire to learn and pass on knowledge. Stop blaming subordinates and get to the floor for solutions with those people. Need better structure for training and development. Enforce continuous improvement and expect top managers to be honest, educated leaders in this effort. As it stands now, managers give lip service to change for a day just to sound politically correct but never strive to understand, teach and implement the principles as a long term solution.

Pros

Excellent pay, benefits, career opportunity/path, management, and culture. This is a place where you want to work if you want to work for a great company. The entire company cares about each other's well-being. Safety is the number one priority and all levels of the organization practice what they preach. Other reviews state that Guardian is a make-or-break facity - it should be! Work hard and do what's right. That is the same for any company.

Cons

Weekend shifts, but one knows that going in, so essentially, there are no "cons". The company expects supervisors to do the right thing - to keep their people safe, to produce results, and to provide their customers with a quality product. It's a pretty simple equation. You'll read other's cons including work/life balance, pay, and culture. Simply not true in my opinion.

Pros

The company offers steady employment.

Cons

there are limited advancement opportunities within their manufacturing plants, they have no respect for an even work / life balance.

Pros

Great 401K benefits, I like that I get my schedule a year ahead of time so I can plan out my personal life. Guardian is very stable, and is doing well in poor economy. I got a bonus and I always know I will have a job if I work hard.

Cons

I dont really have any that stand out....you are always going to have people that you dont get along with as well as the next. But thats to be expected. Overall I like the group of people I work with.

Advice to Senior Management

I would take a job at Guardian if you are looking for a life long career in manufacturing.

Pros

The company has good overall benefits in terms of healthcare, 401k match, etc and has a fairly flat organizational structure which allows for fast decision making when needed.

Cons

Just about everything else is not good. The first is the lack of work life balance with employees and managements lack of concern for the unbalanced expectations of work load and the stress imposed on employees. Also, the organization creates internal favoritism toward long standing employees and does not consider others in their decisions that affect the people doing the work. Morale is very low and the facilities are severely outdated with a 1960's feel to it. Like the facilities, the company does not invest much in people development and prefers to turn over people first to investing in them. The location where I worked had a 40% turnover rate and was plagued with heavy handed managment practices that resulted in mistrust among the rank and file.

Advice to Senior Management

You are very lucky this company is privately held. If it were publicly traded, you simply would be out of a job due to poor performance and lack of ability to develop and retain talent.

Pros

Company is financially healthy. Some plants offer a lot of freedom of action for their managers. It is still a "no budge needed" system, investments can be made if adequately justified.

Cons

At will employment, has been used to let go employees without any specific reason.
Vast Inconsistencies in management styles between manufacturing plants.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to come back to the values that made Guardian, as expressed by Mr Davidson.

Pros

international atmosphere, good opportunities to learn a lot about business, correct relationship between employees,

Cons

becomes too political and too much of a 'gentelmen's club'. employees are generally unsatisfied by the low compensation package and big differences btw, salaries. management does not care about long term satisfaction of employees or customers but rather focuses on short term profit.

Advice to Senior Management

dont' squeeze your employees like lemon.....it does not pay off.

Pros

rotating schedule. Long hours but lots of time off. Pay can can be good, but it is also hit and miss. There are big descrepencies in pay, even between people holding the same position.

Cons

Low employee morale, managment has unreasonable expectations, good ol boy club.

Advice to Senior Management

I left this place a few years back. Thank goodness! I was paid well, much better then people who held the same position and higher than those who had been there longer than me. But remember, money isn't everything.

It seemed good at first but the expectations are unreasonable, especially if you are not part of the good ol boys club...and there is a good ol boys club, if you're not part of it, do not expect to move up in the company. Employee turn over is high, especially with hourly employees, they put a lot of pressure on production supervisors and sometimes there mangers. They also fire lots of people, many times without very good reason.

If I had to do it over again, I would not have taken a job with them.