Pilgrim's Pride Reviews

Pros

Good co-workers. Flexible Hours. Sick days.

Cons

No advancement opportunitys. No communication from management. Overall feeling of stuck in a rut syndrome.

Pros

Good benefits. There are days I don't even see a supervisor. Supervisors will pre arrange you absences for important issues you know are coming up. Good vacation time

Cons

To get a supervisor to fill them vacation papers is like pulling teeth. Its deadend very little advancement potential. Modern day slavery. Its true grit and grind everyday as a live hanger. This year they removed one person from each of our lines yet didn't see any kind of pay raise even though now its been a year and 3 months since we've seen an extra penny for an already underpaid job.

Advice to Senior Management

Show some kind of recognition to your employees. As a live hanger part of the job is birds hit you with there mess on a daily basis yet this year barely hit 25,000.

Pros

There is a benefits package.

Cons

They treat their employees like slaves and expect them to meet impossible standards. They will fire you for anything and I had to fight with them for a month in order to get time off to get married. They fired me shortly after I got back from my honeymoon. They fired me for having too many excused absenses. You would find out the night before if you were working for the weekend and if you didnt come to work, you were fired.

Advice to Senior Management

People have a life outside of work and employees would like to know in advance when they are working. Encouragement goes farther than oppression.

Pros

Working for Pilgrim's in Sumter, SC will help you do one of the two things. It will help you realize if you are weak or strong. It will help you admit if you are good or bad. It will help you realize if you are a leader of a follower. If developing your professional skills, people skills or just developing you as a person Pilgrim's Pride would be a good place to make a stop. There are people on all levels that will test these areas everyday.

Cons

First, I feel that upper management must be held to a level of competency and professionalism that will be respected by everyone who reports to them directly or indirectly. Respect for professionalism, integrity, good work ethics yeilds a different kind of performance then the intimidation tactic. Each one will get results but the one that keeps on working even when you are not there is respect.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer and administer training to enhance the management skills of each supervisor and manager. Test, to insure the competent level after the training have been completed, and then hold each one accountable if a reasonable amount of training is not being used when doing business.

Pros

Will allow balance between home and family to the extent the HR will allow.

Cons

inconsistent on flexible work schedules depending on site not job function
not much opportunity to learn new skills
no process for employees to agree with supervision concerning interests or career goals

Advice to Senior Management

Develop a process for management to discuss career goals with employees and provide opportunities for growth.

Pros

Not much to say other than the team work our department displayed was very well orchestrated with no credit to be given on the part of our supervisors.

Cons

Management was always in meetings that never accomplished anything. Extremely wasteful do as i say and not as I do leadership.

Advice to Senior Management

Thin out the ranks to get lean, run more efficiently and show some support to those in the trenches other than lip service.

Pros

Most co-workers are great to work with. Benefits package is very good. Good place to make connections with other professionals.

Cons

Culture has changed since management has changed. The workforce is de-motivated and performance is not at previous level. You feel as if every day is your last day. Many have been terminated, resigned, or demoted. The work place is very unstable with all the turnover in the last few years.

Advice to Senior Management

Show appreciation for the workforce. Motivation is low and they need a moral boost to improve performance.

Pros

work hours. The three different shifts hours works pretty good. The caferitia food is good and the prices are competitive.

Cons

supervisors and leads play favoritism. employees are treated as children. the equipment is unsafe, bad knifes, holely gloves, and the boot wash hardly ever works.

Advice to Senior Management

you need to ensure safety over all in the production area. I had to work with mesh gloves that had many holes in them and the leads and supervisor of the department knew of the conditions.

Pros

Co-workers are really nice. We have a lot of fun.
Most managers are good about giving pats on the back for a job well done.
Pay seems to be pretty fair if you don't live in East Texas.

Cons

Very few promotions given in IT.
Certain functions while necessary are not valued.
Terrible benefits.
There seems be a lot of good ol' boy politics in play at all times.

Advice to Senior Management

Do what you need to do to keep your good people. Promote them, give them bonuses or salary increases, whatever it takes. That's why they don't stay.

Pros

National presence
Low-stress atmosphere
Employees have a degree of self-management if not empowerment

Cons

Poor compensation
Extremely precarious future
Low employee value
Very little chance for advancement
Middle-Management is extremely indifferent to those under them.
Too much complacency has set in but the acquisition by JBS, Brazil will shake things up tremendously.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to make even a half-hearted effort to show employees they are more than just a number
Actually provide a decent salary that is livable on
Try to not make the entire company an hourly-rate organization