Rain Bird Reviews in Los Angeles, CA Area

Pros

The people are great, the pay is ok,. They help you with school and have really good benefits.

Cons

Management is management, and the lower level employees are often left out of decision making. It's bad for morale. They need to involve everyone.

Advice to Senior Management

Management really needs to look at more than the bottom line. You have good people, working very hard. Their expectations are high and unrealistic given the reductions in staff. Something has to give.

Pros

Azusa is a nice location, cost of living reasonable for CA, good and affordable schools, good traffic and restaurants in the area.
Peers are great to work with

Cons

Lack of leadership
No interest in strategic planning, only a list of ‘tactical goals’ are given as the ‘strategic plan’ by the owner
Tons of values and beliefs, no one cares to behave according with them
Lack of information sharing
Management is afraid of losing their jobs, thus a lot of “finger pointing” and “scapegoats”

Advice to Senior Management

Hire professional management and leaders, specially in HR, not “Yes, Tony’s men” or sell the company sooner than is planned

Pros

There are lots of great people that work for Rain Bird. It is a company that has a good reputation.

Cons

There are cutbacks taking place all of the time. Rain Bird is hiring plenty of managers but keeps cutting back on the staff that supports them.

Advice to Senior Management

Remember who the people are that support you. If you keep cutting back you might be doing their job one day.

Pros

Compenstation was the reason for going and working there as long as I did. I was eventually tired of the place adn realize that no amount of money makes it worth it.

Cons

It is the same as most other reports about the Bird, no leadership at all and weak kneed upper managment.

Advice to Senior Management

The should realize the way they operate, it will make them warped in their thinking and make them ___ kissers the rest of their lives.

Pros

Only salary is the bait use for all

Cons

Well, poor management, no leadership and being push to do more than one job while you are basically force to work more than what is normal and with no resources is the day to day job, no respect and hearing comments from managers that do not value the effort to get results

Advice to Senior Management

Frustration work load from middle management, I heard this from some one before "we are not lean we are anorexic" will describe what's happening, do not yell at people we notice that during your morning meetings, do not use the F or BS words that often and do not use the BS

Pros

Rainbird has good pay when you work well. Rainbird has great name recognition but it is undeserved. Other than that, not much is good.

Cons

Rainbird management is too close-minded when presented with differing opinions. Upper management is more like yes men when faced with Anthony.

Advice to Senior Management

change the president to somebody who listens and cares for the opinions of others people. Be fair and professional to outside companies that bring new ideas. DO NOT be a predator.

Pros

Pay is great. Work is challenging. Contrary to reports, Rain Bird does have concern for their line employees and unmentioned, many of them have 25 to 35 years at their positions. Rain Bird is spending a good deal on upgrading their technology. I also like it that Rain Bird is a pay as you go company - not fettered by any debt. Rain Bird will survive the current economic turmoil.

Cons

Turnover is high but this is also due to folks coming and using Rain Bird as a stepping stone. Times are tough and Rain Bird has to deal with a lot of issues remain profitable and decisions are going to cause a lot of hardship on many employees.

Advice to Senior Management

None. The company is profitable and seems to get it right. I would have to say, try to get a handle on why there are so many disgruntled former employees.

Pros

The pay is great, much better than any other company for Engineering work. Working in the South West is great. Sunshine! Professional attitude amoung co-workers. International experience.

Cons

The Benefits are mid level at best. Workload distribution is not even close to correct. No company cell phones, even for traveling workers. Multiple business units that do not know what the others are doing from a design or engineering point of view. Sometimes unrealistic objectives that are not in your control.

Advice to Senior Management

Consolidate the SBU's to central engineering and managment. Disclose what each SBU is doing for engineering and marketing. Find out why so many people leave Rain Bird and fix it. Losing the legacy information from employees is invaluable.

Pros

Committed employees below the Sr. Staff level with very nice compensation

Cons

Lack of support, direction and overall leadership from Sr. Management, high level of stress

Advice to Senior Management

You are a perfect example of how the manufacturing base in the United States has been eroded by company owners who seek greater profit by moving outside this country with complete disregard for the employee base that got them to their current financial status

Pros

Unlike other posters who have trashed the company, I had a pretty positive experience working at RB for several years. I worked with a diverse group of well-educated folks, including many who took the time to mentor me as I progressed in my career. I had the opportunity to make a couple of career moves during my tenure and was able to leverage these experiences and skills into great opportunities after I left Rain Bird. The pay was competitive, benefits OK and at least in my positions, I had some autonomy on managing my projects with oversight from my supervisors.

Cons

I agree partially with the comments from the other folks who have reviewed the company. I did manage to survive various layoffs during my tenure, but saw colleagues come and go more frequently that I would have preferred. The company provides very little training in general, so you must be a self-starter who thrives on a changing environment in order to succeed. When I started, there seemed to be quite a few talented folks in the employee pool and several years later when I left, the morale was much different and folks coming in did not seem as qualified...perhaps because it was harder to recruit to Tucson...

Advice to Senior Management

The feedback from this forum is valuable...listen to your current employees, even the disgruntled ones, and make changes to enhance their experience.