Pros
* A handful of some true gems, great people to work with. There are great people and long-time employees in almost every company out there, but Case really does have some that I would be delighted to work for at any company. * The work is simple, and straightforward. In many instances, easy. We buy in bulk from a paper mill, and cut it down to different sizes. You can learn the gist of what we do in a day. * There are pockets of good pay, and pockets of bad pay, but I would say in either camp, the salary is generally commensurate or better for what is expected and what is delivered. (There are a handful of exceptions to that, where some really key people have been underpaid, but it's not the norm.) * The PTO was really generous, including not only paid vacation starting at 2 weeks and going up to 4 weeks, but also included a week of Personal Time and a week of Sick Time. Bereavement was also exceptionally generous, and there was also Paid Maternity Leave. * Executives and Senior Leaders are good people. I think there have been some major missteps in terms of strategy and execution which led to objectively bad outcomes for many people. But at no point have I ever felt that the leaders were just garbage humans--most are even pretty likeable! Think Hanlon's Razor. * Lots of opportunities to meet other good people doing interesting things in the industry. Though commercial print is shrinking, fiber-based packaging is growing, and there are lots of things to learn tangent to your day-to-day.
Cons
* Senior leadership doesn't respond to feedback or advice, even from people who know better from their experience. There is definitely a bias for those who are "yes men" and order takers. In private conversations even with senior leaders or Executive team members, you can push back and try to be a voice a reason, but it's almost always met with, "I know, what you are saying makes sense, but this is what we were asked to do." Not only were the Emperors not wearing any clothes, they didn't even believe you when you told them so. * Systems are absolutely abysmal, both computer system/ERP, as well as systems of work. Processes are either non-existent, volatile by the day, or are actively working against your success. This leads to things requiring a ton of manual processing, and a management team that doesn't understand and appreciate complexity when it is introduced--there is simply to way to really manage it. * Few growth opportunities. The company is already too top-heavy for its size in a shrinking industry, but the reduced footprint (closing 3 plants in the last 5 years, and possibly more in the coming years) and diminished sales has exacerbated the issue. Come to work here if you are just ready to camp until retirement, but don't plan on any appreciable growth compared to other companies and industries. * Communication has worsened over time: we now rarely hear from senior leaders about the state of things, and as it turns out, even the reports that we were getting were not wholly accurate/honest/transparent. People come and go from the organization with no notice; you just hear about it through the grapevine, on LinkedIn, or even not at all until you try to send them an email. Lots of "things are fine", "things will get better", "we are family", etc. Through much of 2025, it's not even been clear who was running the show or how decisions were being made. Most people just keeping their heads down trying to get by. * Health Insurance was horrible--basically just catastrophic insurance, and recent changes to make it more affordable just made it harder to use, especially if you saw specialists. A big part of this is because utilization was very high and the group had high costs and was generally unhealthy compared to peer groups. The retirement 401k match was also very low with a long vesting period. * Necessary layoffs for the sustainability of the company were conducted horribly. Even when tough decisions are made, there are good, bad, and ugly ways to do it, and Case was mostly on the bad-to-ugly spectrum. Reports of one remote worked being surprised at a breakfast that she was getting RIF'd. HR dropping in on team meetings unannounced to let them know that they were closing a plant. A plant being closed literally weeks