Pros
None to speak of aside from the 8:00 - 4:30 shift. But they manage to ruin that with mandatory overtime.
Cons
This review is strictly my opinion of the experience I had while working production in the Shells 110 Department. I spent 10 months at Vestas and it was easily the darkest time of my life. I initially thought the company had some sort of upward mobility but there is next to none. The problem is that the American corporate office is located in Portland, OR, so there are no corporate jobs here in Brighton Colorado. The few jobs I was able to apply for in an attempt to utilize my degree I was rejected generally within a day. I sincerely think that Vestas doesn’t want people from the factory floor to work better positions. The work itself on the build team isn’t bad. You lay out rolls of fiberglass from one portion of the mold to the next then eventually cover the blade in a vacuum bag and infuse it. One of my main gripes is the way they strip the little amount of PTO we do get when the factory closes down for maintenance. The factory closes a couple times a year to take care of larger projects or refurbishments. After we complained at an all hands meeting that PTO shouldn’t be stripped because its not our choice to not work, the factory manager made two statements. He both didn’t realize it was happening and swore it wouldn’t happen again. Fast forward a couple of months and it did happen again, yet the supervisor told us if we had “special circumstances” that we wanted to save our PTO for we could talk to them and “make our case”. Completely unethical and it becomes impossible to save for a larger vacation. They also shift the schedule frequently too. We were told we were going to work 5 days a week 8 hours a day in an effort to “stabilize”. We then got to choose which shift we wanted out of the 3 shifts available each day. It was going fine for a while until they started forcing us to work Saturdays. Then it turned into a constant threat of “if we don’t work faster were going to have to work Saturday”. Which wouldn’t have even been that bad if we knew in advance. There were a couple of occasions in which we didn’t find out until Thursday afternoon that we were going to work a Saturday. If you cant make it and give a two week notice that you wont be in then you risk being written up. Which in their defense they don’t do very often. I asked my supervisor how we give a two week notice if we never know we are working a Saturday. He stated that “we don’t have to give you a notice, you just have to tell us in advance, your schedule isn’t 8-430 your schedule is 18 blades”. So keep in mind you will be jerked around quite a bit regarding your work schedule. To avoid working Saturdays we started doing 12 hour Fridays, and even then they cant tell us in advance if its going to happen or not. On top of that they force us to do things before we can leave for the day and threaten to deduct time. They like to use phrases like “no one is going home until the mold is clean” or “you’re not leaving until I have your HOAP”. You will be belittled frequently. Also getting breaks is a pain. You’re entitled to two half hour breaks a day. But that solely depends on which part of the build process you are in. You generally wind up taking your second break just 40 minutes before you leave for the day, its literally the last thing you do and the worst timing for a break. On that note, there is nothing to eat in the area and Vestas no longer has a cafeteria that serves hot food. So if you forget your lunch one day, your stuck eating overpriced sandwiches or frozen food. Another thing I disliked about the job is that the supervisors talk to us like were pieces of crap. Two employees got into a fist fight and were both fired. The next morning, the supervisor told us to talk to him if were having an issue with someone so it never comes to that point. A couple months later I had a friend who was having trouble with another employee who wasn’t carrying his weight, being extremely offensive and rude. When my friend approached the supervisor and explained this he stated “well I expect you to push each other (verbally)”. So over time Vestas has created this toxic environment of yelling and threatening one another to get things done. No one respects anyone. Their is no HR to speak of, its literally one woman for 900 employees, she tells us to “call Portland”. The people are mostly trash. Recreational drug users who hope they don’t get tested during the quarterly screening. Ex cons who treat the plant like there still in prison by using words like “rat” and “snitch”. Emotionally unstable individuals who make the job a living hell. Most of the employees are just waiting for the “oil fields to come back” or their “DUI to clear so they can drive for Uber”. Do yourself a favor and avoid this place when you see a job posting.
