Pros
Pay is good. Overtime is paid at time and a half. Many of the coworkers are great. The job is fairly simple, you can usually have an earbud in to listen to music or podcasts while working.
Cons
Very negative, toxic work environment. Management is awful. They don't seem to know what they're doing and can't make up their mind on what the rules are from day to day. You will get constant, conflicting information from management, lead clerks, and supervisors. No one knows what they're doing, and you will constantly hear people say that it's actually everyone else who doesn't know what they are doing (the truth seems to be that no one knows, since everything just seems to be made up on the spot). Since nothing is ever provided in writing and there's no consistency on what the rules are day to day, you can get in trouble for anything at any time (part of why favoritism and double standards are so rampant here). If you ask about why a rule changed they will gaslight you and act like it was always that way. Hard work here is rewarded with more work, and you will be assigned to work with lazy or difficult coworkers. You will never receive so much as a positive acknowledgement or even an expression of appreciation for hard work or efficiency (despite constantly being told how important efficiency is). The culture at this place feels like a junior high school or similar - it's a very immature, unprofessional environment. Gossip at this facility is the worst I've ever seen. You are judged before anyone even tries to get to know you, and this can make the environment feel very hostile. People will pretend to be nice to you and then talk trash behind your back the next second, or they will play really immature pranks by giving you false or misleading information to set you up to look like the workplace imbecile so they can have their little laugh. There are cliques here and a whole bunch of unspoken social rules, plus a lot of important job-related information doesn't make it to anyone outside the cliques because they love to deliberately hoard important information so they can keep making you look like an idiot and blame their own poor performance on whoever didn't get the memo about the rule change. There are a lot of workplace relationships here, which makes things awkward - it can feel like being at someone else's family event that you weren't invited to and didn't want to attend anyway. There's also a lot of inappropriate behavior here (supervisors yell a lot and lose their tempers easily) that really borders on harassment, but is just tolerated and accepted as normal. There are no real advancement opportunities to be had here, you can become a career doing the exact same job for more money, but after that, most of the moves available to you are lateral moves (you need many years of seniority after career conversion to have a real chance at any of the career bids, at which point you've spent a decade or so doing a job where you learn nothing and just do the same repetitive tasks every day, so it hinders your ability to build your resume to work elsewhere in the future) and you won't get promoted further unless you manage to get favoritism. There's no excuse for the amount of drama that goes on in this place. The job is simplistic and should be straightforward, but the environment encourages a lot of toxicity and negativity that really shouldn't be present at a job like this. You will never hear a positive word from management or supervisors, they generally only speak to you to tell you what you're doing is wrong (while you're doing the things exactly the way everyone has been doing it for months, and exactly the way they told you to prior). They will stand with a clipboard and just glare at you while you work, never offering any sort of explanation, assistance, encouragement or any positive feedback, even if they see that you're the only one working out of the entire group they put you with. They also don't penalize the lazy workers who stand around and talk. They just stare and say nothing. It's very demoralizing and dehumanizing, especially when it's just you and a couple of other coworkers doing the work while six other people stand around and talk, in plain view of the supervisors. The constant flow of contradictory information makes it impossible to actually learn anything about how the job is done, since it changes constantly and without any notice (the "notice" will usually be given in one stand-up talk, to one small group of people, and then never repeated or provided in writing. Management expects workers to do their job and spread the word. The union is also unhelpful. They will gladly accept your dues and be of no assistance if you need them. Management still walks all over you, and the various contract negotiations made by the union are meaningless as violations occur constantly. Much of the equipment at this facility is dirty, worn out, broken, rusty, or just plain dangerous. Protecting workers from Covid here is a joke, there is no effort to have employees social distance, they all gather around the timeclock in a crowd every day and practically push and shove like schoolchildren to be the first to clock in or out. Workplace injuries are common, and broken equipment is often used rather than removed for repairs or replacement. The facility frequently does not have the necessary supplies to run the various operations, and even though we do the same thing day after day, the proper supplies to do the job are rarely available at the times they are needed.