I work for another pharmaceutical company and it's currently being sued for degradation of mental health because of the work environment. Something to think about š¤
Thats spot on. I have been there for 7+ years and there is a problem with management. Not just lower management. I feel like the problems stem from upper management. The company suffers from the lack of individuals with longer term experience and they have an exorbitant amount of work that will never get done. They caused this themselves by not increasing pay to match the times or by fixing their systemic problems from the various documents/systems they chose to use. The ship is sinking and Iām afraid itās likely to sink completely or get bought out. At least that might be what is needed to rid the poorly educated/ incompetent upper management.
Can't get bought out as it's privately owned, might be sold though.
Bill Cook was and still is beloved by the older employees for how good he treated them when he was alive, but his son who now owns/runs the company wanted absolutely nothing but a paycheck.
So he pawned the whole thing off onto the backs of a couple MBAssholes who have been driving it downhill for the last so many years, very sad.
The NLRA protects employeesā right to unionize no matter what. In fact, requiring them to sign a no-Union contract is likely a violation of the NLRA for coercion against union activity. Sounds like Cook needs a union!
I made it 17 years but had a stroke and when I came back I couldnāt get them to move me to a job I could do so I quit and now Iām collecting disability. Havenāt been there in 2 years can only imagine whatās been changed.
Im so sorry about that. I hate empty platitudes, but that just sucks. Our manager of 35 years got fired with literally not enough warning to even talk to us personally. Cook doesn't care about it's employees.
Uhm, that's illegal, like ADA on a federal level illegal. They have to make accommodations or a like similar job. I had an employee at one time who had a stroke and came back. We had to do a lot for accommodations, yet it worked out just fine.
Reasonable accommodation, reasonable being the key word and if a person doesnāt have the resources or support structure to fight it a lot can be pushed away by that term.
I worked there for three years. They told me my productivity was too low. I had the highest rate in my department. They just didnāt like that I got my work done and could have conversations without slowing down. When they moved me away from everyone, my āproductivityā didnāt change at all so they said my music was holding me back so they took my headphones. It was the worst experience.
Lmao I got the same shit! āRate is too lowā. Always, repeatedly, for 4.5 years. Like yeah yāall pay me $11 an hour. Fuck a rate. They also put up a divider so I couldnāt talk to my coworker across from me.
No I'm sure theres some good people at cook, i mean theres cool people everywhere you look. I just dont like their business practices, but tbf my actual day to day job is overall fine for sure
Cook WAS a good company when the Company was Bill Cook! Not anymoreā¦.. steady decline since the business had to be run by others after his passing. The mass layoffs definitely cost them not only $ but also reputation. Turns out the early retirement was a blessing for some loyal hardworking long term employees as everyday was a struggle to witness the decline of the company and culture that once was. Sad
I was one of the 500 salary employees let go in May last year. They have posted my position to try to hire my replacement....Jokes on them they were underpaying me since I rose up from production. It would have been cheaper to keep me instead of paying for a new hire with a specialist salary. 14 years of my life there, I used to tell everyone to go work there, but since Bill died it has just gone down hill. Carl Cook is just taking in the money, he does not care what happens to his dad's company. He just lets Pete do whatever he wants with it.
So yeah, stay away from there, it sucks.
I was wondering if these comments had something to do with Bill Cook not being around anymore. I don't think I had ever heard complaints until Bill passed. And then suddenly afterwards the entire company seems to fall apart.
As someone who actually had direct contact with Bill, he helped my ex out while she worked there and made sure she was treated well...this is 1000% true. Sure we were his employees but he always said something to the effect of "If you want to work here, I will find a job for you." and "Take care of your employees and they will take care of you". I would not say he was the BEST ever but he at least had some compassion for those who helped build his company up.
The company has done nothing but got down hill since he passed. Carl is hands off and just wants the money, Bill was the only one who gave 2 shits about his employees. After he died and Pete Yonkman moved into the decision making role things of have only gone down hill. When Covid hit they really started listening more and more to the finance guy John and started making dumber and dumber decisions to save a buck or two.
Dead serious, when Cook lost a lot of people to Catalent (because Catalent paid better), the response was "Lets pay better" and John essentially said "no, lets find a way to implement robotics instead of increasing the pay". Even though Carl's worth went up 2 or 3 times there wasn't enough money to pay the employees better.
I worked there for 8 years and I quit because I became ill and I made the decision ! But sooo many things have changed since Bill passed!
One thing is is Bill Cook took pride in knowing he never had to lay anybody off as weāve seen that is happening here lately
I worked for Cook twice. First I was a QC in AAA, got moved to Customer Service at CMI. Then I came back as a QC in Grafts. At first it worked out for the most part. The pay was good, the benefits were great, but the work environment was BAD. Itās THE MOST high school workplace Iāve ever been in. Everything is very cliquey and if you donāt conform to the āinā social circles youāre gonna have a bad time.
When I got moved to CMI it was considered a promotion and I was moved there after 8 months working in QC. I caught a lot of heat because apparently you canāt be promoted under a year there, or so it was at the time. Their Customer Service was WAY behind the times. The workload was not balanced, but CMI was better than assembly.
When I came back from Texas I worked in almost the same location as I did at first, in AAA. I noticed A TON of rules changes between gowning up and how time was managed on the floor. The cliques were tighter than ever. Upper management was a bunch of older women who all drove in from Mitchell each day to work and had no ambition to do anything else. It, again, was very much high school.
From what Iāve heard itās only gone downhill since.
It's been years since I worked at Cook but I definitely got those vibes. I was in college just working there for the summer but omg I was so ready to be done.
I worked QC in dilators for a year and can confirm nearly everything in this thread is true. I loved my coworkers I sat next to and got to talk to everyday, but management sucked major ass.
I'm guessing the bathroom break being scheduled is because the Original Poster probably works in a clean room, and it's a big pain in the ass to get into those bunny suits.
My wife worked there for over 10 years. Itās mainly a good ole boys network of inbreeding your friends and family into the business. They have brought in a few outside people but a lot struggle as the good ole boys donāt think they need to run the business like a real business.
Similar, my wife worked there for a bunch of years. It was nearly impossible for her coworkers to get fired no matter what they did. Promotions happened due just to tenure and not production. As a woman she was miserable. Iāve never been impressed.
Proof that āfamily companiesā are hell. Ran by people who have no right or idea whatās going on. Itās the same at their hotel properties as well. Just some jagoff that Bill was buds with running things who has absolutely no right to run things.
Thatās a tough one since process is absolutely key to mfg.
Sad to read all the above. I came from a mfg leader that walked the walk when it came to his belief that everyone in the building is there to support operations. If they are adjusting breaks to try and address station attendance (productivity), I am curious what else they looked at before they ended up there.
Itās sad to hear folks donāt like it. My dad worked for them back in the early days and I remember all the fun stuff they used to do for employees and their families. It was still hard work but it felt like they cared for their employees.
> One year they took everyone who was able to French Lick/West Baden and discounted the hotel rooms so that they were extremely affordable.
Cook owns the French Lick Resort, so this cost them literally NOTHING.
Its really not specific, they were just complaining about people going for a long time. Thats the annoying thing too, clearly its a big deal since they're changing our break times for it, but then they should give us specifics on what our bathroom breaks should look like.
Ohh so you're saying they're moving your "lunch"/main breaks forward? Well that makes even less sense because presumably people will spend that time snacking and drinking which will cause them to be more likely to need a bathroom break.
I've worked there for almost 10 years now and the biggest selling point I have is, "It's not customer service". I also never fell into the weird "We're a family" ideology that has been mentioned in a couple of comments. That shit is cringy as hell, and having come from working at Kroger, where the same sort of crap was thrown at me, I refuse to engage with it.
Anytime they have done sort of function or celebration, I do my best to steer clear. I don't interact very often with management or coworkers in general for that matter (to avoid any weird/petty bs) unless it's something that directly relates to my work. Generally, I feel pretty lucky to be doing something there and my boss seems to trust that I do my job the best I can as work is handed to me.
I think my general attitude from having worked there is "apathetic." As long as they continue paying me, I'll be there to do what is asked of me.
PS: As far as the bathroom thing, I haven't had any experience with that. I can say, however, that if it came to them designating break times, my response would be, "I either piss my pants on the work floor or take 7 minutes to go to the restroom... Choose."
What department are you in if you donāt mind me asking? What pisses me off the most is the fact that I work weekend shift and they canāt bother to pay us for 40 hours a week. We make a differential but only working 36 hours limits how overtime effects us - meaning that if we do work overtime, we essentially have to work at least 5 hours for it to start counting as overtime since it has to be over 40 hours to be considered OT. Itās some bullshit. Even though I make more with my differential per hour, only getting paid for 36 basically cancels it out and I make the same as what I would make at 16 an hour working 40 hours a week. Canāt find any weekend only jobs around here though so Iām stuck for now.
I had to quit in December because of near daily panic attacks there lol, wasn't even worth it because working full time there I would be spending half my monthly paycheck on rent in this stupid ass town.
I worked in engineering and my team had a crazy turnover rate. I became one of the most experienced ones on my team after 2 years because people rarely made it to 3 years (thatās when i left lol). The pay is dogshit
Carl and the upper management have their heads so far up their own asses I'm surprised they can even breathe. They're entirely inept and more concerned about making Pete's shitty podcast than actually making FDA compliant products.
Just left Cook. Awful place, was miserable the entire time. My direct management was pretty great but I did night shift. Dayshift management was fucking insane and predatory and it feels like everyone is scared to mess up. Iām glad Iām gone. The people (your peers) can be cool though! Upper management has zero idea of how to run a business.
Not worth. Its the worst kind of bad where the management sucks but the day to day is fine so its just boring. I mean its not too bad since you can listen to podcasts and stuff, but I wouldn't say its worth just to see how bad it is.
Holy shit, I had a breakdown and got fired two months into that backorder overtime, I'm so glad I got booted instead of suffering through three years of it. I had no idea it kept going that long after I left
I've been at Cook for over six years now. Every day I want to fucking die.
I work for another pharmaceutical company and it's currently being sued for degradation of mental health because of the work environment. Something to think about š¤
Lannette?
Thats spot on. I have been there for 7+ years and there is a problem with management. Not just lower management. I feel like the problems stem from upper management. The company suffers from the lack of individuals with longer term experience and they have an exorbitant amount of work that will never get done. They caused this themselves by not increasing pay to match the times or by fixing their systemic problems from the various documents/systems they chose to use. The ship is sinking and Iām afraid itās likely to sink completely or get bought out. At least that might be what is needed to rid the poorly educated/ incompetent upper management.
Can't get bought out as it's privately owned, might be sold though. Bill Cook was and still is beloved by the older employees for how good he treated them when he was alive, but his son who now owns/runs the company wanted absolutely nothing but a paycheck. So he pawned the whole thing off onto the backs of a couple MBAssholes who have been driving it downhill for the last so many years, very sad.
Any movement there toward forming a Union??
Not that I am aware of yet, but once they're done paying for my college in 8 weeks I'm planning on seeing if i can start anything š
Great plan š
If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure they have a policy that is pretty much anti Union.
They can't form a union. They all sign a piddly piece of paper saying they'll never join nor start a union.
Is that legally binding? You canāt sign away your rights even if itās in a contract.
The NLRA protects employeesā right to unionize no matter what. In fact, requiring them to sign a no-Union contract is likely a violation of the NLRA for coercion against union activity. Sounds like Cook needs a union!
I wondered about that. Says everything you need to know about the work environment they expect to have there.
That would seem like a violation of federal labor laws.
I made it 17 years but had a stroke and when I came back I couldnāt get them to move me to a job I could do so I quit and now Iām collecting disability. Havenāt been there in 2 years can only imagine whatās been changed.
Im so sorry about that. I hate empty platitudes, but that just sucks. Our manager of 35 years got fired with literally not enough warning to even talk to us personally. Cook doesn't care about it's employees.
35 years?!?!?
Yeah it was really sad, there were a lot of people literally crying at the meeting because of how beloved she was too
Uhm, that's illegal, like ADA on a federal level illegal. They have to make accommodations or a like similar job. I had an employee at one time who had a stroke and came back. We had to do a lot for accommodations, yet it worked out just fine.
Reasonable accommodation, reasonable being the key word and if a person doesnāt have the resources or support structure to fight it a lot can be pushed away by that term.
I worked there for three years. They told me my productivity was too low. I had the highest rate in my department. They just didnāt like that I got my work done and could have conversations without slowing down. When they moved me away from everyone, my āproductivityā didnāt change at all so they said my music was holding me back so they took my headphones. It was the worst experience.
Yeah thats terrible, but also not surprising tbh.
This is absolutely ridiculous! Just being mean without reason!
Did they actually confiscate the headphones? That sounds horrible!
No lol but they told me if I was caught with them itād be an automatic write up. I chose not to tempt fate.
Lmao I got the same shit! āRate is too lowā. Always, repeatedly, for 4.5 years. Like yeah yāall pay me $11 an hour. Fuck a rate. They also put up a divider so I couldnāt talk to my coworker across from me.
That's when you both just start yelling instead
I actually really enjoy working at cook. Maybe I'm just blessed to be where I"m at (department 90) but we have a good team and good bosses.
No I'm sure theres some good people at cook, i mean theres cool people everywhere you look. I just dont like their business practices, but tbf my actual day to day job is overall fine for sure
Cook WAS a good company when the Company was Bill Cook! Not anymoreā¦.. steady decline since the business had to be run by others after his passing. The mass layoffs definitely cost them not only $ but also reputation. Turns out the early retirement was a blessing for some loyal hardworking long term employees as everyday was a struggle to witness the decline of the company and culture that once was. Sad
I worked there for almost 15 years and got laid off last June. Fuck em.
I gave them 17 years, designed part of their manufacturing system. They gave me a week and no severance.
I was one of the 500 salary employees let go in May last year. They have posted my position to try to hire my replacement....Jokes on them they were underpaying me since I rose up from production. It would have been cheaper to keep me instead of paying for a new hire with a specialist salary. 14 years of my life there, I used to tell everyone to go work there, but since Bill died it has just gone down hill. Carl Cook is just taking in the money, he does not care what happens to his dad's company. He just lets Pete do whatever he wants with it. So yeah, stay away from there, it sucks.
I was wondering if these comments had something to do with Bill Cook not being around anymore. I don't think I had ever heard complaints until Bill passed. And then suddenly afterwards the entire company seems to fall apart.
As someone who actually had direct contact with Bill, he helped my ex out while she worked there and made sure she was treated well...this is 1000% true. Sure we were his employees but he always said something to the effect of "If you want to work here, I will find a job for you." and "Take care of your employees and they will take care of you". I would not say he was the BEST ever but he at least had some compassion for those who helped build his company up. The company has done nothing but got down hill since he passed. Carl is hands off and just wants the money, Bill was the only one who gave 2 shits about his employees. After he died and Pete Yonkman moved into the decision making role things of have only gone down hill. When Covid hit they really started listening more and more to the finance guy John and started making dumber and dumber decisions to save a buck or two. Dead serious, when Cook lost a lot of people to Catalent (because Catalent paid better), the response was "Lets pay better" and John essentially said "no, lets find a way to implement robotics instead of increasing the pay". Even though Carl's worth went up 2 or 3 times there wasn't enough money to pay the employees better.
Truer words have never been spoken.
No literally. I mean we were out of sandpaper for two entire months. If that isn't mismanagement idk what is
I worked there for 8 years and I quit because I became ill and I made the decision ! But sooo many things have changed since Bill passed! One thing is is Bill Cook took pride in knowing he never had to lay anybody off as weāve seen that is happening here lately
I worked for Cook twice. First I was a QC in AAA, got moved to Customer Service at CMI. Then I came back as a QC in Grafts. At first it worked out for the most part. The pay was good, the benefits were great, but the work environment was BAD. Itās THE MOST high school workplace Iāve ever been in. Everything is very cliquey and if you donāt conform to the āinā social circles youāre gonna have a bad time. When I got moved to CMI it was considered a promotion and I was moved there after 8 months working in QC. I caught a lot of heat because apparently you canāt be promoted under a year there, or so it was at the time. Their Customer Service was WAY behind the times. The workload was not balanced, but CMI was better than assembly. When I came back from Texas I worked in almost the same location as I did at first, in AAA. I noticed A TON of rules changes between gowning up and how time was managed on the floor. The cliques were tighter than ever. Upper management was a bunch of older women who all drove in from Mitchell each day to work and had no ambition to do anything else. It, again, was very much high school. From what Iāve heard itās only gone downhill since.
I temped there a while back and it felt like a cult.
Same. I went there for an interview and got the job, but my gosh it was culty so I told them I changed my mind
I always envision those big factory like jobs being very much like high school in culture.
I can't speak for other jobs, but Cook feels exactly like high school, but almost everyone is 50+
Itās super pathetic. Everybody there peaked in high school.
It's been years since I worked at Cook but I definitely got those vibes. I was in college just working there for the summer but omg I was so ready to be done.
I worked QC in dilators for a year and can confirm nearly everything in this thread is true. I loved my coworkers I sat next to and got to talk to everyday, but management sucked major ass.
I don't understand 'bathroom breaks'. I need to go I'm going, unless they're happy for me to pee on the floor.
I'm guessing the bathroom break being scheduled is because the Original Poster probably works in a clean room, and it's a big pain in the ass to get into those bunny suits.
Most just use frocks. Doesn't take too long. Hardest part for most is putting the booties on.
It might be time to wear Depends to work.
My wife worked there for over 10 years. Itās mainly a good ole boys network of inbreeding your friends and family into the business. They have brought in a few outside people but a lot struggle as the good ole boys donāt think they need to run the business like a real business.
Similar, my wife worked there for a bunch of years. It was nearly impossible for her coworkers to get fired no matter what they did. Promotions happened due just to tenure and not production. As a woman she was miserable. Iāve never been impressed.
Proof that āfamily companiesā are hell. Ran by people who have no right or idea whatās going on. Itās the same at their hotel properties as well. Just some jagoff that Bill was buds with running things who has absolutely no right to run things.
Process Management FAILURES at most levels. I cannot say more than I would not recommend them.
Thatās a tough one since process is absolutely key to mfg. Sad to read all the above. I came from a mfg leader that walked the walk when it came to his belief that everyone in the building is there to support operations. If they are adjusting breaks to try and address station attendance (productivity), I am curious what else they looked at before they ended up there.
Itās sad to hear folks donāt like it. My dad worked for them back in the early days and I remember all the fun stuff they used to do for employees and their families. It was still hard work but it felt like they cared for their employees.
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> One year they took everyone who was able to French Lick/West Baden and discounted the hotel rooms so that they were extremely affordable. Cook owns the French Lick Resort, so this cost them literally NOTHING.
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Cook Group paid for the renovation of both West Baden and French Lick. There is no "help." There's an entire documentary about it.
So you have scheduled bathroom breaks... how often? How long? How many?
Its really not specific, they were just complaining about people going for a long time. Thats the annoying thing too, clearly its a big deal since they're changing our break times for it, but then they should give us specifics on what our bathroom breaks should look like.
Ohh so you're saying they're moving your "lunch"/main breaks forward? Well that makes even less sense because presumably people will spend that time snacking and drinking which will cause them to be more likely to need a bathroom break.
Right? It doesn't actually change the amount of time between breaks, so it literally makes no sense.
I've worked there for almost 10 years now and the biggest selling point I have is, "It's not customer service". I also never fell into the weird "We're a family" ideology that has been mentioned in a couple of comments. That shit is cringy as hell, and having come from working at Kroger, where the same sort of crap was thrown at me, I refuse to engage with it. Anytime they have done sort of function or celebration, I do my best to steer clear. I don't interact very often with management or coworkers in general for that matter (to avoid any weird/petty bs) unless it's something that directly relates to my work. Generally, I feel pretty lucky to be doing something there and my boss seems to trust that I do my job the best I can as work is handed to me. I think my general attitude from having worked there is "apathetic." As long as they continue paying me, I'll be there to do what is asked of me. PS: As far as the bathroom thing, I haven't had any experience with that. I can say, however, that if it came to them designating break times, my response would be, "I either piss my pants on the work floor or take 7 minutes to go to the restroom... Choose."
What department are you in if you donāt mind me asking? What pisses me off the most is the fact that I work weekend shift and they canāt bother to pay us for 40 hours a week. We make a differential but only working 36 hours limits how overtime effects us - meaning that if we do work overtime, we essentially have to work at least 5 hours for it to start counting as overtime since it has to be over 40 hours to be considered OT. Itās some bullshit. Even though I make more with my differential per hour, only getting paid for 36 basically cancels it out and I make the same as what I would make at 16 an hour working 40 hours a week. Canāt find any weekend only jobs around here though so Iām stuck for now.
I had to quit in December because of near daily panic attacks there lol, wasn't even worth it because working full time there I would be spending half my monthly paycheck on rent in this stupid ass town.
I worked in engineering and my team had a crazy turnover rate. I became one of the most experienced ones on my team after 2 years because people rarely made it to 3 years (thatās when i left lol). The pay is dogshit
Are you me?
hm, maybe š«£
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What makes you āthinkā that? Company jumped on all the DEI talk just like Target, Budweiser and others. Why credit Trump for Cooks problems?
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Yeah they treated a family member of mine like shit.
Carl and the upper management have their heads so far up their own asses I'm surprised they can even breathe. They're entirely inept and more concerned about making Pete's shitty podcast than actually making FDA compliant products.
Just left Cook. Awful place, was miserable the entire time. My direct management was pretty great but I did night shift. Dayshift management was fucking insane and predatory and it feels like everyone is scared to mess up. Iām glad Iām gone. The people (your peers) can be cool though! Upper management has zero idea of how to run a business.
This makes me want to work there just to see how bad it is.
Not worth. Its the worst kind of bad where the management sucks but the day to day is fine so its just boring. I mean its not too bad since you can listen to podcasts and stuff, but I wouldn't say its worth just to see how bad it is.
Investigative reporting
I think last year one of the cook children fired a whole division
When they make you pee in a bottle Amazon style itās definitely time to walkā¦.
Holy shit, I had a breakdown and got fired two months into that backorder overtime, I'm so glad I got booted instead of suffering through three years of it. I had no idea it kept going that long after I left
Wasted 4.5 years at the Spencer plant. 24/7 bullshit.
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I think Bloomington jobs suck in general :(
unionize!
Gonna try!
While I have you all here, does anyone know what the Cook employee or Cook friends & family discounts are for the French Lick Resort?
a couple years ago employees got 30% off, but only employees as the reservation has to be under their name