Pros
There are no Pros to working for Showa (Hitachi Astemo)
Cons
Working at Showa may have been one of the most terrible jobs I've had in my life. It's factory work, so you think you'd know what to expect—monotonous work for marginal pay. But in reality, it's far worse than that. New hires will start at $16/h which seems like a lot but in today's economy it's really not. Every year you receive a $0.90 increase, and it takes 2 years to be hired "full time" where you'll be able to receive benefits. Salary caps at $22/h. Employee turnover was HIGH. But the amount you make is DEFINITLEY not worth the amount of work management expects from you. If you work on the line, it's a non-stop process of loading pipes into a machine and pressing a button. When I left, we were shorthanded and management still expected us to produce close to 700 pipes in an 8 hour shift—roughly 200 pipes in a 2 hour quarter; 10 minute breaks in between with a half hour lunch. At this time, even though we didn't have enough people to run the line, they expected us to run between 2, sometimes 3 machines in order to meet production goals. If you stopped to catch your breath, or for any reason, it was typically met with hostility. Management itself is so completely disconnected from the floor workers it's unreal. Most times they walk on to the line to try and find ways to "increase productivity," often without really consulting the floor workers. At one point, there was a process that required 2 machines run by two people, and management came around with stopwatches to see if it was possible to have one person run both machines. When we expressed that it probably wasn't feasible, and would put more stress on one person, they looked at the stopwatches and said it was totally doable, and went ahead with the process. Lo and behold, for months we couldn't hit our production targets and they later would decide to move the machines back and have 2 people run them. Furthermore, management is fairly ineffectual for addressing concerns. Working through the pandemic, there were multiple times when I expressed concerns about workers not wearing masks or properly distancing, and when I, or other associates brought these up to management, there was nothing done about it. It was only until the government issued harsh mask requirements and penalties to businesses, that management started to implement stricter policies (not that people even listened or were punished anyway.) Workplace culture is incredibly toxic. Everyone who works here runs the gamut of miserable, racists, sexists, homophobic, transphobic or the like. It was so hostile, people couldn't even go to the washroom without the Team Leaders expressing frustration, or talking behind their backs about why they were taking so long. If you called in for being sick, or being in pain; most often people would talk behind your back about it, or management would be suspicious of your requests. I called in after throwing my back out, and because I had gone over my government mandated 2 sick days, but didn't want to go to the doctor to get a note for a sore back during a PANDEMIC, I was given a verbal warning about calling in. Honestly, this is just a fraction of the problems that persist within Showa (Hitachi Astemo), and I have never been so physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted from working in my life, as I was here. If you're a young kid and you need money, just look elsewhere, there are plenty of factories that run better than this. It's not worth the $16/h to start.
