Schwans Schwans a despicable, exploitive, slavish, corporation to work for! Mount Vernon Iowa

I have worked for many places ever since entering the workforce in 1983 but Schwan's has to be the most irritating, retarded, chintzy, time-sucking corporate entity I have been employed at!

I began October 7, 2008 and quit on the spot December 15,2008 after a 13 hour day. More specifically, I had been hired to represent Schwan's Consumer Brands which included distributing Red Baron's pizza's, Tony's Pizzas, Asian Sensation Egg Rolls, Mrs. Smith's Pies, Freschetta Pizza, and Larry's Potatoes,etc.

The job consisted of delivering these products to Walmart Super Centers, Fareway Grocery Stores, and Hyvee Supermarkets in the Iowa City area down to the Burlington area of Southern Iowa. And as a driver (you had to have a class B license with airbrakes) you were under DOT hours of service rules. Therefore, one had to log on the HHC -hand held computer-according to Schwan's. Normally if you operate within 100 mile radius and return to your home terminal each day logging is not required per the DOT-however- Schwan's because they want to squeeze every bit of labor out of an individual and lengthen the work day (causing your pay to diminish to minimumum wage proportions)-requires it!

In the beginning-at the time of the interview- I was told the job was going to 50-55 hours per week starting early am 3 or so and finishing at between 2 and 3 pm. I was also told that Schwan's had paid holidays, super affordable health insurance for my family( 65.00 biweekly for medical insurance), 700.00 week guarantee with commission,bonuses, 2 weeks vacation, no sick days or comp time, and definitely no overtime because it was supposedly a commissioned sales position (the manger said the commission would make up for any lack of overtime because it was his "number one route!"), uniforms would be provided with safety boots during the training period which was to last 8 weeks or so-this changed all the time -week to week. I was told later it was supposed to be only 6 weeks,not 8 weeks, and then told another time it was 13 weeks. My home terminal would be Mount Vernon, IA which was 19 minutes from my house.

From the get go I thought it was a pretty cheesy job! I am old enough to know that all managers lie as they are agents for the crooked corporations who steal at will by gouging consumers all the while being protected by the law/judicial system. Each corporation has a team of lawyers to their bidding -that should tell a consumer or worker all they need to know about any corporation-if you (corporation) have integrity why do you employ pit bull attorney's to do your dirty work which equates to a legal protection racket!
I needed a job, thought I had nothing to lose, and knew it would take a month or two to find out the "real deal" I was getting myself into so I jumped on board and became route dog!

The training was spotty and inconsistent. It took place at coffee houses with a laptop computer in two hour increments.Sometimes at the depot after you had already been on duty 12 or 13 hours. It was a ramrod course were you skimmed the material in the presence of the manager and then took a computer test were you had to score90% to pass and given only two attempts or face dismissal! There were many modules to this training so plenty of tests The manager I had wanted me to study at home on my own dime and I flat out told him no way that the 700.00 weekly guarantee was geared to on-duty time and that I wasn't going to water day my pay any further! This marked the beginning of what Schwan's enslavement expectations were. You work 14 to 17 hours a day or more for $140.00
a day which equals ten dollars an hour or less. I passed my course in 6 weeks because the manager didn't have the time -he was route dogging too for pennies on the hour! The other part of the course was the driving module which I had bypassed because I had earned my Class A license with all the endorsements at truck driving school.

The route itself was brutal. All Schwan's trucks are hand loaded but sequenced-that is a sick joke-they use no pallets to separate the stops-the pizza boxes which all look the same are jammed in a tight packed order. pull one out,the rest fall-therefore you have to dig constantly. They don't use load locks either so if you brake to hard or turn to sharply your entire load will collapse-you dig once again. This company has no concept of modern warehousing. Their main instrument for profit is your back! If you do this pizza route you will double and triple touch the freight on your truck which is insane.The warehouse which loads your pizza truck will stack your load to the very top of the trailer roof and in the very front of the trailer right behind the cab of the truck thus making the load and performance of the truck unstable and prone to flip on an interchange. I complained directly to the retarded manager and said he would speak to the warehouse-nothing was ever done.
The lift gate attached to the truck constanly malfunctioned causing your day to be lengthened. Sometimes the lift gate would not go all the way to the ground so I would have to push the cart of loaded product off it causing part of the load to fall on the ground-you would have to handle it and restack it-pull it into the store to be scanned in by a hand held computer-where some of your load had to be downstacked once again so the receiving clerk could scan everything on the bottom.Many of these stops especially Walmart were huge deliveries60-80 boxes of pizzas-sometimes more-requiring the use of two carts. Once checked in-after you have waited in most cases for quite some time-behind Sara Lee, Hostess, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Nabisco vendors-you pull the carts out and begin stocking and merchandising all the goods in those boxes on the floor where you have to contend with retarded customers who thoroughly enjoy getting in your way and causing problems-such as the clueless elderly consumer.The nightmare of bending, stooping , and kneeling is
constant14-16 hours a day. You will be in pain all for 10$ an hour or less 14-17 hours a day.

The truck I had had no air-ride seats it squeaked constantly. I received it filthy. the trailer door handle mechanism was rusted out so it was a constant struggle and hazard to your body to unlock and lift it. It would freeze up where you couldn't open it without a pry bar. Schwan's of course didn't provide the pry bar to open their equipment-so I bought one. The floor on the trailer would ice up endangering your safety-they provided no ice melt.Everyday the trailer lock had to be employed. What resulted was that Schwan's was so cheap the lock froze up when the weather turned freezing. I suggested to the manager that he invest in some rubber insulated locks so they wouldn't freeze up and cause delays which water down my pay and life with my family. He said the ones issued were company approved and insulated ones were'nt. I forcefully told him to request some through the safety department or I was going to. He said he would try-nothing was ever done so I brought wd-40 at my own expense-that works like a charm.

The reefer unit never worked consistently jeopardizing the integrity of the frozen food products. The power unit /cords at the depot didn't work properly.
During the bad weather in late November 2008 our depot turned into a hockey rink causing me to slip and fall on my back/shoulder ( after a 14 hour shift)and head I received a mild concussion/ contusion/plus reoccurring shoulder pain missing two days of work and having to go through a series of xrays. The depot manager never brought in a load of salt or dirt or gravel to make it safe. The company did send me "get a grips" to wear on my boots after I became injured and complained

The handheld computer went out twice needing to replace- the same with their pre 1990's printers they have in their trucks. Writing handbills is time consuming and pure drudgery.My last two weeks were a nightmare with an injury, operating junky equipment, malfunctioning computers, and locks. The managers -I worked with two at varying times were micromanagers. My cell phone rang and rang to the point that I would turn it off because it conflicted with my work. One manager in particular was fat, bald headed and miserable with himself and his job. He would discuss politics and when I politely disagreed he ratted me off to the senior manager-I forget his exact title.I even think he went so far as to call the ethics hotline and posed as a customer repeating info that occurred only in our conversations in the truck. He ratted on everything, followed me from store to store, tried to undermine me every step of the way. The senior manager was a Christian who did not cuss so one could not say the F-bomb word or he became offended and was a Schwan's lifer. He slept, ate, breathed Schwans. All for having no ownership at all in the company and never progressing beyond the point of a glorified route dog-15 years total too! What a moron! I was also barraged with emails from the senior manager of our group regarding company info so much so I couldn't keep up. On tuesdays we had our weekly conference call at 5 pm at home after we had already worked 14 hours.Of couse we couldn't log this on-duty time because we had already logged off before we left work!

Overall, this job experience proved to be a nightmare. What previous posters have written about Schwan's is pure truth and worse. I never received a uniform or boot order (so I had to use my own clothing)even though I was beyond the 60 day probation. My family health/ insurance benefits were 250.00 per pay period-biweekly not 65.00 biweekly.No paid holidays whatsoever. No holiday turkey like other food companies that I have worked for before, given out-no holiday parties paid for by the company-nothing! Schwan's corporate management are absolute parasites sucking on the backs of it's workers. Do not go through this corporate insane asylum called Schwan's they will use you to the point of no return. 9 weeks of irregular sleeping patterns, missed children's holiday events at school, excruciating fatigue, excessive work hours, constant physical pain from excessive lifting, bending, grabbing, pulling, ripping, driving, poor diet, no lunch breaks, no life whatsoever, no overtime pay, . managers that micromanage to the point of harrassment, managers that are snitches, enough became enough and I threw in the towel and walked out.

Postcript: It took me 3 weeks to get back to my normal sleep patterns and overcome my exhaustion. My injuries from the fall are bothering me so I have to see the work comp doctor the 17th of January for a follow up. Mentally I feel like I have been through an episode of the Twillight Zone where I was the principal actor/victim. It is demoralizing that corporate America has not progressed from a human rights prospective into the 21st century. It is truly criminal how these corporations and their managerial henchmen operate!

Jamesr
Clarence, Iowa
U.S.A.