Pros
Note: These opinions are primarily regarding ABTech rather than ArcBest as a whole, however there is some obvious overlap. - Pay is reasonable for the FSM area. - Most immediate supervisors and managers are pretty good folks who are in the same boat as the employees when it comes to this stuff. They go to bat for you and there is a strong “small team” culture that I love. - Layoffs are rare (so far), and of course stability is 75% of the score, so this is a huge pro, and maybe the only one that matters at the moment. - Although often misguided, I do think they strive to take care of employees, at least on paper. -Excellent work/life balance. There is no “google culture” here and that is a great thing. Work stays at work and doesn’t go into dinner time. - Remote work is possible, although with great cost and turmoil (see below). - While they held onto the mask thing way too long, they did not require vaccines, and kept a lot of long time employees because of it. In fact, this is one of the main reasons I stayed. I would have left instantly if they had gone full-mental over that.
Cons
Sadly, the list is long and grows by the year. These are a few quick issues: - Pay is below national standard and many have (or are) considering remote work with companies in better markets. Yes, this is even after their supposed “reevaluation” that only targeted certain employee groups who were threatening to leave. Every other group was left out to dry. When people mentioned that, we were told in an all hands meeting to basically “quit complaining”. With inflation we have all basically taken a pay cut while the company soars to record profits. - Employee morale is at an all time low. Upper management either pretends it is not, or is misinformed by the middle management. Everyone one I talk to wants to leave. Most are hesitant because we have worked here so long we would lose vacation and benefits by moving on. The “newer” employees never stay long once they realize remote work opens them up to far greener pastures, and their solution to that seems to be “remodel the office into miserable little half height cubicles and put an arcade in” rather than focus on real issues. - Speaking of remote work, if you choose to utilize their “flex work” options, you will find your promotions and assignment to projects disappear overnight. They very begrudgingly OK’ed remote work. They hate it. I expect they will cancel the program soon and will see an exodus of employees like never before. If you have never been to Fort Smith, take it from someone who has been here their whole life: it will crush your soul and your career at the same time. There are no other opportunities here, and that is why they think they have you locked in. Don’t put yourself in that situation. Go to NWA or Tulsa or somewhere that you can have mobility, if only for value in a thriving market. - Management is stuck in 2005, when they were the only game in town and could treat employees like they had no other choice. Don’t expect it to change, as management is rarely chosen based on best fit, but rather on time served. There are exceptions, but those are usually nepotism or the buddy system. This seems counterintuitive, because somehow there is a manager for every 3-5 employees, but it is true. -There is a culture of retaliation if you do not fall in line with the corporate “Everything is great. Continue work now.” mentality. We put issues like this in the surveys and they are ignored. We talk to management or other vectors in person about it and we are retaliated against. They keep adding “Employee Experience” people who do nothing but act as cheerleaders and don’t care to get to the bottom of why everyone is so disgruntled. They are picked specifically to be “company people” with no interest in betterment. You could NEVER speak all of these issues to them personally. It reminds me of the military in many ways. - Benefits keep getting worse. They keep adding useless ancillary benefits and lowering coverage. ArcBest is self-insured. That used to mean something and be wonderful. These days, doctors offices around the area cringe when you tell them you have Choice Benefits, and you do the same because you know it will end up being a billing nightmare. The benefits department is full of some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced, and that is an employee-to-employee exchange! -MoLo integration is a nightmare. No one is quite sure who owns who at this point, but if they don’t rein it in quickly it is going to be very bad. Speaking of that, unless you are working on one of their new pet projects, expect to be of little value or concern to them unless they can fit you into some disgusting DEI initiative (we all loath your woke DEI nonsense and laugh at you because of it).