We're not saying don't go to work for GTM Sportswear, it's a great starting point for entering the workforce and gathering skills you can pay forward to other employers. Granted, starting wages are not all that and a bag of chips, but they are competitive with other town employers especially when you add in some of the perks of working for Dave and his cronies. If you make it past your probationary period, they have a self-funded health insurance package so any dings you take on future premiums are based on company health care history not the insurance company's health care history. Dave owns/partners with many local entities and you can get food discounts at many of your favorite eateries just by flashing your Employee ID badge. Are you paying top dollar for a full-privilege local gym membership? How about getting it for almost nothing? If you bleed purple, you will be buying all your K-State gear, in fact, anything that GTM sells, at an employee discount.
They have an EAP Program (but don't count on assistance you need not being grist for the gossip mill), a Wellness Program, and there are talks about an on-site Primary Care Clinic (we don't even want to think about the HIPAA privacy implications of on-site health care, but YOU should---see, there's that previously mentioned gossip mill and since this is a GTM run peripheral, you should be concerned about visiting the clinic too much as if you cost too much, you may be encouraged to leave the company rather than have everyone's rates for the clinic raised---See GTM is happy to hire paragraph below).
They offer a 401k plan on which the employer matches 6% of what you put into the plan. That's free money folks (you just have to stick around long enough [two years] to be fully vested in that 6%). And therein lies the rub. Sticking around long enough.
GTM is happy to hire on much needed talent at a premium price when the company is in crisis. Once you've solved their crisis, they no longer really want to pay you top dollar to retain you. In fact, they'd really prefer you leave and open the door to a cheaper employee. They will do just about anything to get you gone by YOUR choice.
- That flexible schedule you were promised on hire so you could work around your kids, family, other obligations? It will change if they want you gone and suddenly you will be working hours that require you to hire expensive child care.
- Your job description can and will change. Things that weren't your job will suddenly end up on your task list. And the fun-type things that you enjoyed doing? Yeah, someone else is doing that now.
- Your wages? Can change at any time. What goes up can come down. And there isn't a damn thing you can do about it except leave.
None of this is illegal in a right to work state. Unethical yes, but hey, no one has ethics anymore, do they?
As I recall, the 401k plan match was 50% on contributions of up to 6% of the employees salary (thus if you put in 6%, they would add 3% for a total of 9%). Did they change it?
ReplyDeleteWe've heard several different versions of what the employer match is on the 401k. Don't take what we've said as carved in stone because it may flat out be wrong, or , like many other benefits at GTM, it may be subject to change.
ReplyDeleteWorked there. Would NEVER work there again. I left after seeing many talented people fired for doing their job. One top manager seems to go after people if they question her/him about anything. So sad. It was once a really nice place to work.
ReplyDeleteWorked there from when the company numbered maybe 75 people total. Stuck with it through three or four construction expansions and numerous, not-always-wise department head changes in my area.
ReplyDeleteWalked out by my choice and I too would never go back. I'd live in a box in a highway culvert before they'd benefit from my sweat again.
It seems that they are even laying off their VP's by droves now. HR and Marketing within one week of each other. Does anyone else smell and acquisition on the horizon? Execs from Dance Depot tour in the last couple months. I suspect that there is already a letter of intent in place and they are cleaning up tying up loose ends before announcing the sale of the company. Dave doesn't have a passion for the business anymore. He'll take the money and put it into HCI (restaurants). His LinkedIn profile doesn't even show him as the owner of GTM anymore..it references HCI. It's pretty obvious that he is going to sale despite saying multiple times that he wasn't when they initiated 3XN4. I generally consider myself a good judge of character, and he convinced me that he was a man of character. Boy was I fooled.
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