Hello, my name is Aaron Yount and

I'm a recovering Artco minion

That feels so good to say.

My ears were burning today

So all day I was wondering why my ears were burning and then I read that previous comment from Aaron Lerwill. I've never met Aaron L. before but from the comment he left I feel Artco is in decent hands or at least someone who can write well.

Now that Artco (management) knows of this website I wonder how long it will take before it's mentioned in a management meeting. Maybe they'll invite me to speak in one of their meetings. That would be funny.

Spread the word about the site. Posting is completely anonymous and management will NEVER know who said what... well unless you go and say your name of course.

Artco Speaks

Below is a comment that was posted a moment ago.  I extend a welcoming hand to Aaron Lerwill the HR Director at Artco and invite him to post on this blog instead of just comment. Aaron email me at aaron@letstruck.com and I'll get you set up.

Here is the post :: Please be kind everyone at least Aaron L. is trying to make things better.

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You are correct that Artco is not closing. It is true that a lot has changed at Artco over the past 2 years but we are making progress financially. I firmly believe that we have very good employees at Artco and I have the best intentions in wanting to see our employees succeed in their role. 

It was a great thing to see all our employees get pay raises again. This was a priority for us and it did not put our company at risk because we did this. It had been a long time for some employees and we were happy to be in a situation to bring this back.
It is also true that we are very focused on performance management. We need our employees to perform at a very high level and in order to grow our company and serve our customers, we will continue to have high standards and hold people accountable. We will not apologize for expecting our employees to perform at a high level but we also realize that we have to do a better job as management to provide an environment where you can be successful. We should never stop working on that goal. 
We DO NOT HAVE A LIST OF EMPLOYEES that we have planned to terminate nor is termination a priority. We want people to perform at a high level and help our organization be successful. We hope that every employee will make this decision and continue to work here. We have never looked at our employees who have been here 10 years or longer and said we need to get rid of them. Our long term employees are valuable and can help our company continue to succeed. Whether someone has been here 1 year or 20 years, if they can perform at a high level, we want them here. If they cannot perform at a high level, we will do everything we can to help that employee get better. If they improve, we all win but if they do not improve, we have an obligation to address that situation as well. 


I really appreciate all the comments that have been posted on this blog and it has helped me understand some of the areas that we need to improve on as a company. It has also shown me some employee perceptions that we need to address because there is a lot of false information posted throughout the site. I will try and help clarify this information going forward, both on this site and through our employee communications.


I truly do care about the opportunity and security of our employees. I am always willing to listen and respond to your concerns without any retaliation,


Aaron Lerwill
HR Director at Artco

Is Artco Closing? First let me say I have no inside information. but just being a good observer of the way things are moving one can deduce certain things. 1st I do honestly believe that Artco is not closing. 2nd There has been way to much money and time spent in keeping the doors open, now that is not to say that the company is strong and that everyone that is working there will stay working. In my opinion if you have been working at the company for longer then 10 years. there is a fair chance that you have been put onto a list of good worker that the company will want to replace with cheaper labor. When it has been said in meetings that the company is not closing they can be honest about it. They just never finish the statement, but you wont be here.

We have seen the constant change pushing the employees to shorter hrs. Most of productions areas are constantly having to explain whatever hrs they are using to produce the orders. Can anyone really remember seeing a Full time Permanent job posting. not very many have been posted in the last year. there has been several part time temp or part time permanent.

Many workers were lucky to get raises this year, that is awesome and I do not say that lightly. What I also do not say lightly is in the meeting with the president he told us that we would be getting raises. About 5 minutes later he explained to us that he company would be loosing money this year again. We should end up being down only about 10 % from last year The budget was reflecting that but because of the raises payroll would only be dropping 1.89%. Now I may not be a math genius but if you have 100 people working for you and you give 60 % of them a raise your payroll is going to increase. only way to reduce it with giving raises is to cut hrs, people, or both.

Each Year, Month and Day the directors, managers and supervisors are being told to cut , cut , cut. If they can't do it to the point that is needed then someone else will be put in that place to make those cuts. so back to the beginning, Is Artco Closing? Artco is not closing, but you may not be here. This is my opinion and I hope I am proven wrong.

big guy returns, morale takes a nose dive.. and no not talking about "Obama"

Wow the big guy is back, for just over 24 hrs before calling us all together and telling us we need to check our own work. Like we don't any ways. He is tried of checking for mistakes on our orders. Tired of mistakes still happening I am guessing, humm he's checking and mistakes still happening, have to get back to that one later.
Just remember everyone. "The whippings will continue until the morale improves"