Night Shift - egos & nepotism

I'm not here to disagree with you but I am going to say that comparing to Allagash is a bit unfair. Allagash has purposely grown slowly and carefully whereas Night Shift has at the least not grown slowly (up until Philly they grew fairly carefully but still fairly quickly). Allagash has also only focused on being a beer brewery, they don't have other locations, they don't have a restaurant, they don't have a distribution unit, etc.. Even the best of management would have difficulty keeping a positive culture in that environment doing all of that as quickly as they are.

That's not a defense of Night Shift per se, its just something to consider. It would be surprising to not hear that they were having growing pains and that there were management issues. Other's have said "If you don't like it leave", I won't say that but I would say its time for the OP to determine whether the environment is fixable or not. Given that she's basically said Rob sucks I think its at least beyond fixing for her. She's already bitter about the situation and that's hard to get past unless she's willing to let the past go and try to move forward. Complaining on a forum only hurts the company, its not going to help the situation. The company is now on the defensive as opposed to looking to fix any issues that might exist. The options for the OP are to find another job, believe change is possible there and work to help that, or to live with working at a place she hates. I think most of us have spent time at a place they didn't like working at and have had to make one of those 3 choices.

 

I wouldn't say they're that comparable. A quick google search turned up these links (not sure of the accuracy of each one, but it gives you an idea):

https://www.allagash.com/blog/2019-by-the-numbers/

https://www.owler.com/company/allagash

https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/...t-expands-production-in-everett-with-new.html

Allagash has one location, and just opened a proper tap room with full pours in the last two years or so. A quick google search also estimated their employee total at about 122. They do produce more beer than Nightshift (for now, see more below) with about 100,000 barrels annually.

Nightshift on the other hand employees 220 people, with much more to come. They have two fully operating tap rooms, one of which has a restaurant. They also run a food truck, a roastery, and a distributing company.

They brew ~40,000 barrels annually, but the new Philly site will have the capacity for 200,000.

Also, Allagash in my opinion is one of the gold standards, if not THE gold standard in terms of how they treat their employees and their customers.

A better comparison would be Trillium, who has three separate locations, a restaurant...etc....and well, we all know their story...

 

Beat me to it by about two minutes...well said though (not just this, the entire post).

 

I’m not here to argue about the Night Shift to Allagash comparison, as it’s really not the point. The point is, if your employees feel unappreciated and undermined, then they are, and you as a company owner should be looking to fix that. The excuses about fast growth, multiple locations, etc are just that, excuses. Don’t grow fast if the upshot is not being able to keep tabs on your workplace culture in ways that might eventually blow up in your face. Again, I’m not able to say what exactly what went wrong here, only that something did, and it would behoove them to think seriously about how to fix it so it doesn’t continue.

 

Did something happen? As far as we can tell the company is doing great. And has no issues expanding and employing people.

If 8 people are unhappy out of 220, sure, you may want to look into it. But it could simply be that some people are just unhappy at some companies. I've had friends leave the same place I've worked at because they were miserable there. And would paint a completely different picture of that company than I would have, because I loved it.

If two anonymous people decide to air their frustrations on a public forum, but the majority of the employees are happy and the company is growing, who cares?

This is MUCH different than the Trillium situation. In which the stories being told were being validated (as much as you can on a forum) by other members of Beer Advocate, members who had been here for years. They didn't just join that week. In addition to that, Glassdoor reviews were also validating these complaints.

These were real, tangible complaints regarding employee wages. Complaints that were so widespread that they resulted in a Boston Globe article and real changes happening at Trillium. Even their sales suffered.

That's not what's going on here. And it's why this thread is only 4 pages. Unlike the Trillium thread which blew up to more than double this size within 24 hours.

 

Was just about to post something similar. There will always be unhappy people at great companies as well as happy people at horrible companies.

All that being said I do agree with @rightcoast7 that fast growth is just an excuse (assuming there is a widespread issue). Lots of times those at the top look at the destination rather than the journey. They see the success that all the hard work everyone is putting in to get to without realizing that most of the people working towards that goal really aren't going to enjoy the rewards once they reach that level of success. There are consequences to everything, if you are growing fast there will be affects on the company culture. Most companies try to combat this with more communication, which is great, but there also needs to be honesty and transparency. Communication is useless without honesty.

 

I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but Rob Burns is on the latest Brewbound Podcast. I wonder if anything like the issues mentioned in this thread come up.

"Burns shares Night Shift’s ambitions, including a $10 million bet on building a production facility in Philadelphia, how the 7-year-old company is juggling those projects, delegating responsibilities and much more on this week’s edition of the Brewbound Podcast."

https://www.brewbound.com/news/brew...ings-rob-burns-on-becoming-a-beverage-company

 

For sure so far doesn’t seem the same at all. I think the point is that 9 times out of 10 there’s no smoke without fire. Could these just be two trouble makers in an otherwise near perfectly run company? For sure. But I think it’s more likely that there’s something - at least to some extent - amiss, that management/ownership should proactively address - even if purely out of self interest

 

I definitely agree, something could be up. But also remember 9 times out of 10 the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

And so far we’ve (mostly) only heard one side of that story.

 

Don’t need reminding - from our exchange yesterday

 

Yeah, but I provided stats by saying “9 times out of 10”.

I forgot you had mentioned that. This thread is getting repetitive at this point. If what the OP says is true, I wish her the best of luck.

That’s about all that’s left for me to say.

 

The real world is at it is and will be after I'm gone, and after you're gone. The choices were, are, and will be three, to my way of thinking. My stupid boomer ass can be corrected by you if you disagree.

-Change the culture of an employer whose culture you don't like
-Find a different job with a culture you like more.
-Start your own business and institute the culture you desire.

So the problem seems to be that OP has decided to change the culture at NS rather than quit or start a business. As part of that effort he decided an effective way to do it would be a public airing of grievances to instigate public pressure.

Seems to be two main differences of opinion. First, the charges are being made anonymously by new members with zero cred whose accuracy/truthfulness is automatically in question. Second -The tactic itself is open to examination and criticism, as it has been here.

As a former company owner, I can say that an employee who did that would be an ex employee one second after I found out that they did that. Hurt my profits? Goodbye.

As a former employee who was always one of the best/most reliable at the job at I did, I can say that an employer who started treating me in a way that made my job too difficult for me would be gone after he treated me that way. Here's my two weeks. Goodbye.

 

You know, as far as the whole "boomer" thing goes, yeah, you're right, that sure fucking does sound like someone without six figures of student debt would say.

 

Is this disagreement? My sardonic/satiric meter might not be working. If this is disagreement, what are the options you think an employee has when the culture where the employee works turns out to be one he/she doesn't like?

 

What are you trying to say? Anyone with six figures of student debt has it by choice. Also, six figures of debt relative to starting salary ranges is relative. My debt out of school was 3 times my starting salary.

People generally have more options and choices to change their situation than they want to believe. The easier path is to believe you are a victim and not do anything constructive about it.

 

Uh oh. You called the she a he.

 

Isn’t the economy stronger than it’s ever been? And aren’t there more breweries in the country than there’s ever been?

I imagine it can’t be TOO difficult to find another job at another brewery. But I don’t work in the industry, and I’m not a 20 something looking for a job, so I obviously can’t speak from experience.

 

The notion that back in the day people had to walk to work uphill both ways in the snow has already been shot down in this thread. If one cannot speak from experience, please do not speak.

The economy is not stronger than it's ever been. The Dow is not a measure of the economy nor is the so-called unemployment rate, which does not measure real labor participation/employment (google that if you actually care).

By any legitimate measure (wages, wage growth, income inequality, infant mortality, life expectancy, incarceration rate, student debt/cost of education and the cost of health care) the U.S. of A is at the bottom of the barrel aged beer relative to many developed nations. Combine this with housing and transportation costs in the Boston area and workers are screwed.

I worked for Night Shift and the OP is correct. Rob, Ox and O’Mara, AKA “the founders” often choose to provide decent benefits. But because of a lack of management skills and greed, they have created unneeded disruption in too many employees’ lives. At this point the founders have the integrity and reputation of a Goldman Sachs mortgage-backed security from 2008.

 

So strong we might not survive it.

 

Great post. If I’m nitpicking you should have capitalized (no pun intended) “Founders”