Cummins has shat out a little careers pep-talk called “Why a Career in Manufacturing Is a Smart Choice”. It reads like a laminated poster in a break room that reeks of burnt toast and HR’s sweaty desperation. Stability. Growth. Cutting-edge tech. Community. The whole motivational buffet, served lukewarm and slimy, with the company name stamped on top like a dodgy hygiene rating from a back-alley kebab shop.
Here’s the fucking problem. Cummins isn’t selling you a career. Cummins is selling you a steaming pile of bullshit. And stories are cheaper than decent wages, easier than actual accountability, and far less likely to come with a receipt when the whole thing goes tits up.
A Sales Pitch Wearing A Hard Hat
The piece is built like a recruitment funnel straight from hell. Generic claims. Warm, wanky adjectives. A gentle hand on the shoulder, whispering sweet nothings while picking your pocket. “Companies like Cummins” as if they’re just one of many friendly options in a big, bustling world of wholesome factories pumping out planet-choking diesel.
But Cummins is not “like” other companies. Cummins is Cummins. A global diesel heavyweight that’s been fined billions for cheating emissions, and now wants fresh bodies on the line while it bullshits investors about a “clean future” that’s about as real as a politician’s promise.
So when they say “smart choice”, the only sensible response is: smart for who? The execs laughing all the way to the bank, or the suckers grinding their bones to dust on the shop floor?
Stable Employment, Until The Story Needs Editing
They promise steady work “even during economic fluctuations”. That’s corporate-speak for “until the numbers twitch and we fuck you over”. Manufacturing is stable right up to the moment management discovers a spreadsheet and starts wanking on about “efficiencies” with a straight face and a pink slip in their back pocket.
And Cummins loves “efficiency”. It’s the word you hear a second before headcount becomes a problem to solve – like in their restructurings where jobs vanish faster than integrity in a boardroom. With North American truck markets in the shitter (as per their own Q4 bollocks), don’t bet on that stability lasting longer than a fart in a windstorm.
Competitive Compensation, Or Competitive Bullshit?
They talk pay and benefits like they’re handing out golden tickets to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Healthcare. Retirement. Paid time off. The kind of list that looks great on a webpage and means absolutely fuck all if you’re the wrong person in the wrong situation – like a woman getting stiffed on equal pay, as per their EEOC settlements.
Because “competitive” can mean two things:
- Competitive with the market (if you’re lucky and not in India grinding for peanuts)
- Competitive with how little these bastards can get away with paying you while execs like Rumsey stuff their pockets with millions
If you want the unvarnished version, you don’t read a Cummins blog post. You read the public record of what these pricks get dragged for when the brochure stops working – like those $77,500 and $87,500 payouts for pay discrimination. Competitive? More like contemptible.
Training And Development, Or Corporate Conditioning?
They promise “ongoing learning”. Certifications. Upskilling. Growth paths from shop floor to leadership – sounds like a wet dream for the ambitious.
Sure. Sometimes that exists. Sometimes it’s real. Sometimes it’s also a fucking leash tied around your neck.
Training is wonderful when it’s used to build people. Training is sinister when it’s used to build compliance, to mould you into a quiet cog that doesn’t complain about the fumes or the fines. When the culture punishes inconvenience – like disabilities needing adjustments – “growth” becomes code for “be useful, be quiet, be grateful, or be gone”. Just ask the folks they’ve screened out in lawsuits; upward mobility? More like upward fuckery.
Innovation, Except When It Gets Expensive
They proudly name-drop hybrid powertrains, fuel cells, sustainable energy solutions. It’s the shiny bit of the menu. The picture. The garnish that hides the rotting meat underneath.
But Cummins’ own recent reporting has included big fat charges – $458 million worth – tied to its electrolyser business inside Accelera. Strategic review. Reset expectations. Translation: the future is taking longer than the PR department’s cocaine-fueled promises, and the bill has arrived, courtesy of hydrogen hype going limp.
So when they tell you manufacturing at Cummins is “cutting edge”, ask the obvious question: Cutting edge of what exactly? Diesel that’s cheated emissions tests? Data centre back-up that’s propping up their failing green façade? Another pivot dressed up as progress while the planet chokes on their legacy of lies?
“Community” Until You Become Inconvenient
They sell teamwork and mentorship and pride. Lovely. It’s also the oldest trick in the factory playbook, right up there with “we’re all family” until it’s time to sack Uncle Bob.
Community is what they call it when you carry the load for peanuts. Culture is what they call it when you swallow your complaints about harassment or discrimination. Values are what they call it when you’re expected to endure things you wouldn’t tolerate in a fucking prison – like the EEOC cases where they’ve been nailed for treating workers like disposable shit.
And if you need adjustments, flexibility, or anything that disrupts the neat little fantasy? That’s usually when the tone changes to “you’re not a team player”. Not always. But often enough that anyone with a functioning brain should keep one hand on the exit sign and the other on a lawyer’s number.
The Bit They Never Put In The Brochure
No corporate careers piece includes the smell of diesel-soaked despair. The stress that grinds you down. The politics that stab you in the back. The burnout that leaves you a husk. The bodies that break down and get quietly replaced like faulty parts. The yawning gap between what gets promised in glossy blogs and what gets practised in the grim reality of fines, scandals, and failed futures.
Cummins wants manufacturing framed as noble and future-facing. A smart choice. A stable path. A bright horizon lit by the glow of their own bullshit.
I’m saying read it like you’d read a menu outside a dodgy restaurant. Big friendly words. Nice lighting. Then ask yourself what the kitchen looks like when nobody’s watching – probably littered with the bones of workers they’ve chewed up and spat out.
Because this is not just a careers article. It’s reputation control with a recruitment link, designed to lure you into the meat grinder while they polish their halo.
Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project