W.W. Grainger Reviews

Current Employee – been working at W.W. Grainger full-time for more than a year

Pros – They offer great benefits, you can get a consistent schedule with weekends off, Monday through Friday 7am to 5:15pm. They have dual annual reviews to help you know what you need to improve on to help with raises.

Cons – There are some people who seem to keep their jobs even though they are burned out and not working as good team members and pulling their weight.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at W.W. Grainger full-time for more than a year

Pros – Working at Grainger was a very good experience. The sales training in DPS was in-depth and applied to real world sales. The managers in the branches were great to work with and really helped with understanding customers tendencies. Fellow Acct Mgrs were truly there to help and did everything they could to help.

Cons – Immediate management's only concern was to increase their own political capital to further their own rise within the company. Zero concern for the well being of the Acct Mgrs assigned to them.

Advice to Senior Management – Everybody is under pressue to perform, however, if you are truly interested in increasing sales, the stick approach only works so far. Learn to work with your sales force, understand their strengths and help them utilize those strengths to achieve better sales.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at W.W. Grainger full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Top notch training, focus on doing things the right way, profitable business

Cons – slow to respond or react to market needs

Advice to Senior Management – Too many layers of management make it difficult to get things done

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at W.W. Grainger full-time for less than a year

Pros – company car to drive with a gas card taken only at certain locations

Cons – Hires unqualified managers, reporting to HR is a joke, hostile work environment

Advice to Senior Management – Screen yoour Managers better

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at W.W. Grainger for more than a year

Pros – Great opportunity to make money.
Great Benefits
A lot of good people.
Good Team Working environment
Company car and gas card

Cons – Low base salary.

Very unrealistic expectation to sell items ridiculously overpriced in comparison to every other MRO supplier, based on the notion of total value or value added when no such value exist or the value does not justify the ridiculous price difference.

Very unrealistic activity expectation. They expect you to meet with far more people they reasonably possible.

Although your manager may not ask you to work from home. He / she will assign work that would be impossible to preform during business hours if you want to be productive.

Lots of work, you will be working 80 plus hours a week.

Remember you are a sales person PEOPLE DONT LIKE SALES PEOPLE. YOU WILL BE TREATED LIKE CRAP. People will lie, hide and avoid you. People will waste your time, not answer or respond to your phone calls / emails. Cancal appointments without telling you, People will treat you badly like a bottom feeding parasite.

The very worst part is Managements ridiculous micro management of employees. There is a teleamatics system in your company car that allows your manager to track when you turn your car on / off, where you are at and for how long. Big brother watches you and questions every little thing.

Company Management manages in the "good ol boy" fashion. Similar to police officers, They take care of themselves, manages do and say whatever they want, with total impunity. Complaining about unfair treatment, abuse or any other negative action on your manager will result in immediate retribution. followed by frivolous accusations, write ups and progressive disciplinary actions for made up incidents until you crack and quit or they feel they have enough paper work on you to justify your termination.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop the Micro managing, senior management needs to not allow there managers to micro manage. Allow employees to be successful. Address employee concerns

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at W.W. Grainger full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good benefits, strong training, and consistent approach to selling.

Cons – Too focused on metrics and not on strategic consultative approach.

Advice to Senior Management – Allow more flexibility in weekly schedule to deliver on committment to be more consultative

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at W.W. Grainger full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – The only thing that is left is Profit Sharing

Cons – They don't care about the stores/counters anymore, we have lines of people but no employee's to help them. All the old time outside sales people have left, We even lost a few great managers because they were tired of playing the Grainger game. We have lost many internal employees, but that is kept quiet and they are not replaced. Everything is a secret, but employee's find out other ways, They treat up like we are stupid, tell us what to say and how to say it like robots.

Advice to Senior Management – Happy Employee's = Happy Customers! Go back to old school Grainger when there was fun and work at the same time.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at W.W. Grainger full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Excellent pay, focus on results, benefits are good as well. Focus on accountability across the sales organization.

Cons – VERY high stress level, insane hours, not much support for middle managers. Easy burnout role.

Advice to Senior Management – Provide your DSMs with the support they need to do their job. Stop the fire drills and the admin overload. Let them be in the field with their sellers.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at W.W. Grainger full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Grainger has a great people and resources to help you bring value to your customers. The benefits are good and for a distributor, they are great at what they do. Back orders and mis-shipments are an anomaly.

Cons – Change is abound on a regular basis so you better roll with it. Opportunities for advancement in sales are very few and far between. The company is heavily metric driven so you have to perform across all categories or management will find something to ding you on. It seems that Grainger is always trying to find a why to shape sales behavior by the incentives offered. The company is very goal driven and you judged fairly and sometimes unfairly due to your invididual performance to goal.

Advice to Senior Management – Account managers like incentives and want to make more money which is why they are in sales. Instead of finding ways to reduce incentives look for ways to bring more opportunities to the table to drive behavior. Also, remove the administrative roadblocks that inhibit sales growth. Bring on DSM's from inside the organization.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at W.W. Grainger full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great team, good pay and benefits.

Cons – Limited advancement opportunities for Team Members

Advice to Senior Management – Promote more from within

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company