The NOT SO Great Lakes ROC.
I used to love working for Brenntag. Years ago, people genuinely cared about each other, worked together, and treated one another with respect. There was a real sense of teamwork and understanding between departments. Unfortunately, over the last 4–5 years, the culture has changed dramatically. Now it feels like everyone is constantly at each other’s throats, and one department in particular seems to create the majority of the tension: Product Management. Instead of collaboration, there’s constant finger-pointing, blame-shifting, and intimidation directed toward other teams. Brenntag’s response to the worsening morale seems to be surface-level “culture initiatives” — little get-togethers, team lunches, and meetings designed to make it look like leadership cares. To be fair, some of these events are organized well and almost make you believe things are improving. But within days, it’s back to the same toxic behavior, the same hostility, and the same departments being treated like punching bags.
Working in Customer Service, I can honestly say the only departments that consistently treat people with respect are Operations, Warehouse staff, Pricing, and Purchasing. Those teams understand the pressure everyone is under because they’re in the trenches with us every single day. We’re all trying to keep impossible workloads moving while dealing with constant firefighting.
Meanwhile, Product Management behaves like every issue is someone else’s fault. Customer Service processes 300–400 orders a day, yet if ONE order has a problem, Product Management is immediately looking for someone to blame. Instead of approaching issues professionally or constructively, they often bully Customer Service, Purchasing, and Operations over every little thing that goes wrong — even when the issue is outside of those teams’ control.
The pressure and hostility have gotten so bad that Purchasing has lost FOUR out of FIVE stock buyers in just the last six months. That alone should tell leadership something is seriously wrong. People are leaving because they can’t handle the unrealistic expectations, nonstop firefighting, low pay, and toxic treatment from other departments.
Two former buyers specifically called out Product Managers in their exit interviews. To name names: Julia Carrao, Chad Peters, and Lesley Burchett have created an environment that many employees view as outright bullying. Spending even five minutes interacting with them can leave you feeling belittled or stupid simply because you don’t know every detail they know. There’s a constant attitude of superiority, as if everyone else is beneath them. Gail and Scott are the only ones that see us as equal.
Honestly, it feels more like high school than a professional workplace. Product Management acts like the “popular clique,” while everyone else is treated as expendable support staff. And bringing concerns to leadership feels pointless because management appears more interested in protecting relationships and appearances than addressing the actual behavior
