If only they cared as much about employees as they do customers. - Business Operations Specialist/Customer Solutions McMaster-Carr Employee Review

Listen to the reviews based on type of position and branch you’re applying for. They don't transfer to other positions or branches as each department and branch are ran differently. The experience at this company varies SIGNIFICANTLY between management and non-management positions. I recommend trusting the reviews based on what you’re applying for and the location. The reviews are accurate for both parties but one level can’t speak to the other because the company refuses to promote from within despite it being brought up often by high performers and employees during blue sky/HR sessions as a reason why employee retention and satisfaction is low throughout the company. Unless you’re related to the owners (they're hired and promoted to Directors), ALL managers are hired externally out of college with no knowledge of the business. HR and branch managers have all said they don’t see this practice changing. Manager turnover is high because they either tolerate or hate it. Most departments get new managers/supervisors at least twice a year because they either quit or get rotated to another department. Key word is manager. There are no leaders at this company, as they are only here to micromanage employees. They simply tell you how many mistakes you made each month, put you on a performance plan if you're falling behind and disappear for meetings. The managers who take the time to get to know the employees in their department don't stick around long (I've seen MANY of those come and go during my 5+ years here) because the company wants them to focus on numbers, not developing their employees or relationships/morale. If you work in the office as non-management, you do data entry for 8 hours every day. Same predictable work day in and day out for as long as you work for the company. They like to say they hire smart people, which they do. But since they refuse to promote from within, they hire smart people to work until your soul dies and you eventually quit because your family finally convinces you that your mental happiness is more important than the above-average pay. They hire smart people to keep errors low and pay well in hopes of handcuffing them. “Performance reviews” are skewed in favor of the company. They are used to push employees out when they fall out of favor with a particular manager. As plenty on this site have said, the culture and work environment in the office is toxic. It’s truly something to behold because I’ve never worked anywhere where an employer is so disconnected from their employees' needs. Maybe that is intentional? Like many have said, employees are viewed as cogs in the wheel. The office is ALWAYS silent since they don’t encourage interaction which causes coworkers to feel disconnected to the peers sitting around them. Employees talk to each other via Slack as their means of communicating. My family even told me when they got to do the facility tour how strange it was to see so many desks without anything personal on them. This is because you're only allowed to have 2 photos on your desk, no other personal items. You can only work in an environment like that for so many years before you stop giving a crap about the company, owners and those in charge. They also encourage employees to report errors by their peers to managers and that creates really awkward relationships between co-workers. They move you between departments (no merit increases based on new roles or if you take on additional responsibilities). Very rarely is a move initiated by the employee. They have made some positive changes to their time off policy and schedule change requests in recent months, although there are still some major issues regarding transparency and the attendance policy. It’s completely up to HR as to how many unplanned absences are allowed before you’re disciplined instead of having a set threshold for all employees. When your company has thousands of employees, something as simple as that should be standard. It remains to be seen if the time off policy is a lasting positive change for employees as they have a long history of dangling carrots or promising changes that never come to fruition. Just ask about cross-training or office/warehouse split shifts. Long story short, employees wish the company cared as much about them as they do about serving their customer base. But they never have, and most who have worked here don't see that ever changing unless they're forced to. Rather they know who they are, the company's overall goal, and they don't want employees seeking careers. Simply paying an above-average wage doesn’t create a sense of belonging, pride or loyalty among employees. That requires work. Work I don’t think they’re interested in putting in. Get the money you need and get out before the skills and education you had when you started working here are considered outdated by future employers.