Pros
There is no after hours work
Cons
Getting the word out on how the "high standard" that McMaster claims comes at a terrible cost to its employees. The Offer The company supposedly use to have a very selective hiring process. It's no longer like that and internal recruiters reach out to potentiel employees and lie about benefits to lure them into accepting the offer. Half of what was offered either never was or has been taken away. Come to find out, there's a high turn over rate and people take the job because they needed any job, not because the company is a good place to work for and it's the better option. The Culture Micromanaging on another level. If that's the type of environment you can thrive and survive in, then McMaster is the place. Workers are tracked and monitored on everything they do. They track the amount of work pulled and how long it takes to do it. They track how long breaks and lunch last. They are not flexible. Breaks and lunch are scheduled and they don't allow them to be moved. It's a Big Brother vibe and they want it that way. They make it to where it feels like you can't even go to the bathroom break. They call them "Bio Breaks" and say that if they are "too long" it can interfere with productivity and HR could get involved. They expect employees to be in front of the computer and to only be away during the scheduled breaks and lunch. The company has fostered a culture of fear and anxiety and they don't care about the well being of their employees. In the office, employees are watched all day from being on the phone, stepping away from the computer, talking to other employees, etc. Employees are questioned based on the tracking, like why was there a 5 minute gap between work and what they were doing a month ago when their time dropped. Employees are constantly on edge but many eat it because of the end of year bonus, but that doesn't justify the robotic expectations. The company has taken many benefits way in the last 8 months. All branches follow CA law, even though CA law and policies are different from other states. So be prepared to work like they do in CA even if you live and work in IL. Work/Life Balance The company claims to take work/life balance seriously but if life actually happens, they don't make accommodations. Employees have to use PTO for everything and most people run out of it before summer. If you are a few minutes late into work or coming back from break, they want you to use PTO for the time missed. Branches are suppose to operate the some way but they don't. For example, some branches are told they can work from home during inclement weather and other branches are told they have to take PTO if there's inclement weather. This is if something happens during in office day. If an employee needs to be home during an in office day and is available to work, they make them take PTO. They would rather have someone not work for the day rather than have them work from home on an in office day. Which is odd because they tell employees not to talk to each other. They say it's "distracting" and interferes with "productivity" so they discourage socializing amongst employees. Questions must be entered into an internal program and someone eventually answers. They also want you to track yourself with an internal program. Employees are suppose to use it for any reason they are aware form the computer an not working. For example, the channel should be used if an employee spends a few minutes checking emails or if there are computer issues for more than a few seconds. A company email went out with a survey and the email said to not take the survey during work hour as to not interrupt the work day. There actually is no work/life balance at this company and they don't offer enough PTO for the strict rules they have in place. Leadership Leadership is a joke. The try to hire people from Ivy League schools and put them in a management program within the company. These people don't have any real world experience and it shows. They all follow the same script in the way that they "lead" and the way that they speak. Don't expect any support or 1 on 1 training. All supervisors read from the same script and I do mean script. They have literal scripts they study and repeat whenever there is a question. If you ask a question that goes beyond what they were taught in the management program, they just repeat whatever they said the first. They give feedback that's 1 month old and expect you to remember exactly what you did a month ago. If you express that the way they train and lead isn't conducive to the way you learn, they'll tell you that's just the way they do things. They will not adjust their approach to better suite the needs of employees and teams because that's not what they're "taught" The People People at this company are weird. It's hard to make connections with other employees because everyone has drank the McMaster kool aid. Everyone is oddly happy all the time, even when acknowledging that things are harsh and restrictive. Employees will tell other employees that people have "taken advantage" of company policies and that's why things are being taken away. Employees tattle on one another because everyone is afraid of losing their jobs. If you try to have an honest conversation with anyone about the company, they redirect you and tell you the company has a right to treat employees like children because of the pay but no pay is worth the blatant mistreatment. it's like Stepford Wives but in a corporate setting. The entire vibe of McMaster-Carr is "we know how bad we are but we could be worse" The company has a lot of good people thinking they can't do better than this place and that they will not make the same type of money elsewhere so people who stay, stay out of fear. The company is finding ways to cut cost and starting with employees.