Horrific HR/Holidays/PTO/People policies - Operations Generalist McMaster-Carr Employee Review

1.0
6 Nov 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Money ONLY. Benefits & money is all.

Cons

Literally everything else. No promotions or opportunity for growth. Nobody cares about you. Super weird and toxic company culture. One way this shows up over and over again is in the new HR/People policies they've implemented over the past 2 years. They’ve automated all their people management systems which are totally rigid and are unable to make simple accommodations such as to swap an hour to go to a doctor’s appointment, or switch a holiday so you don’t have to work on Christmas. The holiday policies are absolutely offensive. Our overnight shift workers are expected on Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning. Then they “get” to take their Christmas holiday on December 26th. How nice. Same thing for Thanksgiving. They work all night through Thanksgiving morning, (when to sleep then?) and then “get” a holiday the day after. (Not helpful). These types of nonsensical people practices show up time and time again, yet no matter how many times we bring it to management’s attention, they make no changes. It is truly demoralizing, offensive, and hurtful to the workers. They feel alienated and disrespected. Whereas previously we used to feel a connection to McMaster and a responsibility to have our employers back (because we believed McMaster had our back), we no longer feel this way. McMaster no longer has our back, and everyone I know now stays only for the pay and benefits. It’s sad.

Explore other reviews about McMaster-Carr

5.0
14 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

At least in the Systems department, it’s a helpful and collaborative environment.

Cons

3 days in office and potentially long commute from the city

4.0
16 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Pay/benefits are incredibly generous - People are generally easy/nice to work with - Note that the Systems department seems to be fairly isolated from the negative issues discussed in other reviews (e.g. tension between warehouse workers and management) - I haven't experienced any of those issues within the systems department. In my opinion, Systems is a great place to work and develop as an engineer. - Hybrid work style (3 days in office). Personally, I like hybrid more than both fully in-office and fully remote styles. - Great cafeteria with good food and cheap prices. - Good work/life balance (outside of being on call, I can leave work at work).

Cons

- Work is not super interesting to me. I come from a highly technical, but very different (not ecommerce/industrial supplies), background where I was doing work I was much more interested in. No doubt there are folks in Systems who love the domain though. - While I'm not on call a ton (1-2 weeks every few months), I really hate being on call. I like to leave work at work. Note that joining at least one reliability team is expected within your first year or so.

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