The down sides to working with Irby under Sonepar are vast. The third generation of Irbys sold the company to Sonepar and Irby today is a very "clickish" company, if you can get in with those who consider themselves superior to everyone else you will do fine, if not you will be miserable. Favoritism is a huge problem in the company structure. The best jobs go to the younger employees and it has caused a huge divide among employees. Each month management sends out emails to pit the Utility Side of the Company against the C&I side by praising one and humiliating the other. Even though sales increase each year the employees costs of working there increase as well. Annually employees have to reach certain goals to get a bonus and raise, those are set at ridiculous levels. The main focus is placed on shareholder's earnings. Sonepar is an overseas company who came to America and purchased many of the Electrical Supply Companies which were long established. They are not employee friendly, if you look at their home page it states specifically that they are taking care of their shareholders (or it did the last time I looked). This means the employees rank just below customers. People who remain at Irby after many years are there because they have placed so much of themselves into the company for so long; they have their lives invested in the company that the Original Irby Men deserved to be rewarded with. They hang on until retirement now because it is hard for older employees to find jobs in America. A year of the 1Billion Dollar in Sales for Irby and Employee's were made to feel as if they had nothing at all to do with that success, in fact the portions of "benefits" they have to pay increased with no raise. Just because they say they have more sales than ever, don't take that to mean they appreciate the employees who got them those sales. The company takes away benefits frequently, recently they changed the policy on their medical leave to the point they took hundreds of hours from employees who had been there for many years and reduced them to two weeks maximum. Those type changes happen frequently at the new and much worse Irby under Sonepar.
