Connection Reviews

Deep breath...The list of cons for this company at least for the Wilmington branch would be a novel to say the least. This company is like a depressing comedy in the sense that one minute you will be angry and feeling hopeless, and the next you will be laughing hysterically at how ignorant the people in charge are. Fake it til you make it is the motto and culture. The brilliant minds that run this company promise the moon during daylight hours and blame the lab when it doesn't happen. One of the most senior members of management reminds you of an angry frat boy that loves to fist bump. The nerve he has to tell everyone to quit complaining about overtime when we have been on mandatory for 3 months is astounding. He obviously has anger issues and im waiting for the day his issues manifest into a physical altercation. The tech labs stand in Leadership is always quick to throw any ideas that are not hers out the window that is if you can even get her to listen to you. She takes narcissism and controlling to a new level. The newer portion of upper management come from the automotive industry and instead of learning how this business runs they try to change the business into something they are familiar with. Management preaches "employee empowerment" but if you speak on anything you better believe a target is going to be on your back. This company also makes dumb mistakes like leaving a spreadsheet with all hourly associates pay unprotected where everyone could see it and by the way everyone did see it. You would think home office would notice that Managers and Supervisors are quiting at an alarming rate especially since one supervisor was a 30 year employee and another was close to a 20 year employee. Just last week a multi-person walkout almost occurred. Its companies like this that Unions exist which is why the employees are working on getting representation.

The C-Suite and Executive teams are weaponizing the great resignation. With almost 300 jobs open, they are spending time and money to take legal action against employees who stay in the industry, but leave Connection. Most if not all of these people were denied promotions, pay raises or career development despite being some of the best talent we had. After being here for years and building relationships with vendors, people who only make $60k are afraid to leave and get hit with a personal lawsuit. We give no reason for people to stay, then punish them when they leave. When the above is what you focus on, things like actual career pathing, education, diversity and inclusion are far from your priorities. As a result there is next to no diversity in executive teams and up. I wonder sometimes if Tim McGrath knows that women have the right to vote yet or that they aren't just secretaries anymore. Nothing changes or moves quickly here, the company lives and dies by the opinion of sales leaders who haven't worked anywhere but Connection for 30 years and have never been held accountable to change. I won't even start on the failure of an ERP system that makes it harder for everyone to do their job. Product Management and Marketing have become icky jobs to have here. When sales isn't able to move SKUs, product and marketing are asked to garner more dollars from their partners to recoup top line revenue and call it marketing investments. They'll be trained on how to keep a straight face when asking partners for $75,000, telling them their lack of investment is why their sales are down 25% quarter after quarter. And when that $75,000 has no ROI they'll again be trained to tell a partner why its their fault not Connection's. Partners who work with sales out of the system probably get better results with a $100 lunch with a sales manager. And last but not least, there is no investment in technology. It is why I think they aren't embracing remote work, because they won't invest in the tools and technology to make it work efficiently.