Culture of fear and intimidation...be prepared to sell your soul. - Warehouse Distribution Specialist McMaster-Carr Employee Review

2.0
24 Jul 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The pay and benefits cannot be found elsewhere

Cons

First, practically no one wants to be there, only the money keeps them from leaving. Absolutely no leadership in any areas of the company. They lead by intimidation and you never really know where you stand unless you have a talent for sucking up. You are either meeting expectations or not, but you will never know what those expectations are. And if you do, you are bound for the door. The mid level management positions are filled with people with fancy degrees from prestigious schools that have no bearing on the work to be done. They claim to want people that are free thinkers, able to make decisions on the spot. This cannot be further from the truth. Usually a director has to approve any vacation requests, regardless of what you are told. Under no circumstances are you allowed to think for yourself. If you do, you are an outcast. But, if you're the type of person that needs to have your hand held and be told what you should be doing every minute you are there, you'll really like it here.

Explore other reviews about McMaster-Carr

5.0
7 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Salary, benefits, coworkers, work/life balance

Cons

micromanagement at every level and job is boring at times

4.0
16 Jun 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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