Poor management. - Anonymous employee McMaster-Carr Employee Review

1.0
23 Feb 2010
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Mcmaster and Carr has good pay and great benefits it is a clean place to work and you dont work on weekends.

Cons

Favoritism and micromanagement are at the top of whats wrong first if you are not friends with a supervisor or manager you will not advance. Second work performance means nothing in getting a raise its based on the opinion of your manager not the work you turn out thats what you are told by management. At any time you will have 5 to 6 supervisor's in your department alone telling you contradicting orders what a mess that is. I was once written up by 2 supervisor's for the same error whats really crazy is that I was on vacation that week when the error happen I could have lost my job unless I proved that I was not there it was a 3rd supervisor that made the error. The worst thing is Mcmaster will hire a new manager with no experience and they will call them MT (manager trainees) unsted of promoting from within. In 3 months these MTs will be telling you how to do your job that they cant do themselves.

Explore other reviews about McMaster-Carr

5.0
14 Jun 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 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.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All