Pros
- There are a lot of great people here who understand what it means to work as a team, how to care about our clients, and care about clients' products. - Although the focus on natural/specialty has been a little deprioritized, we've helped bring a number of new brands into grocery stores. When I worked in-office, we sometimes got to be involved in product testing and frequently got samples of new products. - The company did a good job of taking care of us when Covid started. Getting set up to work from home has been a blessing. The supervisors I've had since then have been good at running remote teams. While many areas have shifted back to a hybrid model, I've been fortunate that I get to stay permanently work-from-home.
Cons
- HR department is overcentralized and understaffed. I've had problems I've had to find my own workarounds for because HR never got back to me. This is the first company I've worked for where I didn't have a direct contact person at HR, just an IT-style ticket system. - Pay is far from competitive. Management tells us this is normal for the brokerage industry, but I don't buy that. I've been promoted two or three steps up from the position I started at, and fast food workers at multiple chains in my area are paid a higher hourly rate than I am. The unwritten but oft-spoken rule is to get more money you have to get promoted. In the past 5 years I've gotten "merit increases" nearly every year for a total of 6% over those five years. As insurance costs rise, my net take-home has gone down every year. This might be the last year I can afford to work here. Most of the people I've known who have left or retired have done so largely because of low pay.
