Pros
Some decent brands within the portfolios. As “Breakthru” some more professional systems seem to be slowly trickling down to the local level from the partner companies.
Cons
Where to start- No leadership from top management. Mid level management too busy doing paperwork and fire drills for corporate check-lists to get out in the street with reps. Internal HR managers are the WORST. Completely unprofessional and no sense of respect or privacy for employees in middle to lower management or sales reps. Not knowledgeable about sales or approachable. A horrible and cringeworthy experience to deal with on a regular basis. Not good experience dealing with them in times of real need or legitimate complaints. The corporate level of HR at the very top seem to have a handle in their part of the country-but this does not trickle down on the local level. It seems local level HR managers only cater to the upper management’s wants. Fear from employees to speak up about policies. Talks of Unions or Unions being formed in some areas. Bullying atmosphere. People talk behind each other’s backs and have zero moral compass. Very threatening at end of month from management- who seem to sit in their ivory towers taking meetings and lunching all week and expect to know what is going on within their sales teams. We seem to be losing large brands every few months and upper management blames it on sales reps and lower management. Fire drills, politics, and old procedures/good old boys (and girls) from above and disrespect for most levels within the company/suppliers. Corruption from within on a higher level that made the news. Embarrassing to work for at times. Hard to move forward unless you are part of the good old boys club and do exactly what they want. Women aren’t treated the same as men - don’t have same opportunities. Sexual harassment has not gone away completely. Harassment is expected in this industry-but still wrong. Zero respect for sales reps which actually sell the brands. As they move up and make money, they are stripped of accounts to keep them at a certain level. New reps have little chance to succeed in this atmosphere -older reps won’t help to build them up. Training isn’t good for new sales reps because most of us managers are strapped to answering emails and texts about the next “most important thing” constantly during the day. Turnover for new sales reps and lower-level management is high. A lot of employees are in a constant state of looking for another job. Many sales reps have second or side jobs. 2 weeks vacation - yet held over our heads each year “dependent on sales”??!!!! Weekends at end of month and holidays held over our heads dependent on sales more so than any other company I have seen or heard of. Lower to mid-level managers salaries are not comparable with other companies in the industry. Struggle to survive paycheck to paycheck. Again, embarrassing to say when many other industry distributors and suppliers make far more or at least fair wages. (Most of us are hanging on by a thread hoping for an opportunity to move up or out.) Not enough budget/expense allocation/incentives for managers. Most incentives are used on top level management which causes even more disdain.
