Super Antiquated for a Comm. company, unequal pay for women - Comm Customer Service Representative Graybar Employee Review

3.0
Oct 25, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefits, opportunities to make extra money with bonuses, etc. There is always free food and treats around from vendors. You may get to go to a fun conference and get wasted for days in a row!

Cons

This is definitely good old boys club. Management is predominantly male, and male coworkers in same job with less experience than me had higher starting salaries. You are expected to go out and drink with clients and vendors all the time, if you don't it is frowned upon. You have to give up a lot of your own social life for this after hours stuff , yes its great to drink and eat for free but it gets old after awhile. Mine was an open office with no cubes, you can hear everyone! I had to get under my desk at times so people could hear me over my loud blabby neighbor. Super weird phone queue system is not even a queue, the receptionists look and see who is at their desk and not on a call and they transfer to them no matter if it's not your client. Other offices constantly transfer to you and you get a horrible connection. You have to deal with whatever client you are handed as a Sales CSR even if the client is not yours and you have no idea what they want. Oh BTW: SUPER CRANKY UNREALISTIC CLIENTS!!! "What you don't have 100 of something that has only been ordered once in the last 10 years??? You need to call the vendor and see if they can make this product for me because it is so old?? I needed it yesterday!!!" If you are contemplating being a CSR find out about the office, their policies and the phone system. You have been forewarned.

Explore other reviews about Graybar

5.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Strong department leadership in current role

Cons

Many senior team members with decades of stored brain knowledge that is hard to share

3.0
Apr 6, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many opportunities to learn about distribution and management. Pto is three weeks per year plus holidays and over a s Week of sick time. If you work here longer, you can buy enough company shares to receive a sizeable dividend each year. You are allowed to buy about 5% of your salary in company shares per year and then receive usually 20% of that back per year. The profit sharing plan contributes 10% of your salary to your 401k account but you need to be vested to keep it all.

Cons

You will need a second job to live. Sales reps make way more and do half the work but they report to their managers much more. If you are a CSR, sales people feel entitled to treat you however they want and their manager will back them up. You are watched by coworkers and management like a high surveillance prison especially when you're new but they will leave you alone if you're good at your job after a year or so. Graybar brags about how much revenue and profit they make but middle and upper management suck it all up leaving scraps for the workers who made it for them.

1
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All