Nice Transition to Working in an Office, Poor Morale - Merchandising McMaster-Carr Employee Review

3.0
Oct 14, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They have great benefits, as everyone noted here, and are fairly generous with salaries. If you aren't used to working in an office or just got out of academia, this is a good place to start. There are a lot of different people working here, which means there's energy and the possibility to make friends with people you wouldn't otherwise meet. They're also big on work-life balance, which is important.

Cons

There's a sense when you work here that you're viewed as disposable. Nobody shows appreciation for other people, and the lack of transparency in the culture trickles down to management style which is often neglectful, negative, arrogant and strangely passive-aggressive (again, due to their insistence on a culture without transparency regarding where people move in the company, when they'll move, jobs that are available, expectations, etc.). This contributes to the very visible low company morale to which for some reason the management appears blind, often citing their great benefits as proof that they care about their employees. And perhaps they do care! But they're not great at communicating that appreciation on the small level. It's important to make people feel heard, appreciated and even rewarded for their accomplishments. But often management does not strive to do this. They don't promote from within, which is another major contributor to low morale, and instead have this highly dysfunctional system in place whereby they are consistently looking for the "Next Big Thing" and so hire all these 22 year olds with no work experience and poor social skills fresh out of a private school education that taught them they were part of an elite class of people, and then that attitude is reinforced when they are given high prestige jobs without earning them. I find that highly problematic, especially because there are many very intelligent, hardworking and socially adept people -- many who, additionally, had been loyal to the company for years and even decades -- that were treated as small dispensable cogs in the machine that could be moved around on a whim, and never because they were getting promoted. It's sad, and the company seems in denial of these injustices. And most people are afraid to speak out. Managers have even explicitly stated that they will not promote anyone to management. Why would think that was okay?? Why do you think that is even business savvy??

Explore other reviews about McMaster-Carr

4.0
Jun 16, 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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