Ferguson reviews

3.5

58% would recommend to a friend

(2,895 total reviews)
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Kevin Murphy

71% approve of CEO

57% positive business outlook

Ferguson has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 2,895 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Ferguson employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
1.0
Dec 22, 2009

Horrible

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Okay. I'm going to be as impartial about this as I can be. So instead of saying there are no pros and laughing as my response I am really going to try hard to think of a few things. One it's a half-way decent first job out of college (it beats being unemployed and homeless). It is a decent resume builder but once you build it up a little LEAVE, immediately. Also you have to break down the company (HQ) down by departments because some departments are "better" than others. Some depts. have pretty okay management and some have horrible management. But unfortunately even if you happen to work for a pretty alright management at the end of day even they are limited and/or powerless to make positive changes or do what they believe should be done or how things should be because they have bosses too and they want to keep their jobs. So at the end of the day it's rather irrelevant how "decent' your managment is because they still have to fall in line to the rest of the company's BS practices and philosophies (so i guess that really isn't a "pro" when it just cancels out.....o well I tried).

Cons

Boy where do I begin. First, low pay. With that said, I am a smart person with common sense, I know how little a hardworking grown professional person with a college degree is NOT supposed to get paid, so I'm not exaggerating when I say low pay. Next Ferguson is stuck in the 1950's, where technology and communication was nowhere near what it is today, therefore you had to work a billion hours to do the same work and stay ahead of the game. But in todays world with todays communication and technology a 45-50 hour work week is VERY unnecessary. Matter of fact scientific studies show that when human beings are mentally exhausted when working so many hours, end up being less productive. Another study shows, to create the same productivity from decades ago would only take a few hours today. Doesn't seem the company cares about these facts. Also without going into specifics, many of their business practices are flawed thus costing them money (especially in the long run) by this I mean continuing to use their 1985 Atari caliber software programs and also by having 4 people to do a job that it would take 20 people to do. Also ferguson lacks integrity. Instead of being straight up with their employees and communicate to us that it's tough times and we have to cut back to get through, they try to okie doke you. They come up with some overly complicated (on purpose) scheme about how they are going to change how they calculate and allocate leave hours (vacation, holidays, sick). And then literally say to you “but this is not about pay cuts”. Really?!? If you are FORCED (thats the key word) to work 9-10 hours you can't NOT give someone their 9-10 hours when they take a vacation or get sick. You are not allowed to get sick or you will lose money. This is also rather bias against women (mothers), sure if they are sick they could just suck it up and come in but if their children get sick they can't stay at home to tend to them without losing money. Lastly, lunch breaks. Sure you get them but it's not paid. If you take an hour lunch (because 30mins is just impossible, lets be real) it doesn't count towards your 9-10 hours that you have to work. That means you make it up at the end of the day.

2.0
Dec 22, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

the people, I have some great friends there

Cons

-they don't look outside their own company or the people who have been there forever for new insite or ways of doing things...outsiders (anyone who hasn't been there for 10 years or more) have nothing to offer, even if it is a better way of doing business. -leaders don't have a clue what leadership is, and just because they know the business doesn't make them "business leaders". -did I mention is was run by a bunch of good ole boys who think they know it all and since they know it all no one else must have a clue. What they don't get is that if they were that great they would have the foundation to weather a storm, but the house is a coming down! the work week, the lack of work life balance, opportunities, training is a joke and the favoritism all make for a ulcer in the making.

2.0
Dec 17, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The company really does make customer service it's number one priority. The showrooms are top of the line compared with other companies in the industry. Other facilities rate on par within the industry as well. It's a large corporation, which can also be a con. Benefits were very good when I started in the summer of 2007. You can live on the paycheck, but you won't be living lavishly and you do put in the hours for it. I really like the majority of the people I work with. Bi-weekly pay is nice (for hourly associates).

Cons

Overall, Ferguson is way behind the times, technologically speaking. When I started in 2007, they were still using "dumb terminals" (basically a screen and keyboard plugged into the network). I thought I had gone back to 4th grade and we were going to start playing The Oregon Trail. They have since removed all these and use PC's that have software to emulate the dumb terminals. So they are still stuck with the same 1990's looking interface. An SAP solution is inevitably coming, but should have been here now. The "sales-management trainee program" was not fast paced enough, nor did it have near enough sales or management training in it. Back to the earnings, they were okay at first working 50 hour weeks and being paid hourly. Your overtime is calculated into your figurative "salary", so when they cut you back to 45 hours a week, you can really feel that, half of your overtime is gone. We are mules that are fed every two weeks and we get a tiny carrot once a year, depending on how the company does overall. They recently cut back the 401k matching program to 50% for the first 2% you elect to save. Communication is a big issue from upper management down to the trenches. When I hired on everything was about employee empowerment. It seems like all the time I feel like any power I may have gets taken away. The outlook for future growth anywhere in this industry is very grim right now. Ferguson has let 10,000 employees go since I started in 2007. It has been a very stressful time, with everyone worrying about their jobs, not knowing if they may be next on the chopping block. To make this situation more stressful, during some of the "corporate right sizing", we had some of our customers walk into our branches and ask us (tell us) that our branch was closing, before the management team informed us of the situation. The overall management style I have experienced is that management tends to see employees as stupid and incompetent. Leading to micro-management tactics. The company also seems to struggle within the marketing department. In 2009, we came out with our first nationwide TV ad campaign to promote showroom business, not sure who picked out the story board back at HQ, but I was less than impressed. Overall feelings with my first job out of college experience so far leave me thinking, "is this what every job is like?"

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