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Harbor Freight Tools

Engaged Employer

Harbor Freight Tools reviews

3.6

64% would recommend to a friend

(3,439 total reviews)
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Eric Smidt

68% approve of CEO

58% positive business outlook

Harbor Freight Tools has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 3,439 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Harbor Freight Tools 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
3.0
Jan 12, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

When HFT was in Camarillo under the old regime it was a bit unorganized but a great place to work with people that had been there since company started 1968. They offer 2 weeks vacation from scratch and good benefits. Pay is typically a bit low but one can quickly advance if working hard.

Cons

Now when company is in Calabasas it is more cut-throat and hard work. Most of the executives and many good-with-people managers were all fired to leave room for a new generation of outsourcing and cut-throat approach. Some IT people on salary were made to work mandatory Saturdays and long days without any extra compensation. You may have 3 managers in one year as people are getting hired/fired right and left. Some people were fired after 25 years without even a thank you.

3.0
Jul 19, 2014

A mildly irritating, and nearly adequate job.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Its a pretty laid back atmosphere, with a relaxed dress code. Some friendly managers or supervisors makes the job better. The fellow employees can be great and you can view a few of them as family after a while. Most of the customers are pretty good, you can actually stand around and have a conversation with them once in a while if you're on a roll and joking with them. As a sales-floor associate you generate a little over a week of paid time off a year, and 2-3 days of paid sick time a year. Low-end promotions are possible, as in it's not too hard to move up to a supervisor position, moving up to management seems near impossible. Training is quick, but not that efficient and ends up being a running joke between employees.

Cons

Scheduling is a nightmare. Every week you will have a completely different schedule, and so will everyone else except for whichever manager makes the schedule. Lots of favoritism. If one of your managers doesn't like you, and their closing with you, expect that you'll be cleaning the bathrooms. And it doesn't matter how long in advance you put in for time off, your not going to get it, and when you say you wont be in and you gave them plenty of notice, the managers treat you like the bad guy. But dont worry, your managers will change very few months. Very few last much longer than a year, or leave for somewhere else. Your pushed to sell warranties and coupon subscription plans. Whatever you sell, you get roughly 10% commission, but the only way to sell warranties is either getting lucky with a customer that wants one and will ask for it, throwing a lie at the customer and talk it up, or scan a coupon when their not looking and trick them into buying it. The supervisors and managers will tell you to use the coupon scanning method (cheating), but tell you to hide it. But if the district managers find evidence of the cheating, someones probably getting fired. You get yelled at if you don't meet the goals set for selling these things. I've heard the managers get some kind of bonus if the store sells a lot of these, so that's all they care about. The yearly coupon subscription (ITC's) are junk, and all the employees know it, but we still are required to sell these things, and most the customers who do buy it still don't even get the coupons that their paying for. Everyone always whines about the job, and there is a lot of people who will just stand around and do nothing. The companies name collection is a bit over the top. There a quota every week for how many new addresses and email address we have to collect as a store, and it's to the point, atleast at my store, that we pretty much bully them into giving us something or else their checkout process takes forever. The inventory system is a joke, and so is receiving shipments. Most of our freight guys are at court if they don't show up for work. I've been with my store since opening a little over a year ago, and sales on average has gone down, but people get about the same hours anyway. Base pay at my store is 9/hr. Asst Head Cashier 10/hr. Head Cashier about 11/hr. Assistant pricing coordinator 9.25/hr. Pricing Coordinator 9.50/hr.

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Harbor Freight Tools Response
11y
Thank you for your insightful feedback. We especially appreciate your pointing out the casual atmosphere and camraderie in the workplace. We hear that consistently and we're grateful that we can provide such a comfortable environment to our staff. That being said, we are concerned about your input regarding some of the procedures you shared and we urge you to reach out to your regional HR representative or anonymously call the HFT Outlet Hotline at 1-800-693-8377. Thank you, again.
1.0
Aug 21, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Salary is competitive and benefits are decent.

Cons

Poor leadership/management - the management are inexperienced and incompetent, they don't listen to suggestions well and keep making the same mistakes. It is also unprofessional of the managers to talk negatively and gossip about their own people openly to other co-workers and other departments. The managers also do not protect their own people, instead, they challenge and throw their own people under the bus in meetings in front of other departments. This is extremely unprofessional and poor management. Poor work & life balance - majority of the people work at HFT have no life, the managers expect you to work 24/7. You are asked to work at late nights, weekends and even holidays. It is extremely unhealthy and inhuman of the managers to ask their people do work such long hours. The workload is unsustainable. Not enough employee to support the quick growth and everything falls on you to complete. Poor workload arrangement - the workload here is not even. some people have a lot of workload but some don't. Again, the managers assign workload based on preferences, not what makes sense. Poor system and process - the company's system and process are very insufficient. Many people tried to change or improve them, but have not been successful.

Viewing 61 - 63 of 3,439 Reviews

Glassdoor has 3,486 Harbor Freight Tools reviews submitted anonymously by Harbor Freight Tools employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Harbor Freight Tools is right for you.