Oh my goodness! Where to start...
Safety-Simply put, this place is just dangerous! The ladders were very wobbly. Climbing up these ladders was a very white knuckle experience. When you position the ladder, it was hard to position it where all the feet would touch the ground. I brought this up once when the DM was in the store but all he said was that the ladders were "OSHA approved!" Also HFT is dangerous to your health. You will develop respiratory injections from all the dust and also stores are infested with rodents and roaches.
Merchandise-Simply put, these products are nothing but Chinese trash! Even the American flags are made in China. Yet, this company likes to flaunt their products as if they were top of the line, but at a lower price. They want to think their products are comparable to brands such as De Walt or Craftsmen. I remember several occasions where merchandise was recalled from the stores. Also big ticket items were often returned by customers the next day. If you were going to slap fake brand names on cheap imitations, come up with better names than "Chicago Electric" or "Pittsburgh Automotive".
Corporate/HR- Oh my god, these people just live in a world of their own! Every little detail is micromanaged. "Merchandise Management" is the most ineffective program I ever seen. When processing trucks, one person calls out sku numbers of the items to a person on the sales floor with a headset. The person on the sales floor relays how many of that particular item if any will fill up the space on the shelf. This is not productive at all. Even the slightest deviation will get you a stern admonishment from the Warehouse supervisor. I mean who cares how stuff gets done as long as it's done! More than one way to catch a fish you know. You may notice that HR may put a caring and compassionate face on this company, but that's all it is, just a face. HR does not care one iota about the employees and the our regional HR manager was very disrespectful and condescending toward employees whenever she graced us with her presence.
Work/Life Balance: Your life is expected to complete revolve around Harbor Freight. You will rarely get to leave at your scheduled time. In fact, you will often be there several hours after your shift is supposed to end. You will not be asked to stay over. Instead you will be compelled to do so. You do have PTO, which is nice, but don't expect to be able to use it too much, because managers tend to be somewhat "forgetful" On your days off you better be waiting for your phone to ring so your manager can call and beg you to "come in now"! If you're the type who believes a goodnights sleep is important, well be careful because you will be doing a lot of overnights, and don't be surprised to find yourself scheduled 9pm-6am and the be scheduled to come back in at noon.
