Sherwin-Williams reviews

Meetings with executive and upper-middle management have turned into bloodbaths. Worse yet, every new "tool" to put into our "tool box" eventually becomes perverted into some kind of dashboard for "leadership" to beat us over the heads with. Following up on the latter point, there are now WAY too many metrics to keep track of, without the added headcount to do it (reference absorbing Comex and remaining headcount neutral- thanks for that). We are essentially left playing Whack-a-Mole with whatever we feel is going to be senior leadership's flavor of the month metric. Metaphorically speaking, we are trying to fight a 21st century war using largely mid-20th century equipment. We are far from state-of-the-art and cutting edge, and capital budgets, relative to what should be or needs to be done, are prohibitive. Budget expectations and justifications have become dictated from the top down. Why are we still going through this process if upper management will not listen to the justification and concerns of the folks "in the trenches"? Legitimate concerns are being ignored or skirted because of folks being afraid of the word "no". I feel for those taking the helm over the next 3-5 years. I don't feel that they have been put in a position to succeed given the priority we have placed meeting the expectations of "the Street".

Sit down kids I got a story to tell you.....not to long ago there lived this company that respected its employees and customers. This company would bend over backwords to ensure the employees were happy because they knew this would lead to customer satisfaction. The shelves were filled, bathrooms were clean, warehouses were organized and believe it or not managers got days off and worked less than 60 hrs. Then one day an evil shadow descended onto the company. First, the tenured employees that helped build the company and could recall the good times were banished, replaced with jesters that think closing at 7 on weekdays and 6 on weekends, working July 4th and having 4 super sales opened til 8 is the norm. Next, the powers that be decided to attract more DIY customers. The investors loved it and cheered throughout the kingdom. But wait. How would these demanding, time consuming, 'me first' attitude customers be handled? With more employees you say......wrong. Staffs had been reduced to nothing but a skeleton crew. Who would have guessed that more employees were needed to handle not only additional hours and DIY but also deliveries, manual tinting of oil paints, custom matches, 100 gallon orders, 50 lead generation calls, etc, etc. Managers worked well into the night but could never get ahead. Finally, after months of working 15 days on 1 day off schedules, cutting hours while sales were up 30% to comply with obamacare, and spending less and less time with friends and families, people began to revolt the only way they new how, by leaving. 20 yr employee, gone. 10, 15yrs....you guessed it gone and gone. 5 yrs 7 yrs gone. The final chapters of this story are a long way from being written but I truly wish the best for this company. I gave my heart and soul for almost 20 years.