Things started off great, as most would agree about their first year or so of working at Uline (with some exceptions). It's hard work, but that's not necessarily a con. They expect you to hit numbers and be accurate, which understandably, keeps business moving and customers happy. Cool. The number one most bothersome thing is micromanagement and new rules making our jobs actively more difficult.
1.Morale: Management in the warehouse is pretty much nothing but negativity. Even if everything is running smoothly, they'll implement a new rule to throw a monkey wrench in the works, then blast the employees in the morning meetings about not meeting the new rule. It's seems like all a big game to make us feel inferior and dampen our mood, even when completely unnecessary.
2.Contradictions: Management wants everyone to be as fast as possible, and make no errors, and be as safe as possible. All while building so much new racking and shelving in the warehouse that there is no room to even drive around on equipment with everyone without almost constantly getting into an accident. In the same breath, management will say, "stop at every aisle break" and "go as fast as you can always including cutting corners while picking" and "verify at location and take your time". You can't do all three, because you'll either get into an accident, make an error, or be too slow.
3.Nonsensical rules: As mentioned above, there is hardly any room in the warehouse, other than behind the wrapping equipment, to drive or park your equipment. Yet management insists it's more dangerous to pack your boxes and put shipping labels on your product in this area than it is "out in the aisles", where you're always in the way or at risk of being run over while on foot.
4."Employee appreciation": Basically a favorites club. If the manager doesn't like you/hang out with you, etc., you're not getting that promotion, winning that gift card, getting employee of the month, or any other perk. But you'll be the first to hear about a mistake, even if it is from a brand new rule you just learned about the morning of.
One month, I had the top lines with no errors and no callouts in the department, and they gave EOM to a guy that made an error. They once gave it to a guy that had a NO CALL NO SHOW. They say they are going to give gift cards to certain employees once a week based on simple things like picking up trash in the aisles, teamwork, being the last employee to leave, and not necessarily lines and errors because there are already two or three contests all the time for those criteria. Guess who they've given these gift cards to 4 weeks running? High lines with no errors people. Like why even say it's not and then have it be?
The bottom line is this: this is barely even 30% of what makes me mad to work here everyday and want to desperately quit, but I've kind of made peace with it internally and try my hardest to be a soulless robot every time I'm at work so that I don't scream out in frustration. People in leadership are rarely on the same page about issues and often feud about what is the right way to do things or not. Everything is the employee's fault and never management. I'm holding on for the bonus at the end of the year and then I'm out of here.
