5.11 reviews

No opportunities for growth. An ASM could work for 5 years doing the hardest jobs in the store (managing between poor store managers and employees who simply don’t care) and watch the district manager and higher ups choose someone random to now be your boss when you worked hard to move up. It was a struggle to make store goals with unattainable expectations for sales. Didn’t love that they tried to restructure the company to be more hush hush about the conceal and carry aspect of the products. Whenever an issue was brought to HR they very rarely helped in a way that held store managers accountable for poor scheduling/unrealistic expectations for employees/ harassment/ etc. the inventory was outrageous. Essentially employees could expect 20+ boxes weighing 2-60lbs of random products thrown half hazardly in a box. Then be expected to have it checked in within 24 hours and put into inventory and sorted then put out in the floor. Back rooms were hazard zones so packed full of boxes of products that customers weren’t needing. The women’s apparel barely sells because there are better women’s apparel for a fraction of the cost. The uniform apparel is much needed but the sizing and options were slim compared to men’s. One of the biggest issues was scheduling. 4 out of the 6 employees are key holders but only 3 full time positions available in the store. Most stores are only allowed 6 employees unless it’s a higher volume store but honestly it was rare to see more than 6 employees or have a fully staffed store. The hours offered to each store were unmanageable with only 6 employees. The pay before Covid was fair for retail however after Covid the higher ups wanted store managers to offer less with more work load. Pre Covid there was ship from store, but once it was rolled out employees were not given more compensation for more work. In fact this was a whole other ball game that had to be figured out. In 2020 the offered wage to just a part time associate was $3 over minimum wage. Now they only want to offer minimum wage. Which is not appealing when you realize McDonald’s pays more for less work with more flexible hours.

On the retail side: once you hit Manager, there isn't any more room for growth and moving into the other branches of 5.11 is near impossible (Sales, HR, Operations, etc.). Promoting from within happens, but is passed on often. It's a fairly large work load in comparison to other retail environments...be prepared to do visual merchandising updates a lot. The retail pay is also pretty far behind 5.11s competitors.