Pros
Good software. SAP, Blackline, Hybrid Schedule
Cons
Coremark has been purchased by Performance Food Group recently. They have gone from a four day close to a two day close. They have recently instituted a 4/4/5 accounting period where each accounting period through the year is not based on the calendar year 30 and 31 day months. The first period will be four weeks, the next period four weeks and the next period five weeks. This is repeated for the entire year, every third period is five weeks, all periods end on a Saturday. Because the company has found it impossible to close in two business days even though that is the requirement, the last weekend of the period is effectively used by everyone to work. It would be impossible to close without using it, in two days. In those two days, Monday and Tuesday, you will work until after midnight , everyone does, but you will also work the weekend attached to it. This isn't "explained" it is hidden in the interview but there are no accountants who don't use that weekend, it is simply impossible not to use it. So you get ten days vacation and you have a guaranteed 12 weekends you work. Atop that, there is excessive turnover. Out of about eight total in my division services accounting dept, I saw two quit in the three months I was there. There are over 1,000 total accounts to reconcile on Blackline so with the constant shorthandedness, be prepared to work reconciliation deadline weekend the week before month end, every month. So, you will probably work, 24 weekends a year. That is 48 days extra. Subtract your 10 days vacation and you will be at a negative 38 the day you sign on the dotted line. You do get to go home at five for your three days in the office but be prepared to log back on when you get home. You can look at MS Teams, your overwhelmed co-workers log off at 9, 10, 11 PM every night. There is a supervisor and manager there who worked together at a prior company and they micromanage. I'm a CPA with only two prior jobs in 15 years. I just quit and I never "just quit". After a long string of slights, the manager wanted to go through a week's worth of my emails together, at night during close, to make sure I had taken care of all my responsibilities, as if I were a two year old. That was the last straw for me. They are plagued by turnover and they literally make it like a running joke out loud, "please don't quit" but there are so many things wrong, people quit, constantly. If you want to work until ten every night, get micromanaged to the point of insult and work a guaranteed 12 extra weekends and probably 24 extra weekends, then this is the job for you. Oh, one other thing. You are supporting controllers all over the country and you are posting their JE's at close. You're not learning all that much. Close is so hectic, you don't have time to know what you are posting. The staff accountants reporting to the controllers around the country know three times as much as you will know, whatever your title. It is a 36 month old "Centralized Accounting" department located at Westlake. Several long time division controllers around the nation quit when this department was created and you have to walk on eggshells, concerning your email correspondence and what you ask or reveal to them. It is a real "darned if you do, darned if you don't" type situation. It is a flat department with no real opportunity for growth. Coremark is the number one distributer of cigarettes in the U.S., so their core sales shrink slightly every year. Not much growth or opportunity because their core business is shrinking. The company is also extremely woke, pushing LGBTQ awareness in the lobby, in corporate events, in signage "I'm an Ally" rainbow messages on every executive door, people walking around with rainbow lanyards around their necks holding their badges. I don't believe in discrimination. That being said, with men using women's bathrooms and competing with them in sports and beating them in their own sports and children getting surgery to remove their personal parts and "drag queen story hour" readings taking place at schools and libraries, this is a lightning rod type issue to basically put as the face of your company, every where an employee looks they see the rainbow, their emails get this message from HR. You either attend the events for LGBTQ awareness or, like me, pretty much let Coremark executives know you are not "management material", ever, with your absence.
