Honest Review - Anonymous employee McMaster-Carr Employee Review

1.0
Dec 7, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Salary is decent for the position, and the health insurance is pretty good too. Tuition reimbursement is really great with no strings attached.

Cons

Unfortunately, there are more cons than pros with this company. The old saying that summarizes how I feel about the company is, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." It's true what they say in the other reviews. I've seen plenty of people come and be forced out of the company. Some were with the company for well over 10 years. How is it possible that an employee who has been performing great for over 10 years suddenly does not "meet expectations?" One of the many reasons is that there is a new supervisor in your department that thinks they know how to do your job better than you. The culture here is very very strange. It feels like every position with the exception of management is in some way afraid they may lose their job. You won't last long if supervisors or managers don't like you. Even if you do your job well, they will be a minor flaw that becomes exaggerated into "unacceptable." There is less than a 2% chance of upward mobility in the company if you either did not work for Teach for America or have any teaching experience.

Explore other reviews about McMaster-Carr

4.0
Jun 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Pay/benefits are incredibly generous - People are generally easy/nice to work with - Note that the Systems department seems to be fairly isolated from the negative issues discussed in other reviews (e.g. tension between warehouse workers and management) - I haven't experienced any of those issues within the systems department. In my opinion, Systems is a great place to work and develop as an engineer. - Hybrid work style (3 days in office). Personally, I like hybrid more than both fully in-office and fully remote styles. - Great cafeteria with good food and cheap prices. - Good work/life balance (outside of being on call, I can leave work at work).

Cons

- Work is not super interesting to me. I come from a highly technical, but very different (not ecommerce/industrial supplies), background where I was doing work I was much more interested in. No doubt there are folks in Systems who love the domain though. - While I'm not on call a ton (1-2 weeks every few months), I really hate being on call. I like to leave work at work. Note that joining at least one reliability team is expected within your first year or so.

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