Business Operations Specialist - Business Operations Manager McMaster-Carr Employee Review

1.0
Apr 26, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Company pays 100% insurance premiums. Pay is decent. Gives an end-of-year profit sharing bonus (from one to five month’s salary, depending on company performance and employee tenure). Pays 100% tuition, including books, for any class at an accredited institution (i.e. MBA, PhD, cooking, etc).

Cons

Supervisors micro-manage; they obsess over, and penalize for, every tiny insignificant detail. However, reviews are highly subjective. If the supervisor likes you personally, you’re gold; if not, you’re out. The only ‘feedback’ you get is negative, because the company doesn’t waste time telling you what you’re doing correctly. They tend to favor negative reinforcement policies. Communication is terrible and inconsistent, and the rules seem to change every few days. Only those who are 22-25-ish, and from “prestigious” schools, get to be supervisors and managers (what they call the Management Development (MD) program), and even then, you must be recruited into this program as an external applicant. All others: give up any thought of being taken seriously or being promoted. You are expendable, as evidenced by the revolving door of new hires and fires, which makes it difficult to keep up with who still works there and who doesn’t. Reality: those who have advanced degrees and/or real world experience are placed in line-level positions and supervised by the aforementioned 20-somethings. Promotions from within (for line-level to management) are exceptionally rare. Open supervisor/management positions aren’t posted, so you can’t even apply for them. The company decides who it wants to be in those slots (from among those in the MD program), and usually with only a one-day notice. Line-level employees are often moved from department to department with little or no notice, and even within departments, employees are moved from supervisor to supervisor. Since each supervisor is different, it’s very difficult for an employee to adjust to the new style. They have no idea what the word ‘leader’ means, and really no idea there’s a difference between managing and leading, but that’s what happens when you put 22-year-olds in charge who have no real world experience. I’ve found a high degree of arrogance among many of them. Office employees aren’t allowed to decorate their cubicles (with the exception of a calendar and maybe one personal item), so you can’t tell if someone is just gone for the day or doesn’t work there anymore. Warehouse workers can decorate their lockers. No 401(k). Instead, company pays into their own fund for you. This sounds great, but you have to work six years to get vested, you can’t add your own contributions to it, and you can’t roll over a pre-existing 401(k) into it. If you aren’t hired into the MD program, using the benefit of 100% tuition to get an advanced degree won’t help you get promoted out of line-level. It’s ironic they’ll pay for your education, but won’t let you do anything with it. Many people use McM to pay for their degree, then quit and put it to use at a better company. Overall: toxic work environment and terrible corporate culture, which starts from the top. It isn’t worth selling your soul for a few dollars. Definitely not a good long-term career, unless you want to be bored your entire life. The short version: Run away. Run far. Run fast. I’m doing my best to provide an accurate review based on my personal experience, but if you doubt me, check out the hundreds of other similar reviews. I agree some may be sour grapes from disgruntled employees, but we can’t all be making this up. Note there is a big difference between reviews from line-level and management, as well as the different locations, which department you’re in, and who your supervisors are.

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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