Intense and Stressful but Amazing Stepping Stone
Pros
You will be working with some of the brightest and most intelligent people around. McMaster does a really good job recruiting. I was always impressed by those around me. The work-life balance is good. Once your 8 hours are up, you're done. There's no answering calls or emails outside of work. The pay and benefits are great. They pay some employee close to $100K a year to perform data entry. No joke. Insurance is completely paid for. Year end bonuses fluctuate but were always fantastic while I was there. They pay 100% of tuition and books, regardless of the degree, so long as the institution is accredited. I used the opportunity to get a Masters Degree in something I was personally interested in.
Cons
The work environment is stressful at best. The mindset is "we pay you well, so work for it." You're always behind on your work and will rarely catch up. As soon as you finish one task, three more are added. The work can be boring. As mentioned earlier, employees get paid to perform data entry 8 hours a day. In my capacity, hours were spent reviewing purchase orders for errors on a daily basis. It was a struggle to stay focused and motivated. Management can nitpick. There are no small mistakes. I was lectured for not signing internal notes correctly, told that I "needed to get it together." I showed up to work two minutes late (literally, not figuratively) due to traffic and my manager had a "sit down" with me regarding my tardiness. I understand being corrected but the severity of even the smallest sins led to an environment of feedback avoidance. People would literally avoid certain pieces of work if there was a high risk of feedback. Management mostly sucks. Instead of promoting from within, McMaster recruits recent college graduates from prestigious universities in order to be “Management Trainees.” They essentially climb the ranks from Trainee, to Supervisor, to Manager, usually within a year or two. As you can imagine, this causes a high level of resentment from longtime, established employees. I did not envy the added pay and prestige that came with the “Management Trainee” position. More often than not, I felt sorry for them. Most of these trainees fail, usually at the Supervisor stage. I think the average lifespan of a “Management Trainee” is about 9 months. As you can imagine, this leads to incredible turnover. In my 4 years, I had somewhere around 8 immediate Supervisors. They’re almost always newer than you and less familiar with the work but will be providing feedback within weeks. You often find yourself changing the way you work as you constantly cater to new audiences. It’s frustrating. There is an absolute lack of empathy. You’re given unlimited sick days but secretly you’re not supposed to take any. I took 4 in a given year and it was brought up negatively during an annual review. Around 10% of the workforce is fired yearly. In my first few months, 3 employee in my department were let go as well as an employee of 23 years from another department. It was very stressful, the constant fear that you may be next. You are never safe and the culture reflects that.
