Know what you're getting into - Manager McMaster-Carr Employee Review

2.0
15 Oct 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Great pay and benefits. - Some great coworkers. - Learn a lot.

Cons

- Very top heavy org. Doesn't really matter what you think or how good an idea is, if the higher ups don't like it (even if the reason is absolutely ridiculous, which it probably is), its dead in the water. - Favoritism. Hard work will only go so far, and there are people who are promoted that are simply not as good as others. The main way to get promoted is to be liked. If you are not liked by the right people, you might as well leave, even if your work has been stellar. - McMaster moves at the pace of a snail. They like to say they want to be sure, and I get it, measure twice cut once. But for McM, its really more like measure a million times and then call 56738 meetings to review the measurements, then get feedback from 6493720 people on the measurements and the meetings and then find 9472 scissors, review those in another 75973 meetings and then finally cut years later, when the change will have an impact that is nothing like the impact you first measured years ago. This type of movement in the organization creates a lot of hard work with nothing to show for it about 90% of the time and I found that to be reprehensible as a hard worker. This was the primary reason why I left. - The entitlement and overall demanding demeanor of some of the employees could suffocate you. Some people are just the worst here, and its worse here than other places because there's a weird sense of pride in working at McMaster (despite having done nothing new of note in the last 15 years). It is absolutely awful, and the second reason I left.

Explore other reviews about McMaster-Carr

5.0
14 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

At least in the Systems department, it’s a helpful and collaborative environment.

Cons

3 days in office and potentially long commute from the city

4.0
16 Jun 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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