Pros

A good place to start. A lot of the people at HQ are very nice.

Also ~~ if you live in Winona, then where else are you gonna work, right?

Cons

The pay is terrible. I have worked with the company several years, and done a good job with one promotion. One would expect that my pay may have increased, but no, since so much of my salary is tied to a bonus I'm down 20% year over year. When you are unhappily making only around $30 K to start with, that hurts. There is no way that people in such a low pay bracket should have so much of their pay at risk (but what am I talking about, there are no pay brackets... you have no idea what anyone else in your type of position might make). Particularly at headquarters where your connection to sales, and therefore a bonus, is minimal at best.

There are no regular employee reviews. I am convinced this is so they do not have to face the prospect of giving someone a raise. I know people that have gone 6 or 7 years (that is not a typo - seven years) without a single raise. All good employees to boot.

It's hilarious to me because Fastenal sells its customers on "service" and how you have to pay to get good service (which is why their prices are so ungodly high, and regularly increase). And then they pay their employees s**t, with no raises/increases, and expect to get top notch performance.

Granted, the recession has made it worse, but come on. Our sales might be down, but we're still turning a profit.

Advice to Senior Management

The only advantage Fastenal has at a corporate level is a monopoly on corporate jobs in the area. Winona is such a small town that you're hard pressed to find another corporate job within driving distance. Plus with three colleges in town, cheap labor is easy to find/replace.

Fastenal's leadership needs to realize that they can't keep screwing people over and expecting it not to bite them in the a**. The only people they hang onto are the ones that are tied to the Winona area for some reason (family, etc) or the ones that are so unemployable they can't get a job anywhere else. All the talent I have known at this company eventually leaves for better pay. I will soon be one of those ranks.