Fastenal Reviews

Pros

Great pay
Flexibility
Enjoyable work
Great coworkers
I have enjoyed my time working at Fastenal as a part-time sales associate.

Cons

Not enough hours
They are VERY strict about giving part-timers a max of 18 hours a week. This is great if you are a student or work two jobs because they are really flexible with those 18 hours, but even if a full time position does come up, you have to apply for it and compete for it with everyone else and in my case, I lost the position to somebody else.

Advice to Senior Management

Give part time employees 25 hours a week. That's 5 hours a day opposed to 3 or 4. This would give us a lot more time to get things done and if the full timers needed the extra time out on the road making sales (making money) then they could do that without having to close the store front.

Pros

For a part time position Fastenal Sales Support has really good pay.
Managers are flexible with the work schedule
Coworkers and managers are friendly, respectful
Casual, laid back work environment
No weekends

Cons

Only 18 hours a week limited by corporate, so despite good hourly pay it's not a big paycheck.
As someone who knew nothing about construction/industrial equipment and fasteners, it has been really hard to learn much about the products since there's rarely any time set aside for these things.

Advice to Senior Management

To attract and retain better people for part time and influence them to move to full time positions, allow them to work more than 18 hours a week and provide more product training/classes in the beginning. It's tough for full time sales people to stick around the store long enough for new employees to feel confident in product knowledge since they are motivated to go out and make sales calls so new part time employees are thrown to the wolves early without knowing much which can hurt sales.

Pros

There is good pay for someone in college. You learn a lot about the industry (construction and industrial). You also can get an inside look at outside sales because you work closely with the sales guys. You can also make contacts with vendors.

Cons

Some of the policies aren't common sense. The hiring practices aren't good either. They promote from within but it is really hard to pass the test. I see very few women who are outside sales. They implement practices where it takes us twice as long to do the job as it did before.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more friendly toward the women workers who work there, when it comes to family and advancement. Think more about the new practices you implement in stores and how they will affect the workers who have to do the job.

Pros

With their excessively high turnover, it's always easy to find some part-time work in a down economy.

Cons

Working 55-60 hours/week for $30k/year is insulting. The board is constantly looking for ways to increase productivity and reduce labor costs. My margin/actives/scorecard/freight/sales have always been in the top quartile yet I ranked in the bottom 10% of earnings for professional salesmen in my city. Commission is a pitiful 3% on new, 1% on existing. Used to be 4/2% but some director must have wanted a bigger yacht.

A few years back, they shifted many costs of business onto the DMs. DMs then began low-balling pay for all employees, cutting part-time hours, etc. They did this so they could earn bigger bonuses for running lean. No store doing over $250,000 should have only three employees.

One DM I had would send 5-10 emails daily about how our margin/freight spread/actives/growth sucked. By month end, we'd hit our numbers and get a single line of congratulation followed by more hammering. "Good job on actives but now we need blahblahblah"

Advice to Senior Management

Reinvest in your employees. Wonder why turnover is so high? You continually change the pay program to the detriment of your labor. I was with the company for close to a decade. Only took about two, three years of OSP then GM before I had enough (worked PT all through college). Scrap the Christmas gift. A $5 box of bulk-purchased junk food is insulting, also. Just give the employees' a $10 bonus on their check, its better than that farce.

Pros

I like the people I work with in my store
I love the people that are my customers
Good training programs
It emotionally bothers me that I cant think of more.

Cons

Where do I start - I HOPE CORPORATE READS POSTS OFF THIS BOARD SO MAYBE THEY CAN SAVE THIS COMPANY.
-I have made this company a lot of money . I have landed vending machines and web actives and new accounts and worked my ass off. So far I have received a towel, an extremely crappy christmas package that only included junk food and commissions that allow me to barely pay my bills at the end of the month. If you live in the city good luck getting by. This job is not easy and requires a lot of knowledge and experience. Where is the incentive to work harder. Everything I have read on this board is extremely accurate about this company. Its not just employees that got fired. This site is full of employees screaming for change in this company to make it better like the good old days when Fastenal was great. Everyone was happy and dedicated and stayed with the company longer than a year or two back then. Now the turnover is so rapid that its like a revolving door. I have been with the company for a year and am the last one standing here in my district. Everyone has quit and moved on because its soooooooooo bad. Its hard to work for a company when greed is its driving force. Its hard to work for a company when you cant take care of yourself. Its hard to work for a company that likes you one week and the next you are afraid of getting fired. I have witnessed these emotions being expressed by many employees not just from my region but from many others. This company has become so cheap towards its employees that it forces them to buy their own uniform at a price that the company profits from. Perhaps it's because corporate knows employee turnover is so high they aren't willing to even buy their employees a shirt......SAD
"ITS PEOPLE ARE THE MOST VALUABLE ASSET OF EVERY COMPANY" I wish they understood this

Advice to Senior Management

People first. TAKE CARE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES BETTER. OUR COMPANY HAS GROWN TO WHERE IT IS BECAUSE OF THE HARD WORK OF ITS EMPLOYEES NOT YOUR SHAREHOLDERS. PEOPLE ARE REALIZING THIS COMPANY IS ROTTING FROM THE INSIDE OUT. MORALE IS AT AN ALL TIME LOW AND WE ARE LOSING MANY EMPLOYEES THAT HAVE BEEN WITH US FOR MANY MANY YEARS DUE TO ALL THE CHANGES IN PAY, INCENTIVES, AND CULTURE. FASTENAL IS A GREAT AMERICAN COMPANY AND THIS IS WHY I AM WRITING THIS. I FEAR THE FUTURE IS UNCERTAIN UNLESS EMPLOYEES GET BETTER COMPENSATION AND TREATMENT. Last year google gave its employees a huge bonus on top of their great salary....must be nice. Grainger gives their employees great christmas packages....must be nice......Home Depot gives their employees a great christmas bonus............WE GET STALE CANDY AND A LETTER. THANKS, WAY TO SHARE THE LOVE.
-DO YOU HATE US?????????????

Pros

A lot of new people to meet, always busy, and pay was decent.

Cons

horrible management, treated like trash, and never get a chance to prove yourself.

Advice to Senior Management

needs improvement.

Pros

good training
sense of independence when out in the field
resume builder

Cons

micro managed
no work/life balance
revolving door
low pay for industry standards

Advice to Senior Management

Your outside sales people are the life blood of your company. Don't bully them and treat them with respect. Try promoting people who are actually competent at their job rather than your frat buddies.

Pros

good people at the branch

Cons

hard to get noticed for promotion, upper management only acts like they are involved when they are really not

Advice to Senior Management

-if you want sales, actually help with customer support

Pros

training and looks good on your resume

Cons

micro managing, underpaid compared to industry

Advice to Senior Management

relax and pay more if your going to keep raising the goals

Pros

No weekends
Some freedom in choosing your schedule
Gas card and use of company vehicle
Get to meet lots of people, and see some neat things

Cons

Where do I begin...

Low pay for the amount of hours you work if you're full time (50+)
Management makes backwards decisions
Micromanaged to the max
Constant pressure
No appreciation for the job you do

Advice to Senior Management

Stop shoving the vending machines and website down our throats. Here's another thing, while your employees work hard all year, how do you reward their efforts? By sending them a box of candy on Christmas. Wow thanks! Nothing says "Happy Holidays" like stale Twizzlers. And while we're on the subject of bad rewards, Fastenal has it's first $250 million dollar month, and you send us beach towels in the middle of October? Have you lost your mind? Would it kill you to send out a $20 dollar gift card to Applebees or something decent just once? Upper management wants more, more, more. When the economy improves, look for a mass exodus of people leaving this company.