Sherwin-Williams Reviews

Pros

Pay is very fair, ease of the job, low pressure work environment, lifestyle and family support.

Cons

catty intra-office relationships, favoritism, cronie-ism, nepotism, cliquey atmosphere.

Advice to Senior Management

Hiring friends and family will ultimately dilute your talent pool and stifle diversity.

Pros

Not bad for pay as a new ASM
Great atmosphere in store as a rule. Management deals fairly with subordinates.
ASM's usually have AWESOME schedules, IF the store has all the keyholders, managers and associates required. NO NIGHT SHIFTS!!! I was usually on the road home by 6:15pm.
Decent training program.
Ability to truly run your own store as you see fit. They embrace employee innovation to the fullest (usually).

Cons

Stress like never before! Expect to deal with 3-4 customers' orders at once, all of them on tight deadlines
Extreme level of competency required on all product lines. You need to learn to become a walking encyclopedia on the products and uses.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to ensure that the MTP's actually get the training they're supposed to get. I walked into my assigned store feeling totally unprepared.

Pros

great opportunity for promotion
one of the top 100 business companies to work for in the united states
great benefits

Cons

You have to work on weekends and only have one or two days off during the week.
Work on christmas ever

Pros

Flexibility of hours and scheduling. Direct manager always available and willing to help. very family type atmosphere, uppermanagement on the most part respective of lower employees. Well compensated, benefits second to none. Able to build and work territory as you see fit, not forced to go by script

Cons

Hard to return once you've been laid off

Advice to Senior Management

Find ways to rehire some of the dedicated employees that were let go due to loss of major account

Pros

Good training program
Good pay for starting out
Good quality of life

Cons

Crazy painters
Boring sometimes
sometime depend on a good sales rep to help your store

Advice to Senior Management

Treat employee like you want to be treated

Pros

I worked with people most of which became friends, management would respond in a positive way to any issues. They would come up with a new approach.

Cons

The reports that they wanted from you, got to be to much. they needed to do a better job of time spent on reports as compared to be out selling.

Advice to Senior Management

The amount time spent on paper work, was quite frankly too much. But looking at it from the other side I still loved what I did, working for the company.

Pros

Fortune 500 company. On a store level there our a lot of great individuals.

Cons

Sherwin Williams states it is a family company but we work a lot of crazy hours. If you happen to be in a small store your work becomes your life. Very difficult to transfer to another district. It is very difficult to move up the corporate ladder with this company.

Advice to Senior Management

Start including your front line (store employees) in decision making when it comes to best hours a store should be open for business. Not every market is going to be the same. A metropolitan area is going to be busy on a Sunday afternoon. A small town of 20,000 is people will all be in church on a Sunday. If you really want to compete with big box stores then do just that. Don't half attempt to complete. Small store being open an additional 15 hours a week is crazy. It is hitting the bottom line in a negative way.

Pros

O.K. pay and benefits. I enjoy selling to my customers the most and knowing that my paint company has the best products.

Cons

Unrealistic sales goals. Incompetent, narcissistic, management. Cookie cutter expectations with no true insight into individual market conditions. Delegated responsibilities override true priorities. No consistency with regard to sales strategies. Added responsibilities with no incentives. Staff shortages with regard to selling events. Holiday hours that are useless. Marketing is poorly executed and shallow in customer expectations with regard to price and performance. Soon to be extended hours. Political with regard to decision making and promotions. Poor work/life balance. Supposed "anonymous" hotline has embedded ties with management so that HR issues are curbed against employees before being neutrally addressed. If a frustration or complaint is brought to attention, it is interpreted as "whining", but if the issues are not immediately brought to the light, then you have a good chance of being "thrown under the bus".

Advice to Senior Management

Let's reevaluate the qualities that positioned this company where it is today. Let's look at other ways of employee retention besides paid vacation. We have families too. Look at overbilling so we can be more competitive - we want to sell as much as you do - most of us are shareholders too. Get rid of promoting by the "buddy system" and only hire by qualificational standards, instead of quotas. Listen to the people in the trenches, some of us know what we're talking about. Don't ask for improvement feedback, act like you're engaged, then throw it out the window. Talking out of both sides of your mouth only confuses employees - some of us can handle the truth, without gossiping to compete about who knows what's going to take place soon. ACT LIKE YOU ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYEES - NOT JUST IF A DIVIDEND WILL BE PAID OUT FOR ANOTHER CONSECUTIVE QUARTER. Sadly, no one will actually try to improve anything, we have created a workforce who spends most of our creativity trying to cover our butts. I once had a DM who said, "Don't stick your head up too high, it might get chopped off." Now I wonder if my free speech will create some sort of retaliatory attack due this posting, in spite of my anonymity.

Pros

Generally good in store co-workers (at least in my district), compared to other retail positions I have held. Customers are generally more engaging than typical retail drones.

Cons

In California, Sherwin-Williams stores are incredibly understaffed. Asked by district manager to increase sales when the store did not even have the capability to serve all customers well. Contractors/customers leave store because of wait.

Store managers and assistants are often expected to work 12 hour days and are forced to choose between taking a (legally mandated) lunch break and making sure the store stays operational.

Most managers quite young. All of the veteran managers in my district were hounded and asked to resign by the new, young district manager.

BIGGEST problem: that SW allow someone like our district manager to run a district.

Pros

The people who work at Sherwin-Williams are the most knowledgeable in the industry and love what they do. If you are passionate about this industry, it's the right place to be.

Cons

The employees are not compensated fairly according to their tenure and experience. I made the same as an intern as a guy who had worked there for 5 years and knew everything there was to know.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your people with the respect they deserve. Many employees put their all into this company but are not given the same in return.