United Rentals Reviews

I have been working at United Rentals

Pros – United Rentals offers an above average compensation package for this area.

Cons – United Rentals promotes by who you know, not what you know. In most cases you will find management is promoted beyond his/her capabilities in all areas of the company. The constant change in programs signals weak management and popular opinion attributes the changes to "jobs justification" in a weak economy.

Advice to Senior Management – Upper management should focus on rental revenue & employee retention. The overall opinion in the field is that most long term employees will jump ship to the competition when the economy comes back. We believe taking more away from the employees while giving yourself more is doing nothing but confirming the greed. Mike Kneeland should remember us long term employees remember exactly where he came from and what he is about.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at United Rentals

Pros – Since branch employees rarely saw the District Manager or above, The Branch Manager made the atmosphere of the branch positive or negative. If lucky enough to get hired into the right branch location, the reasons to enjoy the job could be numerous. I experienced both. The team environment was attempted fervantly.
The compensation was perhaps the best reason to work for the company. The benefit structure was impressive and appreciated.The Benefits offered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield were second to none. Until 2009, the company offered fifty cents on the dollar match into the 401K plan up to $12,500 (I cant remember exactly).

Cons – Half of the contry experienced Seasonal Lay-offs. Lay-offs were announced on a moments notice leaving employees with no time to prepare.
The lack of contact from senior management left the employees thinking that the corporate office was acting under the "ivory tower" attitude. Even with the 'extrinsive motivation' fed by the pay and benefits offered by the company, the feeling of expendiblity and fear loomed in the atmosphere hindering the growth of the more productive 'intrinsic motivation' such as inner satisfaction or the genuine desire to perform the tasks. 'An employee is only as good as last month's numbers.'
Time is not provided to properly maintain the equipment as should be provided.

Advice to Senior Management – More interaction from Senior Management with "in the trench" employees. Remember that a corporate structure is that of a pyramid and the strength of lies at the base not the top. In order to see the strength of the pyramid, get down to base and see what's "really" happening.
The decisions implemented nationwide often discount that markets fluctuated regionally not nationally.
Remember that there is always a point of saturation; therefore, look for long term resilience rather than the quick dollar. Many families in several industries depend on you.
Power should not be left soley to the Branch Manager to give an employee who would qualify for a year-end performance bonus a negative review effectively quashing that bonus for the employee in order for the would-be bonus to be placed back into the "kitty" for the manager to benefit from.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at United Rentals

Pros – UR has a decent benifets package.

Cons – This company plays favorites and is extremly reactive. There is little to no forward thinking as far as upper management goes. The standard procedures seem to change on an almost daily basis, causing constant issues and disorganization. UR will try to hold employees that were "laid off" to the non-compete, eventhough upon that layoff you'll be told otherwise. There is nothing United about this company.

Advice to Senior Management – Uniformity among local branches and stop playing favorites. There may be a better person for the job than your best friend. If you want local uniformity try putting the right people in the job to begin with things like "Operation United" are just feeble attempts to promote unity. No one buys in to that.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at United Rentals

Pros – Not a bad place to work, but understaffed and over managed. Not much room for promotion in my branch. The good things are the vacation and the health benefits. 2 weeks vaca off the bat, 401k, which was just reduced. Vision and dental and good pay raises.

Cons – Please see above, i guess i should have looked first. No pay raises, market instability has been a huge problem with the recent down turn. The company micro manages you to death, and the 401K is gone. Massive lay offs in recent year and result as spead exisiting people so thin that it is hard to get much done with out being frustrated.

Advice to Senior Management – quit

I worked at United Rentals

Pros – A good overall benefits package

Cons – Good old boy atmosphere prevails, good pay raises given only to employes that are close friends of Management. Promotions, forget it! Your reward for trying to do a good job to the best of your ability will be getting laid off so they can replace you with somebody less qualified. You are given a set of rules to follow when inspecting rental equipment for reuse after it has been returned however these rules are often side stepped in order to get equipment back out and rented. These problems are just the tip of the iceberg.

Advice to Senior Management – Open your eyes to whats going on at local branches, there is so much favoritism going on between local managers and a select few employes that anybody that gets laid off or let go for whatever reason feels blessed to get away

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at United Rentals

Pros – At the time I enjoyed the opportunity of working for United Rentals. I feel the company was understanding of people with small children and would let my hours be flexible. Considering I was in sales it was a great opportunity to work on my time and essentially create my own hours. Most of the time they were very flexible in this area.

Cons – Working in sales with this company I sometimes had to work longer than normal hours for myself and with small children that became an issue.

Advice to Senior Management – I do not feel there is any advice I could give the senior management. I feel they are doing an OK job for the company and would not change anything.

I worked at United Rentals

Pros – Freedom. An outside sales person does not have to be confined in an office. Additionally, there is a considerable amount of opportunity to take time off to do things in one's personal life. Also, there is a fairly decent opportunity to make a fair amount of money.

Cons – Management is incompetent. There is very little upward growth opportunity. The customer retention rate is awful. Employees are not treated fairly or valued. I saw many employees fired without warning or reason. The pay is not sufficent to attract good employees and there is a tremendous amount of employee turnover. There is no loyalty, at all!

Advice to Senior Management – Fire Mike Kneeland. After that, I would put a very strong emphasis on actually retaining customers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at United Rentals

Pros – It has enabled me to further expand my skill set and knowledge base! I came to the company ready to work hard and let it be known that I was interested in growing and expanding my abilities. I talked at length with the leadership of my department regarding my interests. After working in my initial role for a year, I was able to successfully post for and move into a position with greater exposure and responsibility. The new role has proven to be challenging, but very rewarding! My continuing efforts to grow have been well supported by management.

Cons – The company benefit of college assistance should be expanded from assistance for an undergraduate degree to obtaining graduate degrees. Many of the corporate positions require a minimum of an undergrad degree so, this benefit really isn't useful to those who already have one. Also, a company of this size should expand the current vacation benefits to better align themselves with many other corporations who award more time.

Advice to Senior Management – There should be smaller group meetings held with Sr. Management regarding how groups of departments or specific departments are doing in addition to companywide style meetings.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at United Rentals

Pros – United Rentals has a national footprint and, therefore, provides opportunities for transfering to places in which you may desire to live. Also, the industry (construction) is pretty straight forward and often rewarding. It is a company that adheres to its own safety standards. I am thankful for the opportunity that United Rentals gave me in going to work for them.

Cons – True to stories I heard prior to entering employment with United Rentals, senior management had very questionable management tactics. My district manager at the time of my employment with United Rentals was a very callous bully. Though I interacted with him very little, relatively speaking, his influence was pervasive and created an incredibly disspiriting atmosphere, not just within my location, but also within the region. Before one interprets this as a single person issue, the head of marketing for the company displayed much of the same behavioral overtones. For example, more than once they came to my location and demanded off-the-cuff responses from our manager and sales staff in meetings with the entire branch in attendance (welder, yard men, mechanic, counter staff) to questions of internal financial roll up figures and competitors' daily inventory status that would require, at minimum, research and/or referencing reports. Mine was one of the better producing locations within the region and yet was still, in effect, gripped by fear. Additionally, the same could be said for all but one of the other district managers -- though much of my evidence for this is hearsay. I cannot simply write this off to United Rentals being a good ol' boys club, though there are a lot of those traits. I simply think that some companies are poorly run while others are well run. And, heck, maybe I just had a bad experience?! The biggest and best insight, in retrospect, that I received prior to accepting the offer from United Rentals is that one's success and quality of life with the company is largely dependent upon one's direct manager. Unfortunately, the managers across the board appear to be negatively motivated and they do not appear to be selected based upon their virtuosity by any means. While I am thankful for the opportunity that I was given to work for United Rentals, I am also very glad I moved on. I have never worked for a company that I ended up feeling so empty about in the final analysis in terms of the climate, direction, purpose, etc.

Advice to Senior Management – You have a very workable tracking and inventory control system and you have some good people in place, isn't it self evident that at some point you have to trust your infrastructure to actually get the job done. "Warm up" a little. Authentic internal goodwill does not have to be at odds with investors' profits and corporate success. Look around, the best senior managers in industry are those that are ethically accountable and socially disciplined. If this was a real open forum with Senior Management in the room, I would have tremendous scepticism as to whether or not it was even being heard.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at United Rentals

Pros – Good beneifits and generaly good people to work with at the branch level. The retirement plan is good as they match up to 3 pecent of your pay towards it. hours of opperation are also good .

Cons – Upper management is inconsistent with what they do or what they want and expect from the employes. There is never enough time to complete one job before something else is thrown at you and then they get upset that you could not finish the first project that was gven to you. There is to much bouncing around and no consistant leadership with in the company.

Advice to Senior Management – Be more consistent in what you do.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend