Overwhelmed and Underpaid! - General Manager Fastenal Employee Review

2.0
Dec 30, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Weekends off -Nights at home -Insurance and Benefits -Meet a lot of people -Great company to teach you time management -Stepping stone for better opportunities

Cons

-Spread too thin, Too many jobs for a 2.5 man crew to take care of. Had to do: Sales, Collections, Deliveries, Inventory Management at customers facilities, Customer walk-ins, Phones, Emails, Weekly reports, Stock, Inventory, Cleaning, packing orders, Packing for Vending, Purchasing, Safety checks, Maintaining the building, Maintain vehicles. List could continue -If something was broke in the store, we wouldn't get approval to fix these issues. Lights were burnt out, No Air condition, Fork truck needed repairs. -Goals are too far out of reach. Vending, Actives, Sales, FMI, Government, Metalworking, Safety, Bounty........ -Salary, so all those extra hours are unpaid. -Repetitive trainings that are more that 3 hours away sometimes 6-8 hours away -Unpleasant emails daily from DM and RVP. -Changing the structure on the commission payout. -Not much advancement after GM. -Removed the assistant manager position.

Explore other reviews about Fastenal

5.0
Jun 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Management is good Hours are negotiable Time off is available Opportunities to move up always available

Cons

No commissions for part time

3.0
Jun 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lots of responsibility. Decentralized company, which can work in your favor.

Cons

Pay is low based on competitors. Politics, lots of it. Cost-centers everywhere. Everyone has to make money off the branches: the hub, NA, regions, support, etc. Being a GM is probably one of the hardest jobs. Your job on the lean team is to support NA and the branch. It is hard to fully support both at the same time. It is a balancing act that frequently is blamed on you. Frequently, your coworkers just want to put their name on your work and create problems because of their egos.

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