Terrible work environment and worse management structure, they pay well because no one would work here otherwise. - Anonymous employee McMaster-Carr Employee Review

1.0
Oct 10, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pay, bonus, and retirement and health benefits. They have good people here but it’s hard to find them and even harder to work for them.

Cons

Almost all the bad reviews on here are true. The positive reviews are either individuals with nothing to compare their experience to (hired directly out of school) or current managers, regionals, and directors trying to boost the companies rating. It’s not a dynamic company and it’s very inwardly focused. Culture, Managers, and Systems are all bad. The management development program is glorified by the allure of becoming an expert in different areas of the company. Wrong. You become a expert at McMaster systems which are all built in house and absolutely horrible to work with. The biggest problem is that the company give you little to no transferable skills to take to a job outside of McMaster-Carr. No matter what they tell you, 90% of management moves within the company are completely random and determined by the wizard of oz (no one knows!). Think long and hard before you work here. One more note on the Management Development program and hires: individuals with the title Management Development or “MD” are treated gold and everyone else has a small chance to be a “Supervisor” for life with little chance of upward mobility. PRO TIP: in your interview ask the average tenor of the supervisor position. This is first position you’d be considered as “Management” but really you just track time and do busy work.

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5.0
Jun 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Salary, benefits, coworkers, work/life balance

Cons

micromanagement at every level and job is boring at times

2.0
Mar 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good salary, guaranteed bonus, opportunities for overtime

Cons

Management changes constantly, managers are either fresh out of college or have never done your role or both, so I felt like I was managing myself. The metric standards are so high you have to essentially be perfect month after month. The standards are completely unrealistic, robotic, and leave little room for a bad day. There is PTO but you are only allowed to take it if there are “available hours” for that day - everything is about capacity and squeezing out as much work from as many people as possible. Taking time off affects your metrics for the month, which I did not know until after I took my first week-long vacation - they are always looking at your performance in terms of the past year, so I had to try to overwork and correct the bad month I had, when in my opinion your PTO should be completely YOUR time and have no adverse effect. Mentally and physically strenuous, whether you are on the warehouse side or office side - go to the bathroom too many times in a day and it will become an issue - they expect you to be glued to your desk/post. Like I said, no room to be human.

7
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