Pros
I am and always will be extremely grateful of the opportunity and responsibility that LS gave me with virtually no experience. I guess you could say the fact they hired me shows the inconsistency/problems of the company (they already fired my replacement), but they gave me a chance to be a manager and a recruiter for one of their largest facilities and I was quite successful thanks for my efforts and the managers I had around me. We actually hit service numbers the branch hadn't hit in years, and I had the opportunity to (successfully) recruit drivers for the grand opening of a branch which will probably be one of the most satisfying accomplishments I have in my early career. The managers I worked with did really care about the success of the branch, and took every left turn that the corporate office threw at them with a grain of salt and figured out how to make it work. I know have a full time career in the recruiting industry, and it would have been a tougher road if I did not get this opportunity.
Cons
There are so many it's insane. Every review you read where they say the place is an unorganized mess it true, so I won't even get into that. The company put its branches in a position to fail time and time and time and time again, I could write 10 pages of scenarios when corp decisions would set up branches to fail. The pay is jokingly low. As I said in my pro, I was a one man recruiting team for a huge facility and 3 departments. We also went through route expansion into the states surrounding my branch AND opened up AND recruited for a new facility, and never once got paid (or any recognition) when I went from doing my job in 1 facility to 2 (and 1 state to 3). There were staffing recruiters at agencies that made a larger base salary than me (not including their commissions), and I was a recruiter, compliance manager, scanner inventory and troubleshoot go to person, did orientation of all new drivers, and helped in day to day operations... The pay was a joke and it basically sets itself up to be just a springboard job to a better opportunity because of this. I usually worked about 10 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, which I didn't mind completely because I am not someone who hates to work, but it is draining to say the least. My other huge issue, and one of the reasons I dislike this company to the bone, is the separation between the corporate office and the branches. I don't think I will ever interact with an entity WITHIN MY OWN COMPANY that treated the other like the problem child (corp view of branches) in my entire life. Anyone you would speak to at the office (minus the tech guys, you were legit), would speak down to you and talk to you like an idiot. I had a corp accountant tell my branch level regional manager, who is too many steps up the ladder to count, that he was lying about an issue we were having, without doing any research it was just "you're lying that would never happen"... Are you serious? I had risk management talk to me like an idiot more times than I remember, and basically every time you interacted with them you knew you were going to be treated like an idiot. It's obvious corporate has created a culture that it is there to police the branches and everyone at the branch level is incompetent. And finally, the biggest reason I left the company and never for once looked back (they could offer be 100k a year and I would decline) is the leadership (director and above). They are the biggest group of failures I have ever seen try to run a company. And what makes this boarder line sickening, is they keep getting promotions or raises since they have no real type of owner or board that wants to make significant changes. You would see reports sent every day of EVERY SINGLE BRANCH failing so hard, and these reports were consistent long before I was there and continued after I have left. My branch had about 8-9 months of running extremely well (I was there for about 1 year), and that made us 1 of the 3 branches that were successful day in and day out. There were about 12-15 branches I think, so everyday year round over 75 percent of their branches were failing. Failure of this scope would seem like changes would need to be made at the decision maker level right? Wrong, the decision makers would continually fire GMs, OPs managers, demote regional managers like a revolving door... If you are in management your life expectancy is about 1 year because you will eventually be the fall guy, it's just how they operate. I think I am one of the few who left rather than got fired. The decisions they made on daily basis (lets push pull times back, increase volume by 4k and give branches 48 hour notice... Lets get a new client that requires team lifts because the packages should go freight, and hey lets not tell anyone at branches about the sheer size and the issues it can cause. This did happen). The leadership is just SO bad it is such a joke. Their decisions were so bad and elementary it was beyond comical. I have no proof or anything, but I would put my life savings that they have attempted to recently cut driver rates again with the logic "hey gas prices are down, we can pay drivers less!" It is such an elementary level of thinking it is comical, and none of them have successful logistics experience. I met the CCO and was hoping for a great speech about how he worked his way up the ranks and helped make LS into the large company it is today... Instead I got a story about a failed waiter or something who had a terrible time at the peace corps and then got a job with LS since he went to the same school as the owner... and 2 weeks into working they offered him a seat at the board... are you effing serious? One of the high level executives, what a joke of an individual. He attempts to run a whole company on fear... So the 2 weeks he is at a branch he threatens to fire everyone, doesn't say hello, sit on conference calls all day, and just waits for opportunities to tear into you. Lather, rinse, repeat. Not one person I ever met respected the guy, so when he would leave a place it would fall apart because he could not gain the respect of even the entry level people who worked at the branches. He was a walking caricature. I wanted to help the company because of the opportunity my managers gave me, not one ounce of me (or anyone for that matter) wanted to do things for him. Leaders are supposed to light a fire inside of people to do better, he almost created the opposite. His fear tactic may have worked when he ran 1 branch, but he will never successfully run anything with his leadership skills, traits, and education. It's just hilarious, because while the place was failing he got promoted to his current position and now the entire company continues to fail day in and day out... I wouldn't hire him to run a corner store, and he is in charge of a regional shipping carrier. He has absolutely no skills to lead and making the proper adjustments that are needed with running such a large company. I think he knows it, which is why he acts the way he does, so desperate to hold onto his title (and salary) that he will upend anyone to go through anyone to hold onto it and use his status to deflect blame on the people below his level and make every position a revolving door. Losing clients, losing revenue, and I bet him and the other decision makers are thinking who they need to replace to turn it around when at the end of the day none of them have made a positive impactful decision so many years. The company will never run properly, and maximize their profit, with the decision makers they have in place (director level and above). I thank the company for the opportunity, and also the fact the I will probably never work for such a terrible company the rest of my career.
