It’s hard to decide where to start. This company is a derailing train, and they deserve every bit of it.
I implore you- if you are approached by a recruiter…RUN. They will promise you the moon- even put it in writing- and then not stand behind a single word of it.
The first giant red flag I encountered was when I was hired on and trained by a current outside sales rep. I was hired on and promised a particular territory and told there wouldn’t be a need for overnights. This was very important to me, as I have young children and don’t want to spend overnights away from them. I was promised a certain amount of vacation days, and was told they couldn’t put it in writing, but to just “trust” the regional manager. Being naive and trusting, I did. I also had a contract (which they call a PAF) with a projection of my sales over the next 12 months and told that was a “worst case scenario”. Well- after they finished my onboarding, they promptly fired the territory rep who trained me and then said - “SURPRISE! You get to absorb all of their territory as well!” It was never asked- it was demanded. My territory quadrupled and now included overnights. Not only that, but then they lowered all my commission percentages so that I wouldn’t make any more money with the additional territory. This was 3 weeks into being hired.
Fast forward, the regional who hired me on gets let go, and suddenly the vacation time I was “promised” vanished with him. This is my own fault of course-but even having text messages saying he would take care of it weren’t sufficient and Emser wouldn’t honor what he promised.
I went through 7 different bosses in a little over a year. Yes, you read that correctly. 7. That’s because Emser cannot keep good people. Out of those 7, all but 1 left on their own. I feel like this in itself is a giant red flag. Emser is a revolving door.
About 4 months in, and I’m realizing that the money I’m actually making isn’t aligning with my contract. In fact, I’m making about 1/3 of what I was told was the “worst case scenario”. When I approached my (new) boss about it, he told me to just keep an eye on it and they would make it right at the end of the year.
Fast forward, the company is chaos. As many others have stated, it is insanely antiquated. They don’t even have barcode scanning for the warehouse. They run the branches as lean as possible, which creates a stressed out and toxic environment at the branch level. Employees are afraid to take time off - and if they do miss, expect the branch to fall days behind on orders.
The corporate team, in one word, is incredibly toxic. Regionals gossip and talk about each other and other sales reps to other peers and us as sales reps. It is incredibly unprofessional and negative. They have multiple VPs (won’t name names) who have absolutely zero business being leaders. Many of these people (like others have stated) achieved their positions through nepotism and are not actually qualified for their roles.
You will be told to buy name brand purses and shoes and be criticized and ridiculed if you don’t. You will be made fun of, mocked, and openly humiliated because that’s all a part of their culture.
The company never has anything in stock- even items in their “guaranteed” builder program which leads to constantly angry customers. Speed to market is not competitive. Pricing is grossly out of line with competitors, and did I mention they don’t have a marketing department? Be expected to make and glue all your own samples! They don’t have formalized pricing matrixes - so be prepared to spend hours upon hours droning over excel spreadsheets making your own! If the odds aren’t stacked against you enough, throw in constant and incessant price increases (when competitors have none) and then not stand behind faulty product so we can make our customer base angry and lose 90% of the builder business.
Well- I patiently waited out my year, and at the end of it- my pay was off by nearly $40,000. I took it back to my boss and asked to have a discussion about it. Well, needless to say - I bet you can guess what came of it. Absolutely nothing.
I watched them lose sales rep after sales rep because of this exact same thing. You would think they would learn their lesson. You don’t mess with peoples money.
Emser is its own worst enemy. They have a grossly over-inflated ego and believe they are much more important to this industry than they are. They need to humble themselves. Fire the toxic leadership. They know who they are- they have HR folders an inch thick, but nothing will ever come of any of the complaints because they sweep everything under the rug.
