A terrible company to work for! - Quotation Specialist Graybar Employee Review

1.0
26 Apr 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Not Many pro's, basically it pays the bills.

Cons

This company is all about upper management, making big bonuses on the backs of hardworking frontline customer facing workers. When times get rough, they ALWAYS cut the workers, never management. During this Pandemic Crisis, they went thru every district and eliminated over 200 + positions. In doing so, they eliminated jobs of long time producing employees forcing them into forced retirements in most cases on a service pension that one cannot live on without another job. In my own situation my job was eliminated, and the reason " It's a numbers thing", this is unacceptable! With the economy dead, and without access to one's 401K or profit sharing without having to absorb penalties,this leaves people in extremely tough situations. Then after they eliminated positions, they issued a company wide furlough. Now, forget about the Pandemic for a minute if you can, Raises better be happy with 1 & 2 %, when health insurance, food, and gas prices go up this doesn't cover it. And don't get paid over scale for your position, else HR steps in and eliminates your position. When coworkers screw-off on the clock, with other coworkers to the point where it becomes disruptive, nothing is done about it; at times for hours on end, as I witnessed multiple times. When coworkers watch movies on the clock, or surf the web on their cellphones nothing is done. When it's brought to management, nothing's done to correct it; rather they hide in their offices. When customer orders get screwed up during order entry, Management argues to the defense of the error, not the individual who didn't follow instructions. In all, this company used to regard it's employees as an asset; NOT ANY MORE! Frontline workers are simply Grunts who are expected to generate huge sums of profits, while management keeps getting wider at the beltline. They have a lot more Chiefs than Indians! My friends and customers, used to refer to me as "Mr. Graybar!"; if I ever hear that statement again I will blow a gasket!!

Explore other reviews about Graybar

5.0
11 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Strong department leadership in current role

Cons

Many senior team members with decades of stored brain knowledge that is hard to share

3.0
6 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Many opportunities to learn about distribution and management. Pto is three weeks per year plus holidays and over a s Week of sick time. If you work here longer, you can buy enough company shares to receive a sizeable dividend each year. You are allowed to buy about 5% of your salary in company shares per year and then receive usually 20% of that back per year. The profit sharing plan contributes 10% of your salary to your 401k account but you need to be vested to keep it all.

Cons

You will need a second job to live. Sales reps make way more and do half the work but they report to their managers much more. If you are a CSR, sales people feel entitled to treat you however they want and their manager will back them up. You are watched by coworkers and management like a high surveillance prison especially when you're new but they will leave you alone if you're good at your job after a year or so. Graybar brags about how much revenue and profit they make but middle and upper management suck it all up leaving scraps for the workers who made it for them.

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