Believe the reviews... - Operations Manager McMaster-Carr Employee Review

2.0
9 May 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Pay and benefits are great. Working here for a few years can set you up nicely for the future in terms of retirement savings. Some people are genuinely great to work with. Work life balance is decent based on what team you're on and what your management stack is like.

Cons

The main issue with McMaster-Carr is that it promotes people to leadership positions who frankly have no business leading people. There are a few members of management who care and support their team, but they are pretty rare, and the higher up you go the worse it gets. Toxic leadership who don't know how to manage people, only work, is the main reason the reviews for McMaster are so low. I don't blame them tbh, considering there is 0 incentive to be good people managers. Instead, the environment just incentivizes you to burn out your employees and make sure everyone but you is to blame if anything goes wrong. They mask the toxicity as "high expectations". If you give feedback about the toxic culture, they'll just say you can't meet the high expectations. Some people prefer this. Those are the people who last long enough to become promoted and perpetuate the toxic culture.

Explore other reviews about McMaster-Carr

5.0
14 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

At least in the Systems department, it’s a helpful and collaborative environment.

Cons

3 days in office and potentially long commute from the city

4.0
16 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Pay/benefits are incredibly generous - People are generally easy/nice to work with - Note that the Systems department seems to be fairly isolated from the negative issues discussed in other reviews (e.g. tension between warehouse workers and management) - I haven't experienced any of those issues within the systems department. In my opinion, Systems is a great place to work and develop as an engineer. - Hybrid work style (3 days in office). Personally, I like hybrid more than both fully in-office and fully remote styles. - Great cafeteria with good food and cheap prices. - Good work/life balance (outside of being on call, I can leave work at work).

Cons

- Work is not super interesting to me. I come from a highly technical, but very different (not ecommerce/industrial supplies), background where I was doing work I was much more interested in. No doubt there are folks in Systems who love the domain though. - While I'm not on call a ton (1-2 weeks every few months), I really hate being on call. I like to leave work at work. Note that joining at least one reliability team is expected within your first year or so.

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