While I had a relatively successful tenure at Mainfreight, I've come to realize since leaving that there were many aspects of the job that were unacceptable.
The base salary is low, especially considering the significant number of additional hours required. At Mainfreight, "work-life balance" is practically nonexistent. During my time there, I saw many team members working an extra three to five hours daily just to manage their workloads. Most of these individuals were working flat out, all day. Which is probably why I saw many people leave from burnout...
Another issue is that when you receive an internal promotion, you do not get a new contract to sign because "Mainfreight doesn't believe in contracts." This means your pay remains unchanged despite taking on new responsibilities. The only time I received pay increases was during annual reviews. This is a pretty disgusting measure which they do to avoid actually paying employees what they are owed till the next review.
In my sales-based role, Mainfreight is one of the few companies that do not reward you based on your performance. There is no compensation structure, which is ludicrous.
Only a potential bonus at the end of the year based on your branch's performance, which is largely influenced by market conditions. For example, some branches receive a yearly bonus of NZD $1,000, while others might receive NZD $32,000.
To follow, there is no company CRM. They have something called "Mainsale" which is a total joke. It is extremely poorly developed for various reasons. Whilst on the road, you are unable to use it as it's not mobile friendly. It's slow, clunky and extremely outdated - real time waster . It's a shame too, because Mainfreight boasts how much they spend on their IT development. Why not just get a vendor like Salesforce? It boils down to Mainfreight's execs resistance to change and adapt to the world.
Leaders at Mainfreight is extremely old-fashioned, and has not progressed/changed much since the 1980s. Which this type of style then trickles down into the branch managers. Predominantly who are all the definition of the boomer male. Across their execs, there is very little diversity in the senior management team, which includes only one woman.
There is no formal training for any roles. The induction course should not be confused with training, as it is more about promoting the company culture. All roles are learned on the job from other team members, who often have little time to provide proper training.
WORST OF ALL, there is a serious cult like mentality. If you challenge or go against the grain of the pack you will be outcasted. After I handed in my resignation some of managers never spoke to me again, refused to eye contact or openly ignore me. I worked there for a handful of years just to be disrespected. This is truly a toxic place to work, unless you want to work there for the rest of your life.
