counter sales representative

warehouse/driver

warehouse associate

sales representative

center manager

Baker Distributing Company

The Watsco group, as a whole, and Baker Distributing, specifically, is not a place you stay.  It is a stepping off point or the last place you go before you find a good company to retire from -- rather like the terrible relationship you have right before you marry the person of your dreams; you have to go through it to appreciate where you're at.  That is Baker Distributing.

Baker is very top heavy with people who have been in their jobs forever and are either hellbent on protecting their turf (and their job/status) or provide no value to the company and are simply there because of inertia (and no one seems to know how to get rid of underperformers unless they are not part of the Old Guard or a member of the clique).

Baker has everything on paper to be successful, but the culture became so toxic and dysfunctional that it was a shock that they made any money at all.

If they were to reduce the number of presidents, vice presidents, division presidents, to under a dozen, and get a couple of folks who truly understood how to relate to, and successfully inspire and lead, their people, the pay and benefits could be overlooked.

But they haven't (and/or won't?).  The benefits are not beneficial.  You have health insurance that you can't use, vision and dental that is just "okay," and that is about it.  You can buy Watsco stock (I would definitely do this), and the 401k is about average.  The salaries they offer don't come close to making up for these gaps, and Watsco doesn't appear to care that people are leaving in droves because of them.  As it stands, if you have (or want to start) a family, Watsco is not the place for you.

Do NOT get a job on the night shift here or working in the warehouse. it will be the biggest mistake of your life. This company will hire anybody literally anybody, they don't care as long as the job gets done. you will never get the raise you are promised when your hired and you will never get promoted. there are employees there who have done the same job for 20+ yrs  with maybe 1 pay raise. If you get a job outside the warehouse its not bad. The biggest problem with the Rutland VT division of this company is the warehouse manager and his boss. Neither of them know or have a clue what there doing and the warehouse managers boss is only hurting this company. Those 2 are by far the worst people I've ever worked for in my entire life. There are some great employees at this company there really are but they will never get a chance to show there true potential due to the poor management. The night shift manager is a great guy but the things that happen during this shift are unbelievable. Any other company I've ever worked for would have shut this shift down or replaced all the employees of this shift immediately.

A day at work at Baker Distributing was busy and fast paced which I enjoyed. Orders to be released for the branches and cash must be posted every day that was received at the branches. The hardest part of the job was to satisfy sales for the day as you had to sometimes hold orders for delinquent accounts. I enjoyed talking to customers about their account and providing customer service. Anything to help the customer would help the company. My co-workers were great people and always willing to help each other. We all abided by the rules. My boss was honest, helpful always and willing to explain his answers and supported our decisions when orders needed to be help. He understood if we had to be away from work for personal reasons,etc. He just asked if we could make up for the time during the week if we didn't use out PTO...paid time off. I learned to be well organized and that is was important to always follow up with internal and external customers for collection and for the branches who issued credit memos and for their support as well. the follow up on credits was important to the customer when they had a dispute.

I started working for Baker a few months ago back. I regret even working for the company. First off the mileage reimbursement is bad. They only pay you forty cents a mile and you have to wait til the next month to see that mileage check. Many other vendors pay 70 cents a mile and put that in their employees check each week, not Baker Distributing. The other main reason I left was because one of the sales reps would order way too much product for the accounts he was serving, even though many owners and managers told him to slow down. He only cared about making his commission checks every week. Plus he would always expect the merchandisers to take care of it, because he would come up with some excuse to why he couldn’t help the merchandisers service the stores. I later found out he did this to the other four merchandisers before me. I addressed this with him and management, but nothing came of the situation. At this point I realized why the turn over for this position in less than a year and half was so high. If I would have known about the headaches I would have dealt with I would have never bothered taking the job. 

I got hired on at one location through a temp agency.  LOVED my manager. He made it fun to come to work everyday. I was there 2 months. I was supposed to go permanent in 1 month, which my manager said I would. I had to resign due to me moving back home in a different city in the same state about 3 hours away.

After moving back home, I tried getting on with them again. They had no openings. 6 months later the manager of a store called me and offered me a position.  I accepted. Needless the say he was not like my old manager. He did not crack jokes like my old one. Couldnt have a stereo up at the counter like my old one. I was at this store for 6 weeks, then got fired for no reason. The manager that hired me got moved up to district managet and the other inside sales guy got moved up to his position. 2 weeks of him being in that position,  he let me go saying "I was distracted"  I was looking for a place to live at that time, so yeah a little bit. I did not like this store as I did the other one.

The positions at Baker pay well, with an excellent benefits package. The work is fairly simple once you get used to it, but the manager is condescending, passive aggressive, and verbally abusive most days. Your job will be threatened over the smallest of mistakes, and the caliber of your day will depend on the managers mood that day. Every day the manager has a crisis and takes it out on everyone in the store including customers. I have personally been yelled at, talked down to, and cussed out in front of my colleagues and even customers. The manager also micromanages every aspect of what happens which makes completing tasks more difficult and the work less efficient. This manager tries to make up for all of this will small favors like lunches, or occasionally a team night. However the bad far outweighs the good. Personally, I started the job motivated, but at this point I dread walking through the door in the morning. 
The job as I said, is great. I would have happily stayed employed there, but a bad manager can ruin a great job.

This company was the absolute worst place that I have ever worked. I worked at corporate in an analyst position and it was what every person dreads.
The “trainers” would openly mock, yell and belittle people. It was really hard to watch and then to finally experience myself. When I went and talked to management about it they would seem outraged and say things to placate me to make me think that it would be addressed. It finally came to a head when I left work because I was sick of being literally watched by my trainer and him getting upset that I would actually take my allotted breaks. When I talked to management they said that since my trainer had “seniority” over me, he could basically treat me however he wanted. HR knew about this individual, they would constantly want to have meetings with me to ask how I was being treated as they have been unable to keep this position filled for longer than a few months. HR knew what was going on and management doesn’t care. Save your self respect and just pass this company up. this was the biggest regret I’ve ever had in my career.

Job is an easy job and tasks. Co-workers are good teammates amongst the most of them. 
Branch manger is a control freak an dang near a dictator when it comes to anything. He will ask your opinion and game plan then completely throw them aside for his own wants. He has management under him that he practically takes every power of say from them. 
The pay is competitive-ish when you get a full 40hrs or more hours a week. They cut hours to beef the management pockets for bonuses while your counter, warehouse and drivers get the short end of the stick. 

Culture is a good place good people outside 1-2 which is normal. But I couldn't do the constant threats of being laid off due to being slow. When in my interview they never said that it was something they did when I asked if they did that or not. 

Hardest part of the job is going to work because of who you worked under. I didn't really learn anything at this job that I didn't already know. They didn't put their employees in any kind of training making it hard to help customers with their questions 

Most of the day consisted of waiting on customers, filling orders, maintaining inventory. Learned how to use Mincron technologies integrated sales system. Learned a lot about the a.c. business.
While in my stay at Baker, local managers were changed 3 times, regional managers were changed 3 times, and top level management was changed once. Our location only had 3 employees, (including the manager), so everyone had to learn all duties. Hardest part of job came in Nov. of 2012. Down to 2 employees, and new manager wasn't there often, so had to man store by self. Most enjoyable part of the job was the customer base and the responsibility to them and the company. It had the feel of belonging.

Local management and workers are great for the most part, very flexible and forgiving. On a corporate and even regional level they leave a lot to be desired. They over value new employees to get them in the door and over look long time dedicated employees who actually make their business work. Corporate is constantly changing policies and procedures because they tend to rollout “new” systems prematurely. They try to be a cookie cutter operation, one size fits all, company without an understanding that different markets across the country require different approaches and tactics. They are, in my opinion, extremely unfair with their individual compensation program. I do feel their PTO compensation is very fair, but can be frowned upon when you try to use it at an “inconvenient” time. It’s also a use it or lose it situation. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Counter sales representative 54 salaries reported	$22.50 per hour
Warehouse/driver 53 salaries reported	$21.29 per hour
Warehouse associate 9 salaries reported	$19.22 per hour
Sales representative 4 salaries reported	$155,000 per year
Center manager 15 salaries reported	$72,330 per year

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