automotive technician

automotive service manager

automotive service advisor

center manager

service advisor

Blains Farm and Fleet

A typical day as warehouse is pretty much unload trucks with forklift, stock bulk pallets with a pallet jack, and help customers on the fly with their orders.  You get adequate training with the forklift, that was fun learning that.  I learned that working in the warehouse at this job is harder than what they deem it to be.  You will be walking around a lot, and you will have to be able to lift heavy items with or without help.  There is also a flaw with their system, customers will purchase an item, but won't take it from the sales floor.  They will drive around the back, and you are to acquire the item for the customer.  If you do not do this like you are Superman (super fast) you will get nagged about why you aren't taking care of the customer.  You will be told that employees are informing the manager you aren't doing your job, but in turn you are which causes a little frustration.  Well, it takes time, time to go to the middle of the store to get said item, then go back to the warehouse to give them their items.  It's just about 20-30 seconds that you, from the ticket pop-up to when you are getting the items for the customer you will hear the call about not doing your job, but you know you are.  If the customer purchased the item, they should pick it up if it's for them to see.  If it's heavy like food, item in the yard, fencing, etc then it's understandable for that, but to require a warehouse person to travel the whole store to find an item that is acquirable by their  means then they should get it.   

For the most part, you are on your own, there will be no one to help you, and in turn the customers will get angry.  I like to follow guidelines because they are there for a reason, but they seem to want to break them.  If a box says teamllift, I suggest you do it because your health is the most important thing; sometimes you might get someone to help you.    They do not follow up with you on anything, you have to hunt down managers to get information. 

 The co-workers are the best part about the job, they are knowledgeable, very helpful, and always happy.  Also, they will send spies on you to see what you're doing, this made me feel really uncomfortable, and people just seem to talk about others like they don't know sound doesn't travel.  They will talk about you while you are nearby, commenting on how you work, and such.  Employees will also know information about you before you know yourself, which I didn't really like.  If you just mind your business, and do your job then you have nothing to worry about; you just have to be super efficient because if you have a few slip ups, they don't like that.  Again, they didn't communicate to me on how they wanted things done (lack of communication), and then would use this against me.  I do as I'm told, I can not read minds.  I'm all about doing things the right way, the correct way; first time. 

Overall, the environment is awesome, the people you work with are super friendly, and always down to help you.  It's a fun, challenging place to work.  I would suggest working here because it's a nice experience to have under your belt.  I'll miss seeing them, but it was time to part.  I don't like being a negative person, but the truth is what it is.

I hope this review helped you out, and have a nice day !

When I was interviewed, I was never told just how much freight we get daily that needs to be worked... I also came in to a department that had several part-timers to help with freight. As the new year started I noticed people who left would not be replaced. I was down to just ME working all the freight at times waiting for ONE part timer to be hired (this part timer would be shared with another department). If I was lucky, someone would be kind enough to come from another department to help work freight. I worked freight on top of prepping/setting ads (sometimes with multiple ads in one week), fixing inventory counts (which were always off), organizing my warehouse, helping customers in multiple departments, helping BOPUS customers get their orders, cleaning my department, setting planograms, taking phone calls for multiple departments, red dotting my department in preparation for pick and fill day, facing department (no one would be in my department all weekend and I would walk in to what looked like a herd of elephants demolished the place and I was expected to make it look good again in one day), dealing with coworkers who throw temper tantrum on a daily basis that brought morale down, and being screamed at by a couple coworkers (one of which screamed at me in front of a vendor rep who was shocked to see such behavior. Nothing was done about this incident or one other incident). Management hears you but does not listen... Nothing gets done about bad employees. Reprimanding? What's that!? Many employees have poor attendance, people show up when they want and are never reprimand, you can have customers call corporate about incidents but they are always covered up if you're a favorite by management. Store manager will lie to your face about putting ads out for new hires for your department and never actually put those ads out. Three out of the five managers never leave the office... Ever... You only see the store manager on the floor when the district manager is about to show up. You can build a department that goes from being in the negative at the beginning of your hire to doing 100% in sales in one day... Are you compensated for your hard work? Hahaha... Of course not... You'll get a good review but you'll be lucky to make another 15 cents an hour as a department head... I have seen co-workers steal stuff but I was fearful of saying anything for fear of retaliation. Co-workers pull products from other departments, hid them, and wait to buy them once the items are clearanced at insane prices... I've seen candy department head take expired food and give it to warehouse/stocking crew associates to eat or drink (that's basically stealing!). I'm sure this store is one of Jane Blain's least favorite stores. Wouldn't be surprised if this store closes. Good luck if you actually choose to work here. I'm super happy I moved on to a company that cares for it's employees.

There’s too many good things… I traveled to multiple stores to assist grand openings/re-grand openings. Travel to Wisconsin (pre-covid) to go see what new products are coming to stores, what will be removed, how new products work, product demonstrations, giveaways, interaction with vendors. I moved to multiple departments and held multiple “lead” positions which have an array of jobs, processing freight to the floor, ensuring facings are filled and straightened, changing Plan-o-grams as needed, requesting pricing changes, putting up and taking down sales, organizing back stock, ensuring accurate inventory counts (if there are discrepancies you would need to fill out paperwork with inventory control), picking and packing store to store transfers, answering phones and assisting customers, guiding in store customers to the appropriate locations of products they are seeking. I also learned how to pick and pack online orders to be shipped through major shipping companies. I would assist farm in caring for the chicks when they were “in season”. Every year select associates are required to show up at 5am for multiple days in a row (generally the beginning of January) for inventory and are required to scan certain areas given to them during those days. There are parties for retirements, grand openings (all grand openings get cake delivered to every store in celebration), there are potlucks held multiple times a year, after inventory there is a large yearly celebration to close off the year. Uniforms are bought through a website that can be accessed on store computers, uniform shirts are one time payroll deductions (as you order new pieces), people who work in the warehouse/tire shop/maintenance/inventory control get their uniform shirts through a provider that washes/returns to the store for free (you are not required to wear the sales floor associate uniforms but you are welcome to purchase them if you would like). Yearly raises. 

Typical day at work consisted of doing things which others did not want to do. Even though, for the last 1 1/2 year of employment by the location I was working for, I did not have a title other than "Sales Associate", I was being required to do things which a "Departmental Lead Worker" should have been doing. What really bites is, do you suppose I got any compensation for it. Of course not, they used every excuse in the book to make it so they didn't have to pay me a higher wage.
As far as management goes, it was non-existant. Getting a manager to come down to check on how things were suppose to be, seemed to be underneath them. If problems came up, they figured if they would ignore it long enough, it would just go away on its own. One thing that really turned me off at this place is, they have a written set of rules, but then no one in management seems to follow them.
For my co-workers, many of them were excellent, but they were being treated unfairly as well. However, there were also many co-workers that should have never been hired because, they had no clue as to what they were doing. Plus, even after being shown how to do things on many differen occassions, they still had no clue as to what they were doing. There were also many individuals there that had even admitted to the fact that they were only there to collect a paycheck, and to do as little work as possible.
In my case, the hardest part of the job was being employed by them. If I had known this was going to be the way they treat people, I would've never taken the job. I would've told them to take their offer somewhere else.
As far as the most enjoyable part of the job; some of the customers, break-time, and being done with work for the day. Working for the Verona location is truly not worth your time or effort.

When I got hired I was told by a fellow employee “You’re gonna hate it here”And surly 3 months in they were correct. I did my purpose and I really did not feel welcomed at times. Some older employees were not helpful. I had a repative day and it consisted of stocking and helping other departments. Just became depressed with the same stale songs playing in the background and socializing was frowned upon at times. I always said hello to everybody that worked there I was a very friendly person to everyone. Just being hispanic at a “farmers store” I had many problems with customers who would be Caucasian, I had little eye contact and “Thank You’s”. I never let it get to me I had a purpose for money.  Before you apply remember you’re gonna be stressed out of your mind, they expect you to know everything about Tires or Batterys if you work in Candy or Clothing. You will be dealing with customers who give heavy attitude or frustration towards you if they don’t get what they want. Some of these guys are jerks and will get you in deep trouble  so stay away from some people. If you get “under investigation” I heard they don’t call you they send you by mail so you can’t state you case. I know many people who been let go for stupid reasons at my time here; some are flat out idiotic . If only they knew what worse things people have done and still have their job. I intend on quitting very very soon. :)

This company states the employee is the backbone of the company.If you work at Blain supply you will here about an open door policy to the president's office that does'nt really exist when you need it.  You will also find the vice president when she's having a bad day and thinks you're goofing off,goes into a rant and you get drug up to HR for the first time in 13 yrs. If you complain co workers not doing there job,talking,and doing nothing,it will turn on you,and the 3 guys that do nothing all day are really close to the shop supervisor...well you know where this is going. If  the supervisor wants you gone because you've made ripples in his pond he makes your life a mess ,and you walk away from a high paying job because you can't take it anymore! I think when the original owners were alive they cared and thought highly of the employees, but the new owners it's all about me and how much money I can make. Blains is not a bad company, just alot of bad people working there and if it makes them look good and makes more money you will climb the ladder fast as long as you can live with yourself. I could go on about bad repairs,used parts,replacing parts that are not bad and the verbal,physical,and sexual abuse that goes on,and I've tried to report it,but you know you can't win in a good o'l boy enviroment. These are facts and I have dates,times and who was involved, and it went right under the carpet. Six other employees have quit because of these circumstances,two of them had 20 plus years. That tells you something about the company. I hope this is helpful,and good luck.

Co-workers and Managers are nice. Work environment is good, feel welcomed and part of a team. The people here have honestly made me stay as long as I have. Customers can be rude and just plain mean, but co-workers will always have your back and help when they can. Management has always been willing to work with me and others, and they'll tell you straight up if they can't do something and the reasons why. In my experience management has always been a group I can rely on and we both trust each other to get our jobs done. They regularly praise and say how good of a job we are doing individually and as a store (again, at least in my experience). 

Also a great perk is that Blain's is closed on holidays, ex. Christmas Eve we close at 4:30 or so and have Christmas off. It's really nice and I recognize how much of a privilege that is in the retail industry. 

Pay could be better, especially in a time where everything's expensive- even in a smaller city - and our hours are being cut in half by force. Really makes it hard to come to work happy when I know I'm going to fall short on bills and rent. The cutting of hours is coming from higher up, too, which makes it feel worse. Health insurance is honestly a joke and has been for years, even though Blain's has switched to a different insurance company. 

There is profit sharing that I think is pretty good if you're in it for the long haul, but again, right now our hours are being cut and we are living in a world where what you get paid here isn't a living wage.

Overall a nice place to work with good people and good managers. The pay just isn't what it should be so that employees can live comfortably. 

I was a seasonal department part time employee at the Elgin location. My coworkers were great and I enjoyed working there. Starting pay for me was 9.50 and in the almost 2 years I worked there had increased to a little under 10 per hour. 

Management is in extremely poor shape all the time. They lack communication necessary to be efficient and this causes problems for us as the manager on duty often did not relay important information to the next manager on the clock.

I got FIRED basically the day I got injured in a school sport. Not only were they inflexible in the process of the whole thing, but they did everything they could to basically kick me out. I was employed without pay compensation for injury for 2 months and on tdd he 3rd month I was ready to return to work, I was fired and told to reapply and they would hire me. I applied, and was flat out DENIED by the store manager to return to the store as an employee. They dumped me right during the Christmas season when many store don't hire long term employees. 

Would only recommend for short employment. DO NOT expect any kind of advancement or pay raise. Good high school job as they are pretty flexible with schedule, but not recommended for much else. Avoid if you are looking for somewhere that cares about employees and recognizes their hard work.

I dont recommend this store to anyone, especially if you are a social person or you need acknowledged for your work it won't happen. The management is to say the least the most unorganized, most ineffective, unpleasant, insufficient, group of management type people I have ever seen. They are supposed to be our leaders however they can't seem to lead themselves, they never smile to the customers or the staff. I have seen a manager argue with a customer just to be right? I was in shock! I think it is time to clean house and get some people who want to be there and want the store to be successful. Management has bullied staff about being ill or needing a break or something to help ease some pain of their body...actually wanting them to lie about it. ..against the law! Schedule always late...not family oriented at all, lied to as a staff member by management, but yet you are expected to still perform over 100%. . No breaks at times even after 5 hours of being there. If they do come out of the office to you they are rude to you even while you are waiting on a customer so unprofessional...very embarrassing. I wonder if they have different management training cause I really didn't think there was so many cold and almost hateful management people in one place need to balance it out...Not good for staff morale at all!

I started working as a cashier a while back, and even on my first few days, I wanted to leave. The trainer I had just barked commands at me like I was a dog. 
Things got better from there. The store itself is great, and so are the department people. It was the management that drove most of the current employees away. The manager I had as a cashier was stubborn and rude, always refusing to give people any days off and scheduling them outside of availability. I know at least 2 or 3 cashiers who walked out because of that manager. I have had horrible experiences talking to them, simply because their tone is rude and condescending. Along with scheduling us outside our availability, she would refuse to fix it and suggest that we find someone to take the shift for us. A coworker of mine wasn't scheduled for almost 3 weeks straight, and when she called my manager, they simply said "Well, we don't really need you at the moment." That caused a friend of mine to quit, along with many others. The workplace is okay, and the employees are great, but the management is the sole reason that probably 1/5 of the employees quit. I wouldn't recommend working here, despite the good pay. And don't be fooled by the "flexible scheduling", every time you ask for a day off, you'll get attitude and rude responses, along with not getting the day off. Don't work here, you'll be gone within a few months, either from getting fired for bland reasons or leaving out of frustration. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Automotive technician 76 salaries reported	$15.41 per hour
Automotive service manager 69 salaries reported	$54,957 per year
Automotive service advisor 50 salaries reported	$16.64 per hour
Center manager 27 salaries reported	$20.23 per hour
Service advisor 22 salaries reported	$16.62 per hour

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