material handler

sales trainee

delivery driver

customer service representative

counter sales representative

Graybar

A typical day began with a demeaning and childish meeting for employees to be scolded for doing things that management refused to actually deal with. 

The cut off time for orders was late, thanks to management, causing the already late shift to stay even later - instead of having earlier shifts stay overtime. No shift differential. If you were unable to stay late, you were to report it to your manager after the meeting. Upon doing so, you were practically shunned the rest of the day. Work/life balance does not exist. 

Managers refuse to hire workers that actually want to work. And the employees that have been there for several years are allowed to continue being bad, useless workers while people that actually want to go home on time are forced to work double-time and overtime to get the job done. 

No one is trained properly by anyone who actually has their wits about them. Management is so poor that neither of them have any actual experience in their roles. If you like a mumble-mouthed manager whose words never make it passed the chew he always has in his lip, you might like your job. If you like to have a woman in charge, congrats - you've come to the right place to be disappointed by the two women that are in any role of authority. They do not care about you and they do not communicate - by any means. And they talk about employees on their endless amounts of smoke breaks. 

Despite all that - management has the audacity to play favorites with the worst people who work there. So, unless you can throw yourself all over your managers - you will be used and abused here. 

If you choose to wait the months that consist of the application process, stay away from everyone. 

Tips for Tolerating Graybar Electric - Youngstown Branch:

Do NOT make friends and do NOT expect people to be decent humans. 
Do NOT try, like at a all. They applaud useless people. 
Do NOT learn anything other than your basic job. You will not be paid for being better, knowing more, and training other employees. 
Do NOT get caught up in drama. 
Do NOT trust your managers. They are not your friends!!
Do NOT even try contacting HR. 
Do NOT recommend your friends - they will dislike you. 
Do NOT question anything. Just do it, management despises recommendations that will actually help. 

All in all, Graybar hosts a large quantity of absolutely bad people - especially those in management and a very little quantity of people that just want to work so that they can survive this little existence in Youngstown without falling to their knees. 

There are better things than this place and if you're one of those people that actually care about making a difference - run.

I worked at the Carteret location in NJ for 9 months and this has to be one of the most poorly managed warehouses I’ve ever had the displeasure of calling my work place. Upper management doesn’t know how to speak to people like adults and makes the floor workers pick up the slack for their poor decisions throughout the day. If you enjoy being talked down to after breaking your back for 10+ hours 5 days a week please by all means work the floor at Graybar Electric. 

Management does not value their employees time. Overtime is compulsory and expect to work 2 hours OT on a good day.   You receive no notice of needing to work OT until 10-15 minutes before your shift is up and don’t even think about saying no because if you’re not on the floor at Graybar you are “wasting your time” as one manager put it. 

You will be expected to go above and beyond your job title regularly. Expect to learn at least 2-3 different positions during your time there. There is no incentive to work harder or faster as finishing your work before your shift is up or on time will just bring more work or training to do your second or third hat at work more effectively. The training is sporadic and poorly taught so I hope you’re “resourceful”. 

After expecting so much from their employees for 13.50 (soon to be 15 so you can make as much flipping burgers in NY) an hour you would think they would treat their workers with a modicum of value but you can forget that lofty ideal at Graybar. The job security is non existent. You can be fired on the whim of any of the temperamental managers with no prior write ups or disciplinary actions. No the electric workers union that you paid 200 dollars just to work at this paradise will not step up and help you. 

If this dissertation I just wrote up does not dissuade you from taking this job then I’m sorry you are in a position where you have to take a job like this to make ends meet. Know that they prey on your desperation as they did mine and will make you bend over backwards to have the “privilege” of working at Graybar and making money at the same time.

Graybar Electric is a good company overall.  They strive to be progressive.  However, there is plenty of old-guard sprinkled throughout the company to thwart real change.  You can always tell when a high-placed manager reads a new business book and uses the company as a controlled experiment.  

Plenty of "golden-boys" that get on the fast track for promotion.  Tacit agreement to tow the line to remain in the good graces of surrogates keeps everyone in line.  However, there are some very talented people and co-workers in this company.  The work-life balance is pretty good and the vacation benefits are fantastic.  Compensation (including bonuses) seems to run lower than the competitors. 

The company is more logistics than sales focused which can drive a sales rep bonkers in competitive bid situations.  Stingy credit lines for customers (even in good times), and the financial manager (FM) seems to have the real power and has a lot of latitude on granting credit based on "how they feel about the customer".  

One interesting conversation I had with an FM was when he told me he met with our competitors FMs for breakfast each week to discuss accounts.  He heavily weighted these breakfast meetings in his decision to extend credit to our customers.  (I guess he never thought that our competition might "play" him for a stooge?)  Graybar has massive corporate expenses and a lot of "specialists" (affectionately called by field personnel as: "corporate expense").  This corporate expense is fed by overinflated board costs and negotiated cost recoveries with vendors.  The result is that corporate gets fed and the field suffers from not being competitive.

Loved my coworkers and learning about electrical distribution/fixtures, but the workloads were always too high and compensation too low. I was managing, ordering, and billing on multi-million dollar orders and making only between 30 and 40k (before taxes) while the salesperson that hardly did any work on the order was pulling in 6 figures. I could not   afford housing within 30 miles of the branch I worked at on my salary alone and was told by management that it was my fault for not negotiating better (highest pay range for my position was still too low to cover rent).

I did work in a customer facing role, so there was a lot of the typical rude quips and aggressive comments from customers. We also received a lot of backlash internally from sales over issues we couldn't control which made the job more stressful than it really should have been. Upper management almost never had our backs and let us take the verbal abuse. Supervisors were usually the ones standing their ground and stepping in to help.

I was given the opportunity to learn more about products after a few years by completing the NAED's EPEC Bronze program, which was great. But it felt like too little too late as I had already been helping to build panels and read plans well before the opportunity was given to me. Would have loved to complete that my first year so that I was better prepared for the order and product issues I would have down the road. 

 If the company actually offered more opportunities for growth, better managers, and fair compensation, I would not have minded staying for the rest of my working career. However, as it is, Graybar is only really useful as a springboard into other Fortune 500 jobs. If you can afford it, stay, get your 3-5 years of experience, and then move on to something better. 

Graybar is a solid company with good ideals. Unfortunately, the corporate structure of Graybar really gets in the way of it be a truly viable career path. 

Graybar's pay overall is very underwhelming for the amount of work you can be tasked with. They give annual merit raises which are based on your performance, but they are very minimal and don't even cover for inflation, so you're essentially taking a pay cut in today's climate. 

In my personal experience, I've seen my workload increase exponentially since the time I started, with no signs of slowing down whatsoever. Meanwhile, my pay has been overall really stagnant. I have had discussions with my manager about this, and she totally agrees, but unfortunately has her hands tied due to Graybar's corporate structure that really restricts paying employees their worth. 

Graybar tries to make up for this with their stock dividend and profit sharing plan. The problem is, if you are a new and younger employee, the stock plan is ultimately an added expense, as your payouts the first 5+ years will only cover a fraction of what your total annual purchase amount of stock is. And if you are younger, while getting a 15% bonus in your 401(k) is without question very valuable, it is ultimately money you wont get to touch for 25+ years. Not to mention, this is the same bonus every employee gets, no matter how good or bad at your job you are.

Graybar's current setup just isn't tailored to attract and retain young employees. You can't continuously increase employee workloads without rewarding them with more pay. It just leads to employee burnout. It's ultimately the reason why a valuable employees like myself are looking to move on to a place that may actually value us accordingly. 

Like most jobs in this market, everyone is overworked and underpaid besides management. The atmosphere in the office resembles a crypt except when you can occasionally hear someone muttering under their breath. If you like getting things done and being proactive, this job might frustrate you as operations has set up miles of red tape to even get the simplest tasks complete. The turnover rate is exceptionally high so don’t get comfortable with your co-workers or your day to day responsibilities as those change so frequently sometimes you forget your actual job title. All of this would be easily stomachable is the pay wasn’t terrible, but it is. I am pretty sure they’re getting ready to can most of the CSRs and ISRs for AI. Either that or top down leadership is just that bad at understanding incentivized workers. Last thing I’ll say is if you work here, the stock plan that they boast about like it’s the greatest thing ever invented is pretty much a scam. You have to spend your money to get in, the stock prices don’t ever change, and the incentive to do this is through dividends given at the end of the year. Sounds ok, but they limit how much you can buy based off how high you are in the totem pole. So manager can buy more and reap the benefits while some people have been investing the max for 10 years and barely have 1,000 shares which would equated to an extra 2k in dividends this past year. Its not gonna make or break your retirement it’s just a mean of reallocating money they paid you back into the senior leaderships hands. Also the 401k match program is one of the worst in a modern day company, I had a better match working as a car detailer at carmax.

What is the best part of working at the company?
I enjoyed having the ability to fill and deliver customer job orders materials from multiple distribution centers, or from other Graybar stores with a phone call if the job site was outside of our stores delivery area. Most orders I could have on the job site next day. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
As an Outside Sales rep, I also had responsibility for providing job package quotes to my assigned contractors when requested.  Sometimes when providing the quote for a gear or lighting package, I already knew that we were not competitive in our pricing because the job was in the Orlando area, whereas the lighting and/or gear reps providing us our distributor net cost was out of Northern Florida or even Georgia.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
We had a very dynamic and supportive team at the Branch where I worked, everyone worked well together. I give credit to the Branch Manager we had, as he provided great leadership forming a cohesive group, and was very attentive to both our needs as well as the customers we served.  He often would travel with us Sales reps, to ensure he also had a relationship with each of our assigned customer accounts, and in prospecting to develop new accounts as well.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Like drinking water from a fire hose. Fast paced, sometimes chaotic.  A great deal of work to be accomplished with far too few people, the branch was grossly understaffed.

A typical day at work is overwhelming because we are working more than one person's positions.  It's like a smorgasbord of jobs and only be able to do them decently b/c everything needs to be done yesterday.

The hardest part of my job is not having the training/resources that I need to DO my job.  To work more than one job position and feeling overwhelmed, but everyone else is just as overwhelmed, so they can't really help you either.  To receive praise (lip service) but not any incentives - pay increase.  To have issues/complaints falling on deaf ears.  When we don't have the resources to complete a job request, management is promising customers that it can be done - no problem.  Of being told to "be patient and good things will come your way" (promotions) and it doesn't get any better.

The most enjoyable part of my job is learning about myself and what I am capable of when there is "a light at the end of the tunnel" when something is accomplished/learned.  I enjoy working with my co-workers.  We are each others' listening ear in a stressful situation.

This is my overall experience, not just certain people here and there.
While I've been there, I've learned how to motivate and train and help people.  How not to take things too seriously nor too personally, but still give 100% and do the best I can. How to treat people with respect no matter what position or who they are.

Frankly and honestly this was one the worst job experiences Ive had here right here in the Charlotte NC area. Poor set up and standard operating procedures not to mention guidance/support from management.

A handful of employees don't come to work to get things done and others are expected to pick up the slack. They're are a few good workers but this routine from the slackers goes unpunished and there is no resolve. Compensation is a joke and you aren't rewarded for any of the hardwork you do put in all year. The company will say thank you in word but dont expect a thank you on your check next year. Theres always some avoidance tatic or excuse in this regard once evaluations come around. No advancement, not here in this district of the company's organization, especially for minorities (don't want to pull that card but this is the south after all and at least in this district of Graybar, it's beyond obvious).

Everyone's and anyone is target for unwarranted disciplinary actions that are often unexplained and have even resulted in wrongful termination. I don't doubt Graybar may be a good company in other areas of the country...namely where the unions ensure fair treatment of low level employees but here in the Richmond district, a great deal of change is needed for anyone to be content in working there.

Started in the Dublin Branch. My original manager said I would be promoted in 3-4 months. So I started going out to businesses and making sales under my boss name. He quite before my 3 months and did not inform the new manager about the promotion or the sales I made. Didn't matter anyways because I was then brought over to a whole new division of new sales trainees. So after a month of going over the basics again with my new division, I asked my manager when I was going to get promoted and what about my sales I processed, because up till this point I was making sales and not receiving any credit. He said he had know idea... He didn't even know i was working with customers. So it turns out all my sales went to the company....... about 30k in profit.... It has been about 8 months now with the company and still have no idea what my role is or if I'll be promoted to an outside rep. I've been doing the work of an inside and outside rep and getting paid as a trainee. I was lied to before I was even hired. I will say that I have meet other employees in the company who absolutely love it. I possibly just had a bad original manager who was trained badly? But the manager I have now is pretty worthless when and if he ever shows up to the office. My advice, try this place if you like SAP and have knowledge of the industry. And if you do get hired on make sure you get everything promised to you in writing with a signature from your manager.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Material handler 1 salary reported	$15.50 per hour
Sales trainee 2 salaries reported	$40,750 per year
Delivery driver 2 salaries reported	$21.25 per hour
Customer service representative 2 salaries reported	$21.72 per hour
Counter sales representative 3 salaries reported	$19.79 per hour

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