warehouse supervisor

customer service representative

warehouse coordinator

warehouse manager

forklift operator

Smart Warehousing

This company has paid me the most I have ever been paid in my life. I show up every day for my job and do my best. I'm not perfect, but I do my best. This is where the problems begin. 

The work environment can tend to be toxic. If you are not the boss' favorite, then you will be targeted for everything. I had been written up for insubordination for simply answering a yes-or-no question and being 95% accurate during a bad week (while other coworkers were 89-93% accurate). There has only been one person with a 100% accuracy under those standards; but the accuracy had a questionable standard to it, and the guy who was 100% accurate stayed in the office to talk his way out of something that could have been considered a mistake. 

During the year of 2020 I applied for 4 higher positions, but was turned down for 3 and had to turn down 1 because they left out an important detail until the interview which disqualified me from the position. The people who were given those positions were the teachers pets who were in the office more than they were on the floor. 

The Third Party Logistics model this company works off of has a feast-or-famine issue which means when there's a feast, you are a slave to the company and they question your loyalty if you have a second job. When there's a famine, they only allow you to work approximately 30 hours.

If you are willing to sell your soul to the company, a teacher's pet, or happy to be stepped on for working your best--then place is for you.

When beginning at Smart, things seem promising. The opportunities for advancement for a "start-up" company that has existed for 14+ years... however,  the mentality of how they run their business has kept them there. This is no Tier 1 or any Tier 3PL by any means; their "custom" approach of servicing customers leaves favoritism if you pay enough or are in direct contact with Business Development or Smart's CEO. While employed, you can be certain that the company will expect you work until everything is completed due to shakily-built customer contracts, inventory is a considerable joke due to lack of proper WMS, and management is ruled by politics. Whether you are able to fully complete the job of more than one person, regardless of skill or intelligence, you will remain stagnant unless you agree to be a politician.  Expect to be put-down, unappreciated regardless of the commitment given to Smart. Expect HR to service the needs of management, regardless of supporting their Front-line employees. Expect to be provided emotionally-driven write-ups or placed on a performance coaching based on whether you are liked or not. Lastly, expect that your work will analyzed by those swearing to understand "proper warehousing", changing processes for the sake of being pat on the back and completely setting their teams up for failure.

Smart Warehousing was a good place to work at one time. They understood their culture needed to change and were making strides in this area. That all changed when they hired a new Operations Manager. The warehouse is now so micro-managed the Supervisors cannot do their job effectively. Staff is talked about, in a negative way, almost every Supervisor meeting. HR and Upper Management either don't care or are oblivious to the fact their company is quickly becoming a place people no longer want to work at. If you value a company that appreciates its work force and cares about you as a person then this is NOT the company for you.

In addition, this warehouse does not use scanning equipment to pick product. This is extremely ineffective and causes the picking teams great frustration. This has been brought up but the company says its too expensive to implement.

My team was a GREAT bunch of people. I really enjoyed working with them.

Hours were long and hot - usually 10-12 per day. The warehouse has no AC as the dock doors cannot be opened because it's a food grade facility.

I cannot recommend Smart Warehousing because of their NEGATIVE work culture.

I spent nearly two years there because of the easy workload (no speed quotas) and excellent direct supervisors.  However,  Smart Warehousing is 100% the opposite of Amazon (my former employer); a very learn-as-we-go culture from the Headquarters management team.  Concern for working conditions within their warehouses is far behind the profit and management bonus goals of this company.  Plans get changed multiple times before "the Real Plan" is implemented.  Everyone is hot, frustrated, and looking to leave.  These are the companies Amazon eats for breakfast.  Very sad.  Oh, I forgot to mention....everything is STILL recorded and processed by hand-written paperwork.  Only the office uses computers.  And their inventory is CONSTANTLY out of sorts.  But they keep getting new contracts because they are cheap.  

Your day starts with a massive influx of email, most of which is pointless to you. You are constantly struggling to balance the ten different things you need to do, but can only do one at a time, and no matter what you are doing, someone needs you to do something else. The amount of redundant paperwork is staggering. Constantly struggling to keep up with multiple internal daily deadlines that are unnecessary and arbitrary. Everyone knows the task is impossible and just slogs through the best they can. Corporate doesn't listen and doesn't care. Benefits change every few years and only get worse. Money is wasted on technology that will never work. Everything about this company screams "Building the airplane in mid flight."

They need to fix things from the ground up, but instead they just waste time and resources on "Big Picture" stuff.

Upon working there, it felt  good, the stress and high flow of things are enough to keep one busy. However interacting and talking with management, and observing the communication between corporate and said management is abysmal. There is cursing between the higher ups, management likes to take shortcuts, or will try to pull workers from a very important job that sustains of the corporate's account in order to take care of other objectives which the importance  of is unknown  compared to the main objective given. Management will also likely yell and  has poor communication on giving directives, as they are ether not clear, or they do not provide more information that would prove important to the task. plenty of people come and go from this job site, because of management toxicity, and disrespect that seems to be an internal  discrepancy with the company. Very disorganized when it comes to handling  the storage of the customer's product.

Started through a temp agency, but was hired on after 9 months. Was then given a raise, benefit options, and forklift certification. The work environment varies as the are different areas within the company that you may be placed to work in for the day or longer. Employee turnover rate is average for the type of job, so be prepared to work with new faces/personalities often. In my 2 years there I did not see anyone move up from warehouse to upper management, however 3 people were raised to "leads" that had been there over 5 years. When work is slow you may be transferred to another warehouse, or possibly sent home for the day, VTO (unpaid). The owner is super nice and throws a great Christmas party! (Unsure if he is still there?!) I left this job due to pregnancy complications and they were all very helpful through that transition. I still talk to 3 other former employees that I met the and became friends with!

What is the best part of working at the company?
I enjoyed most of the people I worked with

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management is absolutely no help!  They will lie directly to your face and expect you to work miracles when half the staff is out. Nothing is ever good enough

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
If you’re in the “in crowd” you’re golden. If your not- you won’t last long

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Walk in to a mountain of headaches, stress yourself out all day trying to get caught up knowing it will never happen, lie to your customers to make the company look good, try to get them to agree to cover “overtime” which you will never see and eventually go home and do it all again the next day

What is the best part of working at the company?
I thought the best part of working there would be the no weekend and OT threat, but most of them worked the first weekend I was hired and I could not complete all of the tasks given to me in an 8 hour day. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I did not feel I had true support. My training was non-existent and all help was "coming" when I was expected to perform immediately. Short, rude interactions thrown on top of that sealed the deal. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I feel like everyone is treated as expendable. If you show up, fine. If you don't, fine.  

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I was basically promised a glass of water, but got a pitcher of water dumped onto my lap each day. "It is just water" they would say.

Everyday was different depending on which account is busy. There are twenty five accounts deal with everyday. would inbound, training, replenish, unload trucks, devise a work plan, transfer product, and do all the outbound orders. I did however learn to work long and hard hours without breaks. I can do anything a warehouse associate requires and I learn new processes quickly. The management is poor. They lacked training and support in all areas. The hardest part of the job was getting the help and quality training I needed from my managers once I was promoted to supervisor. The most enjoy part of my job was being able to do several different tasks a day. Each day was different and it kept me busy on my feet all day long.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Warehouse supervisor 11 salaries reported	$62,891 per year
Customer service representative 1 salary reported	$41,000 per year
Warehouse coordinator 9 salaries reported	$41,000 per year
Warehouse manager 1 salary reported	$92,500 per year
Forklift operator 1 salary reported	$14.77 per hour

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