merchandiser

warehouse worker

delivery driver

sales representative

driver

The Odom Corporation

I've been working as a Sales Representative for this company approaching two years. The longer i've been here and learn more about how they operate is repulsive at best. Odom recently merged to become Northwest Beverages and they have been using employment practices that are underhanded and potentially illegal. In order to give you a more full and complete picture I will be as objective as possible so you are better informed before you choose to apply at this company.
First they pay low hourly wages for a sales position, about the minimum wage per hour compared to Tukwila and Sea Tac areas. I will have worked for two years in which I received one raise that was less than a dollar per hour. Two years of work for pennies in raises! This should give you a good idea as to the hourly pay component.
Secondly they have a monthly bonus program and they advertise that you can earn a certain amount, only to find out you will actually never earn that because they have twisted the goal amounts so high you can never reach them. But this will be the way they spin it to you. This last month alone not a single member of my entire team hit the two major goals of total revenue or Rockstar (our largest supplier). Rarely does anyone hit these goals, but they use a work psychology game on you trying to convince you that it is your sales shortcomings as the reason. A scam. The inability to hit your goals due to the unobtainable nature of them will cost you tens of thousands possibly up to a hundred thousand dollars by the time you finish a career here. They pay a  bonus for selling Rockstar (our largest product by sales) almost never but you will apportion about half your time merchandising and selling it. It is possibly you will sell Rockstar for the duration of you employment and never receive a penny for it.
Now to the employer wage theft....This probably seems like a lofty claim but it really isn't. The third component of your wage will be "supplier incentives", monies that our suppliers our willing to pay a sales rep for successful placement of their products into the stores on your route. The company issues a monthly schedule of suppliers who are paying incentives and what the terms and conditions are to achieve. You go out on your route and make these placements believing that you will be paid, only to find out that Odom has not paid according to the terms agreed upon. This means you performed work and labor under agreed to terms and conditions that weren't ultimately paid by the company. This has happened company wide and to most members of my team. It is a company strategy to do this as members of management at all levels remain completely silent about it. They are purposefully and methodically short paying the incentive monies. If there are inquiries or this is brought to the attention of management they have been coached in how to avoid addressing this issue. In other words they are pilfering the incentives, possibly receiving monies from suppliers that were intended for the sales reps performing the work. In short they are fleecing their employees. Human resources has been made aware but fails to professionally and completely investigate in an in-depth, comprehensive, objective manner. As well the company chooses a retaliatory posture when you report, even though you follow all procedures as outlined in the employee handbook.
Management at all levels are complicit and completely void of morality, ethics, and integrity. Again, these actions have actually happened repeatedly. This is based on facts and numbers, not on opinion.

WORK
On a typical work day I wake up at about 5 a.m. to be at an account by 6-7. I get to an account with a product shipment (load), and check in with management at the store to coordinate the plan of action that day. Once we're on the same page, I'll walk the floor and write down a list of the product I need for primary and secondary locations of the product- for example, the refrigerated beer area and a display next to the deli. I'll head to the back, and begin to downstack product that I need on to a u-boat or cart.
   I practice proper rotation techniques by taking the oldest product that needs to be filled from the store's current inventory (backstock). When filling the shelf I also make sure to rotate product. Most of the beer brands have clear best by dates stamped on them, making the job easy. Others don't so they're rotated by package change and simply by always putting what's needed behind what's on the shelf. After filling the shelf, checking all of the secondary locations, taking out cardboard/garbage/pallets, I check out with management and head to the next account to repeat the process. 
   A stockout, where the shelves are filled with backstock will usually be thrown into a load day, and other days my route consist of only stockouts. 

                                    MY EXPERIENCE
   Through this job I've acquired the ability to engage random strangers, coordinate with other people on a professional level, work long hours under the weight of heavy stress, and learn about the beverage/distributor/beer industry. I think that the independence of the job will contribute greatly to my resume. 

                                     MANAGEMENT

   Management is certainly a mixed bag. Communication is occasionally lacking as it relates to brands we've lost of picked up, as well as whether or not overtime is allowed. The merchandising manager, who assigns routes and which store everyone is going to for every day of the week, can be inaccurate or unintentionally misleading- not surprising given that he manages 60-70 people and hundreds of stores, fields complaints from upper management, salesman, stores, and all of the merchandisers. More communication from upper management about overtime, brand changes, and opportunities would create more synergy between upper management and the troops on the ground. 

                                     CO-WORKERS
   As it is with any job, co-workers range from pleasant and helpful to rude and insane. Many of the veterans are fantastic people and sources of information you can't get anywhere else. Some of the other merchandiser are lazy, some are hardworking. The salespeople are usually intense, as they have to hit certain numbers on their orders to make money. 

                                       HARD/ENJOYABLE

   The hardest part of the job is dealing with occasionally long hours and store employees that can make your job more difficult. The most enjoyable part is getting exercise at work, as well as a constantly changing environment.

Before Odom Corp bought out this company that I had worked with for 3+ years it hadn’t been the best place to work, however Odom Corp still found a way to make it unbearable. The most difficult part of this job was biting my tongue anytime I had been given extra work due to the lazy management they continued to hire. Although it is difficult with many other jobs to find the motivation to get out of bed on time while working to gain a good attitude, this job and their overall lack of appreciation/compensation left me with absolutely no guilt anytime I needed to call out for a personal day. (I typically don’t like to call out since I am a busy body! However due to my physical exhaustion from being overworked, or my diminishing mental health trying to tune out all of the negative energy and decisions that had been made on a daily basis, I knew that taking a day to relax would be best.) To be honest there is so much more I could say however to keep it short and to the point I will leave it with this… I understand that no job is perfect, and that I will always have to bite my tongue and push through some days and opinions I may have myself. With that said though, the overall management, workplace culture, daily tasks, etc. gave me little to no purpose or motivation which was a large reason to the ending of my time at Odom Corp. 

If you have no home life then this job is perfect for you. You will work unbelievable amounts of mandatory overtime throughout the year except for winter season where you will be struggling to get your 40 hours. It is a team dynamic in the sense where there is X amount of orders everyday and everybody "picks" and fills the orders to complete them, so when employees aren't pulling their weight and are just standing around talking, playing on the phones,etc. It just means you will be there longer. (You do not get to leave until all the orders are done everyday).Seniority means nothing here, it is all about favoritism.  If you are not in the inner circle you will purposefully get stuck with the worst orders and struggle to make your case numbers. (Picked amount of cases, Accuracy, Speed will play a big part in making sure your hitting your metrics everyday). While the select few sit with the supervisor all day while everyone else works.  I was with the company a few years before I resigned.  There is a reason they call this place a revolving door.

On a day to day basis, after getting your work vehicle, everyone would head out to the retail stores given to them each day. Once there, you and or another co-worker would help the driver downstack pallets of product and hand truck the merchandise into the store where the manager would check everything in. Once that was done, then we would proceed to stocking the shelves or cooler making sure that date were in order and was accessable to customers. Old date product would be pulled from the showroom displays, put into cooler and new dates would be put onto display. Displays would be rearranged daily and POS (point of sale) would be put up to sell our product. Once in while you would have the help from your supervisor, driver, and sales.

The hardest part of the job was to make sure that all of our product was rotated with oldest dates first, but it was very enjoyable talking the managers and lerning more and more about our products even when we go new items in.

My training was terrible.  I was trained by 4 different people and they weren't all on the same page. I was expected to know everything, immediately! If I asked a co worker a question and I did something wrong, they would "tattle" to the manager even though I fixed the issue. They never treated me like a part of the team and was treated like the black sheep the whole time I was employed there. My manager documented EVERYTHING I did wrong and didn't fail to tell me about it.  I had never worked for this kind of company before but my manager and co workers talked to me like I understood everything.  My four, 10 hour days turned into 11-12 hr days.  It was very stressful and it affected my health. I think this would have worked out for me if the training was better..teach a little bit at a time and let me master each skill before adding more to my plate.  Unrealistic expectations!

You are pressed to meet production requirements, and if you don’t then you get written up for it. Even if you are only a few cases below the required number of cases per hour. 
Management has their favorites and it definitely shows. Getting written up for calling out sick, or leaving work early because you are sick, yet others who call out like clockwork every Monday or whatever it may be do not get written up. 
The turnover rate is crazy. The company lost an employee or two every week. And they would hire someone new and within a week or two they would be gone. 
The employees are very much in a clique and not very welcoming. If you don’t fit in, you’re going to be out of there within 2-3 weeks. 
Another way management shows they favorite people is that if someone complains about being harassed or being made fun of, management just gives them a slap on the wrist, and when it continues, nothing happens to the favorited employee. 
The money and long hours is nice, but I wouldn’t recommend working there. 

No loyalty, if you don't kiss up to management you won't get anywhere. You are treated like a number that can be fired without any excuse. Everyone looks over their shoulder continuously looking for back stabbers.

This company has people who can smile looking at you while looking for ways to get rid of you. Forget tenure, forget loyalty, it is a "Dog Eat Dog" company. Odom is not the Coca Cola corporation. 

This is an Alaskan company with no respect for themselves or any local people. They better not use the word Ohana because it means family. It means supporting one another and making sure it is a win-win situation.

You don't have to believe me just look in their Employment Handbook: you can be terminated without reason or cause. Just look at how many either left the company or got terminated.

Quote: "Watch your back!" Management will stick it to you the moment they don't like you.

I was so excited when I got hired. The Odom Corporation is a great company, and will forever be expanding. It has great medical, dental, and vision benefits, 401k Roth and traditional, PTO, etc.

There was a lot to learn in my position, and I was told that I was doing great and am a fast learner. As days went by, all I felt was being so happy and I belonged there. I started to build great relationships and ensured I was approachable.

I was also told that my job wasn't in jeopardy, but then within 3 weeks of hire, I got fired due to the lack of a "sense of urgency."
I asked for more details, and they mentioned appearance and how I'm not doing so great on keeping up the reputation in the department. I did not understand both.

To sum this up, you could never feel that you have your job secured. They'll blindside you.

They aren't afraid to pull the rug out from under you. Horrible management skills. They'll use you for when they need you, and then they will just let you go without any reason. Management isn't trained properly on how to instruct employees and communicate any areas of improvement. They will add random job duties and spread you thin. My boss made the job seem better than it was, you'll end up doing employees lunch dishes, and cleaning up after them. TONS of filling. 

Plan to stay in this roll for a long time.. if you apply to another position in the company, you will likely just get let go.

If you're ok with being just another number that is viewed as replaceable.. then I'm sure you'll enjoy it here.

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