outside sales representative

customer representative

maintenance technician

route sales representative

senior maintenance person

UniFirst

Job/Work Life Balance:

Life Balance - Non-existent. Your personal life will take a backseat as you're responsible for "being Unifirst" to every customer you have. Hours are much longer than advertised.

The Job - After you've completed your training module, you'll more than likely be assigned to what is called a "dust route" or a "flat-good route" -- which is referring to the type of goods that you'll be handling -- where you'll be tasked with switching out cleans for dirties (towels, wipers, mops, mats, etc.) as well as various refilling of perishable items. Essentially, you'll be moving every thing on your truck twice plus whatever slop and dirt accrued between the last schedule service. Dust inhalation, maggots and soppy wet (and pungent) towels are something to consider. You will be given disposable gloves and hand sanitizer and that's it. From there you'll be expected to do invoice changes, credits and account modifications (as needed) everyday before your cash in.



Compensation/Benefits:

You'll be told that your pay rate is $18.75 an hour for a 40hr work week, totaling a weekly pay of $750. This is false. Your days will be at least 10hrs -- and you get  n o  o v e r t i m e, as you are an FLSA exempt employee. Typical work hours ranged (for me) from 4:30am to 5:00pm, taking just one 15 min break. They do however provide a slew of benefits, including stocks, 401k, and free life insurance. But prepare for premiums to take a good chunk of your check that would be better off spent elsewhere than with who Unifirst provides (and receive better coverage). Benefits DO NOT take effect until your 90-day period is reached. And unless you've been given a Uniform Route, your weekly paycheck will be around $600 - $680 a week after taxes. And there's no way to check your own hours unless you keep track of them yourself.


Job Security/Advancement:

Unifirst flat-good RSRs have some of the highest turnover rates in the company. Most people leave because of the long hours. The rest are terminated because they were unable to handle the job with the very least amount of supervision. The routes where decent money is made (otherwise known as uniform routes) are all occupied by individuals who, understandably, have no intentions of leaving them. So unless there is an unnatural uprising of businesses in need of Unifirst's services within your area, Unifirst is in a stalemate when it comes to acquiring enough clientele to create an additional uniform route. So don't buy into their "you'll be making 50k within a year" nonsense -- the company's business isn't growing nearly as fast as it should for that promise to be fulfilled. Promotions are based on office politics and plain dumb luck, as you don't know when a new customer will come down the pipeline from Sales.


Management:

Management is only there to maintain an image. There are a couple of exceptions, but the majority of responsibility for what occurs with a customer will be placed on you, the RSR. There is very little that the DSM can do that could not be done by the RSR. And that is by design as well as an aspect about the company's policies that the most pressure sensitive of DSMs are acutely aware of. Consequentially the performances of said management goes unchecked, and poor management is allowed to continue for years before anything is done about it.

You are also expected to maintain your own truck. Management is slow to move on issues pertaining to the trucks as long as "it runs," and the majority of DSM's do not check the mandatory truck report logs regularly. Breakdowns are frequent. Repairs take long. And if you are given a spare truck, you'll be given a vehicle that without question is unsafe to drive.


Job Culture:

Unifirst is an image company, nothing more, nothing less. Get used to putting up a front with higher management and being intentionally deceptive with customers to maximize your profit. You're encouraged to work while sick. RSRs at Unifirst consist of virtually all men. Most were helpful individuals. On the flip side, management consists of the uniform rental equivalent of used-car salesmen who will make claims and promises that they know that they won't (, but you (the RSR) will) have to maintain. So look forward to customers who will be flippant and cold with you due to the past experiences that they've had with Unifirst.

During interview  managers tell you its 8 hour days with some days longer. No its 12 hour days unless you get a small route in which case you don't get commission. The routes are unorganized and hard to work. Accounts are too far apart which makes the day longer. Also some accounts dont make much sense. This company will do anything for account regardless of making sense. You will drive out of you way on routes to service a $8 a week account. Not only does it cost more in gas to get to that account but it takes time away from you to be able to service bigger accounts which makes your day longer. Will do and say anything to accounts to either keep or steal accounts from other uniform companies which makes it hard on route drivers.Route takes around 8 to 9 hours to do but then you have to go back to warehouse to load truck and do cash out with your manager. This takes anywhere from 2 to 3 hours depending how many drivers are ahead of you. This job is 60 hours at least. You get commission but only if your route makes enough a week but is hard to do when most routes are bloated with small accounts. They need to have a minimum charge on accounts to make it worth the drivers time. Average route makes about $800 a week that you take home. Sounds good until you add in the time you work. $800 a week divided by 60 hours a week and your doing this high labor job for $13 an hour and that's not including the taxes taken out. This job would be worth it if overtime was offered but it isn't. Your working 60 hours a week for commission salary. Oh but this is only if your lucky enough to get a route. You only get a route if one becomes available. Which means your going to be considered a jumper until you get a route. You get a fixed weekly salary which is lower than all the route drivers make. But your doing drivers routes when they call in sick. So your still working the 60 hour days driving other peoples route which is harder because you wont know where the accounts are, what door to go in, who signs invoice, where uniforms go, or mats, which makes your day even longer. Yet you get paid less. You have to watch a ton of videos and take tests on them. And I mean a lot of videos. these videos are anywhere from 20 to an hour long. Then they expect you to remember what the video says at the beginning. After about 45 videos again all ranging in different lengths you will take the final test covering everything you watched which is hard because you don't take all videos in 1 day. It takes weeks to get done because you can only do them when you have time. Your out on route with a driver and have to wait until they are done. So after a 10 to 12 hour day then they expect you to go do the videos that can only be done on their computers. 1 manager is hard to train with because he always makes fun of you and calls you names, talks about your family and such thinking he is playing around when its really distracting when your trying to learn. Ask any questions and its more of being made fun of. Just not a good learning environment, GO anywhere else as a route driver trust me.

My work day consists of trying to find ways to set appointments to ultimately make a sale. The only day I go to the office is typically on Mondays. I start the day by filling out my Plan and Review Report. This is a list of the appointments I have scheduled that week, the dollar amounts of accounts I have sold, the pace I am on to reach my sales goals, what city I will be in each day, and all the accounts I am currently working with that are close to being sold. I discuss with my sales manager what I am doing to accomplish my goals. We discuss what tactics will work for specific customers, ways to overcome objectives I’ve heard, strategies for future contacts, and how my performance was the week before. After my Plan and Review I spend the rest of the day making phone calls in order to set up appointments, I contact customers that are close to getting sold, and I prepare my week by getting samples, literature, and making emblems. The rest of the week I am meeting with appointments I already have set. In between the times I have set for my appointments I am stopping by my prospects in order to get appointments set and looking for new businesses in that territory. Every activity I complete I enter into my sales logic database. I do this so my managers can make sure I am being productive and so that I can update my knowledge of that prospect. There are fields that show employee contacts, general contact info, agreement expiration, what competitor they are using, and how many employees they have. After I enter my activity I enter the date of my next activity. Every week I receive a generated report of the activities I have scheduled for that week. I space out the activities so they average anywhere from 60-80 activities per week.

I learned how to stay organized and how to manage my time wisely. I also learned how to make the most of every interaction by getting any and all information I possibly can get even if it's not from the person making a decision. I learned to not accept a "NO" from someone who doesn't have the power to say "YES". I learned to never let any stone unturned and to go in every door. I learned to listen more than talk. I trained myself to always have a response to any objective that came my way. I learned to never get discouraged because things always change. I many have a hard time setting an appointment with an individual and a week later he no longer works there. A customer can say "NO" a thousand times but I'm only concerned about the one time they say "YES". I learned it's more important to help a customer instead of just trying to make the sale. I only sold about 20-40% of the meetings I had. Most of the accounts I was helping with their current service. Helping them would increase the likelihood of acquiring them in the future. I learned patience. Every time I met with a customer I was one step closer to eventually acquiring their business. Most sales took time. As long as you steadily kept in contact with people sales eventually happened. Sales for this company is all a numbers game and being there when the opportunity presented itself.

You will NOT receive better training that at this company.  The best training I have had in 20 years.  Although I work for a different company now, I was an Outside Account Sales Rep for several years in Mobile, AL and if you like meeting new people everyday, this is it.  You can grow with them because there are reps that have been there 30 years.  Sales is a GRIND! All Outside Sales is - but the pay you receive justifies the GRIND.  But, if you have a Sales Manager and a Location Manager that has never been thru Sales Training with Uniform and Facility Services Training to actually teach you the business...and if they have had no success...you will NOT survive.  

Your Workday - 
My Location Manager and my then Sales Manager knew their stuff!  On Mondays and WED from 8-12 - you hit the phones with list of businesses that you are given to set appointments with.  You and your teamates go around the table just dialing (often times on Speaker...it makes it FUN and Competitive).  There are contest and a LOT of perks like Gift cards, etc.  At about noon you hit the field and go to meetings you have arranged the previous week.  You work remotely on Tues, Thurs, and Friday in the field going from 1 appt to the next - starting at 8 and ending at 5 in the field.  You log after each appt on an IPAD.  You must log 8 - 12 activities per day.  You must Close Sales....you can't just stay there and NOT sell.  

You will learn your territory after about a year.  Now the paperwork can be terribly annoying to write up your proposals, complete your presentations, close out your work week...it is very time consuming...but it's a necessary evil (lol).  Now the downside. Because you have to log every call or meeting, you will find yourself at times working an 11hr day versus an 8 hour day on big accounts. This part is what will burn you out.  And if you start to feel micromanaged coupled with the long days....it's like any sales job Burn Out comes.  Just try to stick it out.  

You are compensated for the wear and tear on your car, the miles you drive, tires, oil changes, the phone calls to small business owners, a decent salary.  I think it matters if the Location managers are plugged in and know the business.  In Mobile - my managers wanted everyone to succeed back in 2014-2016.  I was a minority female and I was treated fairly for the most part. The culture was extremely positive we had cookouts, Hams, holiday bonuses, tshirts, a good Team Morale......We were encouraged to do well.  But it depends on the manager because it takes a while to learn the business.  I know you can have a great company that has a bad manager.  Take the job if offered.  You will learn a lot.

Typical day at work is basically just receiving more work than before but not receiving any increase in regular pay due to 'Overtime' from the increased workload. Management even went as far as making Saturday and mandatory thing or it'll be a write up. 

I've learned that the only way to advance in this location is to be related (parent & child) to one of the people in the office. I've seen SEVERAL people get raises and special treatment due to these circumstances. Everything else I've learned was just how to do my job and other peoples job better. 

Management is horrible during the summer both main manager and assistant were too busy to even bother getting bottled water for us employees in the production floor. I've personally went to the store and had to buy several cases of water and a ice chest for my crew and never got compensation for it. Management here has a problem with never stepping up when they're needed and yet still expect 100% no matter what is going on in every department. Short handed, oh well gotta work harder with whomever is there don't expect the Management to step up and help. Feeling sick or physically hurt, oh well gotta do everything like normal and get used to it.

Workplace culture is whatever, everyone is only looking out for themselves with the occasional daily good deed. Though as far as free breakfast goes, I've never seen older women act like Witches in Hyenas fur rushing into the break room grabbing everything in sight and only leaving scraps or the least favorable food for everyone else.

Hardest part of the job is trying no to explode on what's actually wrong in the workplace at management or even the boss as I did. Some of the equipment has seriously injured employees I've befriended and yet still management does the bare minimum to fix or address the issue, lots of slandering from production floor employees just for not being part of celebrations, events ect ect. Equipment being broken and never being fixed no matter who you bring it up with. Both Boss and Manager witness a hoist error and several times and just walked off saying "Be careful." 

The most enjoyable part of the job, is finally clocking out and freeing yourself from the shackles, overbearing weight and restrictions of an awful work environment.

Here is the brutal truth. This is a horrible industry. It doesn't matter if you go to work for Unifirst or one of their competitors, the industry remains the same. Customers are unreasonable and demand the most ridiculous things. You will work from around 6 am Mon-Fri, until you're done. That could be 5,6, 7 or 8, maybe later. You will never get the kind of money you're promised. If they paid by the hour you'd make a good living but they don't because it would bankrupt the company. You'll either get a commissioned route or a salary. They pay 7% commission on routes but not all routes meet the threshold of commision so they pay a flat salary of $600 a week on those. And that's before taxes. What that means is that you'll work 10-12 hours a day and only get paid for 40. Some RSRs make really good money but they've been on their jobs for years and are home by 2 or 3 o'clock every day. But those are the exceptions. The majority of RSRs have long, miserable days, go home frustrated and exhausted only to have to get back in the next morning to do it all over again. There is very little incentive to seek a career with this company. Most of the vehicles are old and worn out, the AC units never work and your truck will break down constantly, stranding you in the middle of nowhere for hours. The managers are just as frustrated as the route drivers and it's just one seriously giant mess. The sales team oversells the service because competition between companies is fierce. They'll sell something that is completely unreasonable and you'll be responsible for making sure you do what the sales person promised. There is nothing you can do but comply because sales means everything. You'll have to be a flexible person and have infinite patience to do this job. I only recommend applying if you desperately need a job. If you take this job in order to get into managment then you're going to be in for a disappointment because the next step is being a service supervisor. That is a far worse job than route sales because the supervisor runs routes constantly, is used as a gopher and makes very little money.

I Joined UniFirst right after college. The training period is very intense . Lots of training videos and video meetings with corporate trainers. You have to do a sales certification and meet a sales quota within the first 13 weeks. Management varies depending on the location, the sale manager I had was awesome. Very helpful and taught me a lot. Due to change in upper management the sales manager left and the sales department was left to fend for it self. No help for the branch manager, GM, or the regional sales manager. After about 3-4 months the regional sales manager came in and "took over". He was there for about a week or two. In that time the turn over was very high. When I started we had 5 sales reps, after a year the manager left along with 4 other of the sales reps. They hired 3 others but they didn't make it during the first 13 weeks. You are basically your own boss, but you are micromanaged on the actives you do, which they give a iPad to track everything. You have meeting every week where they talk about what you did the past week and what you have coming up. If you don't have the activity level they want they beat you up on that. If you don't sell anything for 3 weeks they start the process of getting rid of you. The company has a " what have you done for me" mentality. You have to wait on commissions, first commissions take about 2-3 months to get. Plus the service side can mess up your commissions. They say they love sales and that it keeps them in business, but after working there for over a year thats further for the truth. If you can make it a year you are doing very well. After a year I would recommend looking for something else. You do learn a lot while you are there but the stress level is so high it becomes not worth it after a year.

Unifirst is one of the most stressful jobs i've ever had and I was only there for 3 months. On the outside it looks like a nice, comfy career opportunity but once your hired on you will find out its a job that will overwork you and underpay you.

When I was hired on I started out riding with a guy who he himself had only been there for 6 months and was leaving in 2 weeks for a new job. I was told to observe the job and take notes but don't actually help him. This was the closest thing I got to any kind of training. I took over this guys route and I was told I would be further trained on the job with one of the assistant managers riding with me for an additional 2 weeks so I could actually perform the job and be trained. This never happened. I had one day where the assistant manager came along with me and he slept for most of the day in the truck while I figured out what to do. Now the gentlemen who had this route before me did an awful job keeping the customers happy so of course all this was pushed upon me when I took over the route. On top of that, the managers who ran the place where awful at returning the complaining phone calls from clients so that anger would usually fall back on me as well. After 3 months of working on my own and trying to basically figure everything out for myself I was called into the managers office. I was laid off after they admitted that it was a mistake for me to be hired. They knew they where losing business and they admitted that they didnt have the money, people, or time to train a new hire. I quit a good job driving for a company to work for this place and I know if I didn't take that chance I would still be driving for the other company and not on unemployment. I was paid $600 every week at Unifirst but when you break it down for the hours you work its about $9.30 an hour. Don't work for Unifirst. They will work you to the bone and you wont get any kind of training or help when your hired on.

Typical day at work:
Getting either very early or whatever time you would like to start. Either way, don’t expect to be back until later than expected. Unloading and loading at end of day. After that, you’ll have to “cash out” with a manager. Which typically takes 20-30 mins. If they are at their desks. Which reader, they mostly aren’t. So expect to wait even longer to leave. If you leave without so, you’ll be written up. 

What I learned:
They lied during the interview. No growth whatsoever so ever. You’re basically on your own after barely 5 days training. Get taught the bare minimum, and hopefully you don’t mess up during the route. Cashing out is ridiculous. Expect to explain every fine detail from customer notes to why you had to “credit” something. You’ll also have to explain why some items weren’t sent down from the plant. Which again reader, is ridiculous. 

Management:
It’s a delivery job. Their job is to make sure you do that. Other than that, it’s basically everyone for themselves. Will tell you to sale on the route, since it makes them (management) look good. If you don’t, they’ll be consequences. Expect them not to be at their offices when you’re back and ready to cash out. They’ll make you wait 1+ hour. 

Workplace culture:
Expect to not be home. Worse is be home for barely anytime at all. During the interview they said “you’ll be back around 1PM”. That’s if you’re lucky and get a normal route. Not a “power route” which is basically 2x the size of a normal one. It’s either come in as early as 4AM or leave later and still come back way after the fact. Expect to not have your garments in the warehouse. So you’ll have to load it up in the morning. Warehouse guy also doesn’t do his job, so expect to do it yourself. 

Hardest part of the job:
Having a life outside the job. Expect to memorize your route within the training period. Having to deal with the warehouse guy, who doesn’t do his job at all. Expect you to do it and he’ll just be on his phone the whole time. 

Most enjoyable:
Going home. 

A typical day of work starts before the sun comes up. I started my days filling my buggy with as many clothes as possible, upon returning to my station I check the sleeves, cuffs, collar, and buttons to make sure that they are up to code and can satisfactorily leave the warehouse before I place the shirt on a manikin to be pressed.
There are three fifteen to thirty minute breaks you are allowed per day and each area has their own time which depends on what time your group arrived at work. There isn't much time for conversing except on those breaks and the whole place is a lot like junior and high school as far as the maturity levels of the majority as they tended to keep the ladies in one area and the men at another.
If we finished in our section early our manager tried to place us in another department until it was time to go home.
Our managers were the type of people you could go to, you could trust them just like they were an extension of your family.
We had to depend on each other for moral support as the day went by. Some making jokes, some playing little harmless pranks during breaks but always someone doing something to take everyones mind of the fact that it was so hot or cold in there. The hardest part of the job is getting used to the workload in the extreme heat and cold.Some times you were so hot you had to pour watter over your head and neck to cool down and other times it was so cold you could barely get your fingers to button or unbutton the shirts.
The most enjoyable part of my job was when I was told I could go to another station to work, I enjoyed moving around and learning about the other stations. It was, over all, a fun environment to be in but it was always more than a little crazy and hectic, too.

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