Fastenal reviews

3.5

65% would recommend to a friend

(5,784 total reviews)

Daniel Florness

78% approve of CEO

58% positive business outlook

Fastenal has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 5,784 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Fastenal employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Transporte y logística industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

6K reviews
1.0
Oct 30, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A good place to start. A lot of the people at HQ are very nice. Also ~~ if you live in Winona, then where else are you gonna work, right?

Cons

The pay is terrible. I have worked with the company several years, and done a good job with one promotion. One would expect that my pay may have increased, but no, since so much of my salary is tied to a bonus I'm down 20% year over year. When you are unhappily making only around $30 K to start with, that hurts. There is no way that people in such a low pay bracket should have so much of their pay at risk (but what am I talking about, there are no pay brackets... you have no idea what anyone else in your type of position might make). Particularly at headquarters where your connection to sales, and therefore a bonus, is minimal at best. There are no regular employee reviews. I am convinced this is so they do not have to face the prospect of giving someone a raise. I know people that have gone 6 or 7 years (that is not a typo - seven years) without a single raise. All good employees to boot. It's hilarious to me because Fastenal sells its customers on "service" and how you have to pay to get good service (which is why their prices are so ungodly high, and regularly increase). And then they pay their employees s**t, with no raises/increases, and expect to get top notch performance. Granted, the recession has made it worse, but come on. Our sales might be down, but we're still turning a profit.

2.0
Oct 29, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The dress code is not too strict. If you need a day off getting one is not really that difficult (at corporate at least).

Cons

The benefits are worse than Wal-Mart, which is hard to do. Some departments get bonuses, others get none. There really are no perks what-so-ever. Perks being health club, day care, etc... Also, you do not get Per Diem if you need to travel. Thats right, you pay to go to work.

2.0
Oct 24, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Health benefits are probably good enough that Obamacare will tax them as a "Cadillac Plan"! Fast promotion from Outside Sales to General Manager. Not much other than that.

Cons

10+ Hour Days (no OT) plus weekends sound fine when you start, because you are idealistic and see huge potential for advancement. They get tiresome after a couple of years of banging your head on the same walls over and over. Don't think you have autonomy over your branch - you don't. You have several bosses who micromanage your time and activities each day - not just your district manager, but your regional auditor, regional finance manager, and regional VP as well. Imagine trying to do your most important job (selling), while having to deal with probably 5 emails requiring urgent action each day from all of these bosses. Imagine filling out the same forms over and over again. You eventually stop believing all of the hype about Integrity and Core Values when they require you to raise most of your customers' pricing for the 4th time. Imagine making a handshake agreement with a customer of 10+ years (i.e. one of your branch's first customers) that, as long as your costs don't skyrocket, this will be their pricing for the next 6 months on a commonly-used product "concept" (say fasteners, one where you're making TONS of margin) - then the next week being FORCED to lower their discount because they're spending a 3-month average of $2000 instead of $2500. What do you say to that loyal customer? The people I see that have risen fastest here are those that specifically try to juice their numbers for 18 months so they can make District Manager. My advice? Quit while you're ahead - when you've hit goal for 3-6 months in a row, make the change - start interviewing elsewhere!

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