Might be specific to their Chicago and Lake Forest locations, but it is not uncommon for Grainger to explicitly announce that no layoffs are planned and then "reorganize" departments in such a way that many people end up having to reapply for their own jobs. These shakeups will sometimes involve genuinely new roles, but they often have people in mind ahead of time to fill those roles before conducting a round of show interviews. The net effect is a layoff.
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I left Grainger - Since doing so, I see it continually going downhill in terms of employee retention and satisfaction. They never seemed to realize (or care) what the effect that turnover and reducing employee benefits like the PST truly has on customer and employee satisfaction. Grainger truly was once a great company - well respected and a place people wanted to work and do business with. Abolishing the PST was a massive mistake. It was so hugely important to the employees and was huge motivate, attract and retain talented employees. I left for a direct competitor and am continually grateful to myself I made that decision. The experience I had at Grainger opened so many doors for me it's pretty staggering. I admit Grainger did a greta job in training employees and providing great business. When I was there, they truly were light years ahead of their competition in terms of products, technology, BENEFITS for employees, etc. THAT is why Grainger became as successful as it is... it's the employees stupid! Continually chipping away at employee benefits does nothing but help shareholders who own amounts of shares the typical employee or person NEVER will. I highly suggest EVERY Grainger employee vote against every board member and seriously consider looking for greener pastures. Like I said, Grainger trains you very well in things like SAP, sales, customer service, etc. Use that knowledge. Go someplace else - a lot of companies would love that skillset on their team.
William Wallace is SPINNING in his grave wondering WTF happened to his company.... F the employees, F the PST, F it all.... the attitude seems to be "They are lucky they are working here". It gets worse... F calls in branches and F the customer. They can just call a generic number and get what they need- they don't need any local personalized service, and it they do- the he-l with them. As long as we can stop having legacy employees that are sucking up all the benefits and we can find losers that want to work PT and we can continue to have customers ignore our 70% markup life is good! The tagline should change to GRAINGER- For the ones who get it done (and get boned doing it).
Sounds like they did it again. Another layoff under the guise of “restructuring”. Anyone have more details on this one? I know it impacted a lot of people as they have to interview for their own jobs again. So sad to watch - what has this one amazing family company become??
I've seen relationships nurtured for months that didn't make much business sense until after a reorganization, where suddenly the relationship becomes official, indicating clear long game intent. I've also seen people hop to new, safe positions just ahead of their old position being eliminated. A bad look at absolute best.
Yes, this is exactly what they do. In my circumstance, the “leaders” of the new organization verbally nudged and promised positions to people in private conversations and then when this was provided to HR the reaction was “well they shouldn’t have done that we will address it with them”. Even when shown screenshots of some of the under the table promises it was brushed under the rug. Incredibly sad when bad apples ruin a great company. Mr. Grainger would ever approve.