Worked there for 3 years on the sales desk. Things were okay in the beginning until some of the core staff starting moving on to different departments, instead of filling their spots with reliable skilled individuals they either increased the course load on the rest of us by A LOT - suddenly we were doing tasks outside our job descriptions and doing the work of multiple people... or they would begin to hire people that didn't fit the job but rather just the "image" they were trying to achieve as a company - clearly skill set started to not matter. In result this created a high turnover rate near the end of my time there.
The management started off being very hands on and always interacted with their staff in a friendly way - near the end of my time there it had completely changed to where managers were in their offices with the doors closed all day long no longer with smiles on their faces and cheery dispositions.. me and many other coworkers were convinced that this place was making us all miserable.
Do not work here if you cannot handle high stress volumes - working with the food industry is very demanding even from just a "call center desk" you're expected to go above and beyond for your customers but get little to no recognition for it. BUT make one simple mistake (which you have to expect with human error and working under pressure) and suddenly you get a "strike" ....well 3 strikes you're out. I've seen it happen to a couple people over my time there.
A disti
Sysco as a whole is a terrific company to be employed for. The vision, the products and the attitude they present you with is very professional, set out with positive goals in mind to be a professional employer and business provider. Unfortunately, with the Halifax location, this is definitely not the case. I personally believe that the company has a positive vision, created with that goal in mind. My other personal belief is individuals whom are hired to run said facilities are unfortunately destroying the companies reputation, and creating absolutely terrible morale for the staff, which creates problematic individuals that lose the ability to care about work quality which in turn affects the customer at the end of the process. Warehousing staff and transportation staff have been stretched extremely thin, throughout COVID-19 and even before that. There is always new goals to achieve, which are becoming much more difficult. Both departments have great assets on each team, but are unfortunately always looked past. Favouritism is very rampant throughout the Halifax location, anyone who goes above and beyond working safely is treated like gold, while others are targeted based on corporate goals. Recently they have added new management from all levels into the Halifax OPCO, which raises a lot of questions due to the fact that one individual definitely does not pull their own weight, creates more meaningless tasks for the warehouse staff to achieve and creates immature attitudes a
The typical day at work includes a pre-shift meeting with the management and supervisors to go over the daily safety topics and other issues in the business.
Your shift starts out by doing a safety check on the equipment you are using to ensure proper policies are followed in order to prevent accidents or any unsafe conditions. A machine must be approved on all conditions before use.
Once you are set up you get your first order and begin building up your skids. You can work in either Dry, Cooler or Freezer environments where you select cases in order to build skids for what each customer needs. Your progress is tracked based on your scanner and the time it takes you to complete an order and drop it off on the dock for shipping.
Management provides good insight on what to do to ensure proper selection of cases and how to keep the customers happy by placing the boxes safely on the skid to avoid damage.
All employees work together to ensure safety, using our truck's horn to signal properly and co-exist without crashing into each other or our surroundings.
The hardest part of the job would be the physical strain it can put on your body. Lifting is very important in that you should use proper lifting technique to avoid soreness and/or injuries.
Repetitive motion can wear you down so it is very important to take care of your body in order to do this job well. Recommended spending time at the gym, eating properly and getting enough rest.
The most enjoyable part
ProsEmployee appreciation: Super Bowl extended lunch by 15 mins to enjoy the game, free Wings + Beverages for all employees
I was lucky to have a great supervisor and some good fellow drivers but the company was a total meat grinder to work for. Despite being unionized the company is expert at using people seasonally with promise of long term employment and will discard you at the six month probation or the minute you get hurt on the job which is guaranteed with the demands placed on drivers. Start times vary between 2am and 6am and you never know when you will finish any given shift. Expect to deliver up to 1000-1100 pieces on a busy shift by hand and by yourself using a dolly off the back ramp. Some pieces can weigh up to 60lbs each and are shaped very awkward to deliver quickly. Delivery locations often have stairs and are difficult to deliver to with very tight delivery times especially restaurants. Trucks are often loaded very poorly making it difficult keep on schedule because you spend too much time digging and searching for product not loaded on the right skids but its always the drivers fault creating a blame game between driver and warehouse pickers. Falling behind is a nightmare because customers delivery times are so tight that you have zero room for externals you can't control like weather break downs ect. Once you fall behind expect to be harassed on your phone by dispatch, customer service, one or two sales reps, sales rep boss and one or two supervisors! Being new you will be spare board and always running random delivery runs making it difficult to get quick and ef
ProsPay and benefits, weekends off, lots of overtime
a typical day at work:
Expect to be carried and/or looked down upon by senior selectors until you manage to prove yourself to the top tier of laborers. There is an inevitable level of toxicity due to the bonus structure; the handful of speed-demon, hard-working, motivated selectors push themselves to the limit every night, ensuring the team is able to leave at a decent time, bearing the literal burden of their new and/or unmotivated counterparts.
what you learned:
Efficiency is everything, inside and outside of work.
management:
Very inadequate, non-understanding HR, focused on politics such as diversity and retention rate rather than filtering the revolving door of employees and keeping the ones that truly care. Day shift managers govern the night crew—without being able to physically be there at the same time, there will always be a disconnect between trust on a personal and professional level, paired with the yes-man type attitude consistent throughout management above supervisors.
workplace culture:
Sometimes toxic & cliquey. Typically everyone has a shared rage toward management and has no problem stating it among peers.
the hardest part of the job:
The job itself. You cannot do it forever. Far from worth spending your time there unless you are able to motivate yourself to make a bonus every week.
the most enjoyable part of the job:
Lots of time to think, listen to music & podcasts. The labourer crew is generally very welcoming and excited to work with new hires, bu
ProsHigh paying job if you can efficiently make a bonus every week while avoiding injury.
ConsManagement, lack of opportunity to advance within the company, common overtime, working stat holidays, working nights.
This job is good and bad so it depends .
Here is my honest review
I feel like sysco isn't the worst place I have ever worked but it sure was the most frustrating place at times . More times then not I will point out.
If you like your fast pace work with some added stressful unrealistic time expectations then this job is for you . You dig through the entire trailer for products for the accounts .The warehouse will stack your first stops under all your last stops . So makes for a very annoying time . You then stack products on hand carts and deliver down a 16 foot heavy ramp into restaurants alot of the time up stairs or down stairs ,over ledges and through annoyingly tight kitchens all while having to run around under the chefs or restaurant staff who order you to put their food away for them. And heaven for bit if you even the slightest bit behind ... an average day your delivering 400- 600 pieces in the summer time 700-1000 pieces .
The benifits they offer are sub par compared to a lot of other places I have worked and their hourly starting rate is sad for the amount of work that is expected of you. Also some of trailers are just junky .... ie: the doors are heavy and get jammed , the Ramps are much the same and sometimes they don't roll or the lifters are shot no matter how many times we report.
The few things I will say that I really liked are my fellow trucking Co -workers, some of the customer relationships who understand what you do ,and the amount o
ProsCo workers
ConsUnrealistic time expectations, wages, equipment
- Three months of probation and no benefits during that period. Injured? Pay medicine for yourself
- Turnover rate is through the roof (80% of new hires won't stay after three months due to the hard work and lack of support from supervisors)
- Very hard work
- Fast-paced
- They will require you to pick (box-case) at an unbelievable rate
- Body becomes damaged within a few months (muscle damage, back pain, mentality, you name it...)
- You will always always be exhausted (lift hundreds of kinds of boxes and short break time-day)
-About the free food? True, but only the damaged ones are given away for free, sometimes, but not always. Discount food? Not even close
- They will trick you, (The supervisors) give you some fault information (lie) which is never existed
- Night shift, so say goodbye to your home/social life (11~13 hours/shift, if you go home after 10 hours of work, some supervisor will have "a little discussion" with you)
- The money is really good, but your life is really bad
- Benefits...you have to pay for it, not much but not free, at all
- There is no chance of advancement
- The management and the HR are among the worst, have some issues, reported them and nothing has been fixed=>Did nothing and fix nothing
- Don't work in the Freezer otherwise your hand will be frozen-frostbite. They won't give you pair of gloves (they did but not the proper one) and they won't give you the Freezer bonus as they said
-I have a problem with the Freezer bonus, talked to HR and m
Sysco moncton was a good place to work but then turned for the worst when new management came in. They did not follow union rules at all, treated you as a number rather than a person and just overall poorly managed. The place became toxic, no respect for the back breaking work that order pickers do especially for how the place is poorly slotted, current training is an absolute joke, and new hires were not taught common sense and importance of safety. Equipment from end riders, scanners, printers, to forklifts are complete junk and never work properly. You cant even get your proper scan percentage management constantly pushes for because barcodes and scanners dont work. They dont listen to employee concerns and brushes them off, mandatory overtime was a thing there but became very abused, you could always be over 100% picking rate every night and still have to stay overtime, ive seen injuries happen to others and most of the time cause of injury is cause by improper slotting of product which is never fixed. You could be the loyalist, efficient proper worker there and not be respected, there are employees that operate a forklift and are not even forklift certified. Gossip and constant negativity plagued the place, employee overall happiness was an all time low. Dont even get me started about how unsafe the freezer is there constantly having to pick empty pallets our from racking over your head to get product. It is not worth the money for the unsafe work and toxicity, do yourse
Sysco is an amazing company to work for, and I recommend it to everyone.
The work-life balance is perfect for full-timers as you only work 4 10 hour shifts, which leaves you with 3 days off per week. It is also great for part-timers as they will work around your schedule and are very flexible. There is a good amount of vacation days, sick days, and family days you can take your first few years, and the amount you get increases the longer you work there.
The pay is very good for a warehouse position - possibly one of the best in the industry - and there is plenty of optional overtime each week.
The management is great, and full of wonderful people with friendly personalities. They will take the time to get to know every employee by name and interests.
Although everyone works independently, most people are friendly with eachother and are willing to help out. There is a lot of diversity here in terms of culture. However, there are very few female associates.
The hardest part of the job is of course hitting the daily quotas. However, it is definitely very doable. You are given a long probation period before you are required to hit the quotas, so really it is not an issue.
The most enjoyable part of the job for me is not having to deal with customers or micromanagers. It is very independent, which is great for introverts.
Pros4 day work week, benefits, very flexible for part-timers, incentive pay, union
Challenging, but like any job very rewarding to help restaurant managers
- A typical day at work involved unloading fresh and frozen foods from a truck and carrying them to multiple restaurants in Winnipeg.
- Working at Sysco, I learned the importance of time management. We were given a certain allotted time to deliver the products to multiple restaurants across the city. If I was too slow to deliver them, the restaurant managers/supervisors would be behind in their jobs. I did not want to let them down or make them late in their job as well. This was very important skill I was able to learn and perfect.
- I was able to get along with my coworker (the trailer truck driver), that I became his first choice in "trailer truck driver assistants" when he needed work done, due to the time management skills I learned.
- The hardest part of my job was that there were no benefits. It was a pretty physically demanding job (which was no problem for me), although at times it was not safe and I worried that if I got hurt, I would not have benefits or coverage if an accident were to happen.
- The most enjoyable part of my job was that I was able to travel around the city of Winnipeg. I am a new resident of Winnipeg, so it was nice to see what Winnipeg as a City has to offer. Also, it was fun to meet new people such as managers and supervisors of different restaurants.
Proscomplimentary food and drinks from certain restaurant managers.
Decent pay. Free snacks in the break room, good atmosphere, and music.
When you get there you stretch as a team, which is cool. The boss goes over how many cases that shift need to be picked altogether, how many workers there are, and the warehouse damage that's been accrued from the night before.
This job is very independent in work. Meaning you are in control of the rate you go and pace you work. If you work faster, you will get paid more, but that's really hard to master and takes weeks/month(s) to accomplish... so don't let others speed deter you away form keeping the job.
The employees are very nice and friendly, yet not the most outgoing. I'm assuming... this could be because a lot of the people don't stick it out at this job because it is very physical work, so maybe there are some trust issues with getting to know people.
I am sore every day I wake up, but that's what being a dedicated athlete is. After about week three it gets easier and less soreness on the body. (I did have like a lot of bruises from this job at first though). If you haven't been on a sports team before, Sysco will show you what the physicality of being on a sports team feels like.
It's independent work but together you accomplish great things for your personal life$ and skill set!
This Job is demanding on the body and is honestly quite scary if you're not experienced or used to driving a pallet jack. But that's what is fun about the job, is the use of getting to drive something totally different.
I told a co- worker that I feel like I work in the Ministry of Mag
ProsGood pay, and free food and they provide you with a water bottle
ConsSmall injuries like bruises, and smashed fingers, and cuts. Also there is plastic wrapping around items you're selecting that can easily trip you.
This company is only good for the money. I was one of the fastest workers in this place and I was treated like an average worker. Most of my nights involved being targeted by an old, jealous manager with horrible breath that had nothing better to do with his life than to bother me. I was constantly called to the door and told to not pick on blue pallets. I believe I was targeted because I was always picking at 170%, making $43/hr, and getting paid more than the managers who have gave their lives to the company LOL. I was told I could not pick on blue pallets, but the other lazy workers that do the bare minimum every night were allowed to do that. This company definitely doesn't have it's head in the right place if it will just get rid of hard workers like that. They always threatened me and said what would you do if you didn't have this job??? I own property so I don't need this job as bad as you make it out to be. In retrospect, I should have went to HR and filed a complaint against the manager that was targeting me. I still to this day would have my job, but at what cost?? $200 in gas each month and 2,000 miles a month wear and tear on my vehicle is quite a bit to take in. The employees are equally as bad. Don't get friendly with a lot of folks here if you are making high rates consistently. I found out often that many people I was ''friends with'' would talk about me behind my back when I wasn't there. This revolved around jealousy because I was outworking circles around e
I took this hob as an "Order Selector" and found that it consisted of me unloading trucks. THIS JOB IS NOT DIRECTLY WITH SYSCO!! You work for a service known as "Best Loading". They supposedly train you to be a "Lumper". You work on a loading dock taking products off the trucks, and putting them on pallets according to your "Pick" sheet. You are assigned with another "lumper" with Best Loading to train you. It is not as simple as it sounds. After you get assigned a bay and lumper to work with you have to choose "LongWood" or ShortWood" pallets to stack materials. Then you have to position those pallets "Frontways" or "Longways" Now comes the more interesting part. The sheet will tell you what "Tie" to put your products on the pallets, for example, if it's 10 x 5 with a total of 50. your stack will be 5 layers high with 10 items in each one. You may stack 6 facing one direction, and 4 under it, to total 10, and thn reverse each layer until you get 50. You do as many as the list says.
The job starts out at $10hr, and later you start getting paid by how many jobs you complete. Since the lumpers training you are paid by the job, speed is a critical factor. i have ADHD so doing things in sequence can be a challenge for me at times. The lumpures quite often would go two or three stacks ahead of me to get finished fast, and I would lose my sequence. They werent being jerks, but just wanted to make as much as possible. They also doin't like the fact that they are slowed down when tr
Prosnice people to work with. you get trained on 3 forklifts, and great earning potential
Conspoor training guidelines, high turnover, negative vibes with your trainers
The most stressful work environment you will ever be in!!
Let me start this by saying that this job COULD be the best job ever, but unfortunately everything about it just sucked. They sell you the biggest bill of goods ever and pretty much do the complete opposite of what they sold you on. First off the management is absolutely atrocious, they could care less about you or your life outside of sysco, the cases that are on the truck is the only thing that matters in their eyes and if you cannot get it handled than your completely expendable. As a truck driver, you always like to see a good strong structure in terms of how your trucked is picked and loaded, and especially how it is routed but at this place it is the worst you could ever imagine. The truck is a complete train wreck, you open the back door and all of your first stops product is on the bottom of the pallets so you have to spend an extra hour just breaking it all down in your truck just to get your first stop off, and that pretty much continues the whole day, you will literally spend an extra 3 hours of day digging for product and reorganizing your truck over and over throughout the day..the loaders are just as horrible, they just throw product wherever they want to and you have to constantly climb over product to get to what you need or they just bury it all together to where you have to take everything off your truck and reorganize it yourself which eats up a massive amount of time. The routing is hideous, they don't care where you are, if they need a stop done they will
Routing is trash. Management always calling and complaining
Where do I start. Start time for driver shift was at 4am. So, you’re up at 3:30am. Shuttle driver brings your trailer and better pray your pallets aren’t flipped over or your TK is working. Or you’ll have food getting spoiled and smelling all day. My first 4 stops were always stop that didn’t open until 10 am. Must I remind you we start at 4am. Your supervisor response for that will be, “just move the those stops to the side and write down how you want your route.” Which I complained numerous times to main office and to supervisor. They tell you they will check into it, then when you bring it back up they will tell you it’s not up to them. It’s up to sales rep to set your times. Your routing just sucks. You’ll have a stop on one block then make you go to next stop across town then make you go back to a block you were just on to deliver another stop. Had supervisor and sales rep call me nonstop asking where I was and I’m not allowed to skip stops. Then call next week and say I need you to skip stops. Oh, and this always happens. Say they want it all then you take in all products and when finished they’ll say, “we don’t want half of it. Whoever placed ordered messed it up.” Then will have that stop again tomorrow. They want a 95% scan rate when labels aren’t on boxes or ripped and will call you to see why your scan rate is low. Then ask to take pictures of ALL damaged scan labels and send them to supervisor. Make you drive to a stop four times a week and it’ll be for 5 items. S
Very intense competition on the streets with very little loyalty in food service. Often dealing with competition undercutting. Sysco is very "Corporate" and has too many rules and regulations that often interfere with the selling process. On the territory street side, Sysco does not care enough about the customer unless their is potential for major expansion. Territory street sales focus on the "mom and pop" business, but all too often, the M&P are not big enough to deliver to.
They are very black and white and when was in sales for Sysco, your success depended on your District Manager. During my 3.5 years with the company, I only saw mine for meetings. I could not get him to work with me and always heard the excuse, your doing great, you don't need me.
Since this was my first sales job, I felt like I did need him. The problem I ran into was that I proved my work ethic and independence within the first year, so he believed in me too much. The one thing that I was unable to learn was how to position myself with job security.
My DM would often bypass me for large accounts in order to place band aids on issues other reps were having. He would give large accounts to other MA's even if they were in my territory. Unfortunately, my DM lost 14 MA's and within 3 years, I was the veteran in my district. He lost 90 years worth of experience and then in 2008, the economy tanked and they liquidated my entire district including my my new DM.
A side note: Often found people w
ProsAwards, trips, ability to help others, think outside the box, TEST KITCHEN!! AWESOME!
Great Company, Changes No Longer Promote Top Performance
Sysco has been an amazing company for me! There is a great training program involved and the majority of leadership has been great! I personally have had a great experience with all of my district managers. Sysco is a massive company and you are taken care of with health, dental, vision, 401K matching, stock options etc.
As a sales consultant, this job is stressful. There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of fires to be put out in the typical day to day. This is not a 9-5 job. You work with mostly restaurants and they are going 365.
The upside, you basically run your own business. You plan your days and your car becomes your office. You will not be going into an office each day and no one is really looking over your shoulder (unless you are not doing your job, and your numbers will reflect this quickly).
A major downside for me personally, is how they have recently changed their pay structure. Up until July 2020, we were paid an uncapped style commission. The larger your weekly sales, your paycheck would instantly reflect the hard work put in. They recently changed to a majority base salary with potential to make capped bonus amounts each month. If you are looking for more stability and safety, this could be a benefit and make Sysco and even better company to work for. If you love the grind and are money motivated, it has put a damper on the upside.
Overall Sysco has been an amazing company to work for. You wear many hats and learn all sorts of things. It has built
ProsBenefits, schedule freedom, limited micromanaging, management, winning trips for top performance
ConsThe new payment plan for sales, Can be very stressful at times
Questions and answers about Sysco
What is Sysco sick leave policy? How many sick days do you get per year?
Asked Oct 13, 2018
Only 4 And hasn’t changed in 20 years
Answered Mar 14, 2022
Doctors note after 3 consecutive days off.
No More than 5 days off with pay, union exceptions exist.
Answered Aug 11, 2020
How often do you get a raise at Sysco?
Asked Nov 10, 2022
Yearly
Answered Dec 4, 2022
Not often
Answered Nov 29, 2022
What is Sysco holiday leave policy? How much holiday leave do you get per year?
Asked Nov 7, 2022
2 weeks, and also on top of that 4 paid nd 4 unpaid sick leaves after one year or probation.
