Part time job, full time frustration - Inside Sales Associate Sherwin-Williams Employee Review

2.0
Jun 9, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Management is easy to work for, decent schedule flexibility

Cons

Pay is grossly insufficient for the work completed. PT employees are capped at 29 hours/week. Some stores have 4-5 PT employees, yet they "can't afford to hire full-timers". There's ZERO commission for PT salesmen (even though we can sell upwards of $5K+ of product a day). We must "hold the customer's hand" through the entire purchase (explain variances in color, paint sheen, paint lines, application, etc) which can take up to an hour. Customers walk in asking for "a gallon of white" not realizing there's 50 different whites and off-whites, in up to 7 different sheens and 12+ product lines (it's much like someone walking into a library and saying "I want to rent a book", or a grocery store and saying "I want some food", then having an employee explain EVERYTHING to them). Customers ask you to match a paint color from 20yrs ago (without considering fading or a change in base product). They can ask you to match color from a paint chip smaller than a hangnail (no exaggeration). They bring in a magazine and ask for a color match of a picture (without realizing that a photo is a combination of multi-colored pixels). They ask for a color match from a picture on their phone or laptop (without considering the back light of the screen being blue or gold spectrum). They don't want to hear explanations, they just want it matched. If you can't get it spot-on, they complain to management or shoot an email to corporate. On top of all that, there is very little room for advancement from PT to FT/Management.

Explore other reviews about Sherwin-Williams

5.0
Feb 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They have a competitive benefits package

Cons

Sometimes the hours can get long

5.0
Jun 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A positive work environment. The best co-workers I have had so far in my career worked with me at Sherwin. I also worked under an amazing management team. There is a lot of room for career growth. I worked for Sherwin for about 3.5 years. I started as a contracted lab technician, then I was hired full time as an R&D Associate Chemist. I quickly worked my way up to R&D Chemist within a year of being hired full time. The department I worked in was very fast paced, however, I know there are many other groups that move at a much slower pace with longer timelines. This would make it much easier to manage the workload.

Cons

Working with marketing was challenging at times. We would regularly receive big requests a day before they needed something. This would pose a challenge when you had other priorities to attend to. The pay was average. I do think it could have been slightly higher for all of the job responsibilities given to the chemists in my group specifically. The workload was overwhelming at times.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All