As a shipping lead I would normal arrive to work about a half hour early to complete my time and attendance duties, my credit calls and respond to emails before the shift starts at 11:20am.
After that, I would conduct on occasion the morning meeting with the shipping/loading teams giving them updates on the previous nights work and any other pertinent information necessary. At the conclusion of the meeting, I typically would finish my spread sheet on the previous days errors that we received and then browse the routes for the night from transportation. This was to see if there were any changes benefitting both the warehouse and the driver with each of our daily motions.
For the rest of the day I would periodically checking on my grocery selectors and my emails to see if there were any issues that needed my attention. If there were any issues that needed more than my attention I would pass them along to my direct supervisor.
Over the course of 7 years working for GFS, I learned how to build relationships, manage more people than I ever thought I could at one point in my career and how to serve my employees, and customers, with the best service possible.
When I was a leader in our Ocala facility, the management team there was flawless. We had a perfect unity and understanding on how we all wanted the warehouse to perform and how we wanted to satisfy our customers. We executed that understanding daily, monthly and yearly, year in and year out for 7 years.
When w
ProsDedicated to its customers, excellent owners, great benefits
Poor Management That Can’t Take Corrective Criticism
As a delivery driver for this company to say that I was more than disappointed in their overall lack of organization when it comes to making sure the trailers are loaded correctly in accordance to the driver’s schedule and the blatant disregard for the driver’s time that he/she needs in order to make the deliveries in order to stay on schedule would be an understatement. Myself and other drivers have arrived several hours early as outlined per our schedule only to end up sitting in the break room waiting for hours for our trailers to be completed and then find out that they are loaded erroneously AND now the driver is BEHIND schedule. Management could care less because it doesn’t affect their day at all. They are NOT the one who has to rearrange the trailer, reload the items to make the delivery flow better and more efficiently, make up the missed time because some locations, i.e. schools have cut off times, or work late. I asked one of the managers who made me late for my route(because he was busy laughing and playing with several individuals instead of working) what was the company procedure in place if a school delivery was missed because the school was closed? He told me to make a note of the incident on the order sheet include the time, leave a message for the school and to bring the order back to the warehouse. However, when I returned from my route that afternoon, after I had delivered EVERYTHING, I was relieved of my duties because the manager who was embarrassed by
ProsThe benefits
ConsWeak Management, Disorganized Frontline Managers, Back-breaking Work for Low Pay
Overall the work and job weren't all that bad. I really enjoyed being a selector for the most part.
After being there for two weeks, I really enjoyed my first week of training. This was my first selecting job and I was really enjoying it. Honestly, if my shifts were capped at either 8, 10, or 12 hours, I probably would have stayed. My normal shift was 3- finish but you never know when finish is. I was there on my first real week of training when the first day I was forced over into 14 hours(3pm-4am). After not getting home until roughly 4:40 am I slept basically all day as the job is VERY physical and you are expected to perform the same way the entire shift no exceptions. I went in again at 3pm for my second shift of the week in minor pay from the previous night into yet another 14 hour shift. Now this one took most of of everything out of me. By the next day(Day 3) I was really feeling everything from the previous 2 nights. Fortunately, Tuesday is usually slow and I was out by 12 with the rest of the shift. However, the next day would be the worst. We went in and were handed the same work load but a little less than sunday(the busiest day of the week). Keep in mind we got out at 3 am Sunday night. Naturally, everybody in the warehouse are pretty physically burnt out from working almost 40 hours in 3 days. 3 am comes around and we are all burnt out and running on fumes. 14 one hour long batches were left meaning we were stuck till 8 am. That would mark 17 hours for me at this point and not being able to get home till almost 9 am was the final thought that ra
ProsHelpful management, great pay, excellent incentives, engaging work, friendly coworkers.
ConsLimited breaks, VERY PHYSICALLY DEMANDING, Unrealistic Production times, Shifts can be up to 18 hhours, very cluttered work area
READ BEFORE APPLYING. Full breakdown of working for GFS.
I will break down everything you must know about this job here:
Overall: This job is hard on the body, and you will have more overtime than off time. Management does not care to solve or hear any issues. Favoritsm galore. Difficult standards to meet. Faulty equipment on a daily basis.
Lets break it down further:
Work culture: Toxic. The atmosphere is very negative and draining. Overworked employees are not heard by upper management at all. Instead of correcting issues they will throw pizza parties. Problems are rarely solved in a timely manner. Clear favoritism and hierarchy are established early on.
Work/Life Balance: Overtime is insane! They claim a 5 day work week with 8 hour days, but what you get is a 6 day work week with between 7 and 10 hour days. Good luck getting time off, PTO and "flex-time" build up slowly. Switching shifts, times, and positions within the company is near impossible!
Benefits: Pay would be fine IF bonuses were available to everyone instead of only being included for the people that reach a certain pallet count. As well if they didn't cut days short when something broke (which is very often) without paying for the whole day.
Job security: Grunts like lumpers fired left and right for not meeting high unrealistic standards, or for calling off sick too often (even with a pandemic they will not enforce mask policy in the building or clean anything) yet people higher up like cordinators and supervisors who are repeatedly problematic can stay.
Man
ProsOkay pay, Long lunch
ConsLiterally everything else, managment, work/life balance, overtime, poor work culture
A typical day at work, I'll show up and count my drawer. Then I'm assigned a register and I spend the day having great interactions with a variety of customers. In down time, I'll carry out any tasks the managers give me, varying from cleaning to restocking to making phone calls.
I've learned to go above and beyond for the customer, every time without question. There is always an answer for every question the customer may have, and if it takes a while to find it, you keep trying. I've learned how to handle difficult customers and how to graciously thank the nice ones. I've learned the proper way to give great customer service.
Management is always wonderful. They care about you as an employee and a person. They make sure you're healthy, and that any concerns you have are dealt with immediately. If you want to learn something or discuss an aspect of the company, they will always find the time to teach you or talk to you. They have a good clear communication amongst themselves and all of the employees. They make sure you are recognized when you do something well. And if you do something less than satisfactory, they make sure they discuss it with you privately and in a constructive manner.
My co-workers are the best co-workers I could ask for. Everyone that works there is friends. We talk outside of work, and we make each day fun. Everyone works together and everyone is willing to help one another no matter what. If you're going through a rough time and need a shift co
ProsGreat environment, quarterly bonuses, excellent company, good benefits, 401K
ConsNone.
4.0
Customer Service Representative | Dayton, OH | Jul 6, 2013
Friendly Atmosphere, and Great Staff
A typical day at Gordan Food Service would consist of assisting customers with any questions or concerns that may be brought to the attention of the staff, Answering telephone calls, and completing daily task that management has for the sales associate.
Working at Gordon Food Service has taught me that running a large Corporation is very difficult. Especially when it comes to Customer service. Understanding that not every customer is going to be in a great mood and that not everyone you work with is either. At all times you absolutely must remain professional and not let your views or moods get in the way of what (GFS) stands for. (GFS) has also taught me being organized and knowing product is key in being successful in sales.
The Management at GFS was Great! Not only are they very understanding of things that may come about outside of work, they are more than willing to work around these issues. At times management can be a little demanding, but they will never have the staff do anything that they couldn't accomplish themselves.
My Co-workers are like family. They have their days where their personal lives may affect their moods at work but for the most part they all are using (GFS) to propel them further in life, and are a blast to work with. Everyone takes their job very seriously and works extremely hard to meet the daily goals of the company.
The Hardest part of the Jobs would be completing truck. Every Monday, Wed, and Friday Mornings and Afternoons a truck arriv
ProsFlexibility with scheduling, Clean work place, Friendly Staff
GFS likes to buy up smaller companies to gain other markets and remove competition. They think their "culture" is going to change the every person they touch. Reality is you either follow what they say or you will be replaced!. When you are part of a buyout you will notice more and more employees are let go and replaced with "new" GFS employees. Very few make it from the original company no matter how good you are unless you are willing to "drink the cool aid" and become one of GFS drones. As a salaried employee your time is their time so expect to on call 24/7. Management is clueless, my manager didn't have a clue what I did day to day. After a buyout he was put in charge of the division. Rather than learning what we did and needed he threw the division aside to focus his personal gain in another area. No matter how well you do your job when GFS says your time is up you're gone. Closing entire division without even a thought of the employees. This is after they pound in your head what a valuable asset every team member is. When problems arise you can expect to take the blame and then be coached because the communication is poor. Many emails about their culture, subliminal religious massages in emails, long worthless meetings. They like to throw around their humanitarian aid, the money they donate, pictures and videos of the elite sales force (that drank the cool aid) etc. Look around at the USA and see where the aid is really needed instead of the 3rd world countries. Bottom
ProsGood benefits, profit share, 401k, paid time off
Tough Work but if you are willing to put in the work and show you want to be there, they will help you succeed and advance
It is pretty physical work, but if you work hard, the incentive pay is quite nice and is almost like an extra huge check every month. The pay is pretty decent, definitely a lot more than other warehouses will give you. Its a dirty job, but if you show leadership that you want to be there and have that "drive" to push through and succeed, they take notice and will help you get to where you want to go. They have a growth and development plan for everyone and for the most part, stick to it. You have to remind them a few times to make sure you get cross training opportunities, but I don't blame them when so much is going on. They like when you take the initiative and show you really want to move up there. They have already helped me and cross trained me on other things and I have a development plan going for leadership. If you can tough through the bottom of the food chain for a little bit, it will be worth it. They are a family here and will help you move and grow within the company if you want to put in the effort. The only thing that I can say I haven't liked is as they have grown a little bit, they have taken a few things away, but they still give us plenty more than a lot of companies.
ProsAlthough christmas and thanksgiving bonus for working on those days, they have made it double time which isnt entirely taking it away..hire from within, care about your future there, family atmosphere, good pay and many incentives.
Conssome things have been taken away like christmas bonuses, have to remind leadership to cross train you on things and work on development plan
I knew the job would be very physical but didn't know it would cause me to be injured unfortunately. As a route driver you unload upwards of 900 units over up to 12 locations, maybe even more locations. That's probably the most extreme route there would be. On average my day would consist of up to 600-700 items and maybe 9 stops. If it weren't for the pallets being mixed by stop I don't think I would have ever had an injury. The items are picked and stacked by the warehouse staff, and they are paid incentives to pick orders fast, not always taking into consideration that they put an item for the first stop at the bottom of a 6-7 Ft tall pallet. You could be pulling off stop 2 3 and 4 from the top of the pallets and have to repeatedly move those cartons several times before delivering them. Now when you consider there are 600 items you might touch each of those cartons 2-5 times. I honestly love the job. I like the physical aspect. I like all of the coworkers I've met, everyone is very friendly and give great advice. I liked driving and making the deliveries at night, learning maneuvers to get in and out of weird parking areas. The paid time off is awesome, the bonus pay is good if you can ever reach the goals. The one thing which seemed hard to find out, is what the mileage pay is and what the carton pay is.. they set you at a weekly guarantee of pay and if you go above the mileage or carton pay you would get paid more. None of the drivers that I tagged along with seemed to k
A fine place to work but don't accept a position in the freezer
Gordon Food Service was a fine place to work in terms of environment. They pay okay for the workload. Mornings start out by unloading the pallets off the truck and then breaking them down into their respective areas on the shelves and backstock. Then the rest of the day would be spent working on backstock and store upkeep while tending to customers. The dry section was the best part of the job and was often the easiest, managers never expected day shift to finish their work until 12pm. Working the cooler section was also pretty good as the workload is typically light and not stressful. Slicing can get pretty busy though which was a downside. Freezer was hands down the worst part of the job and the job I often found myself stuck with since nobody else would do the job. Managers refused to place me anywhere else despite polite requests for different shifts or would promise the possibility of working another area without much prospect in doing so. pallets can take time to break down and managers are not often happy that customers can interfere with the time it takes to break down. The regulars from the store are very nice and will often remember you by name and don't need much assistance besides delivering their product. Schedule conflicts were often because the company cuts the number of people on any given shift down as low as possible so finding replacements are tough.
Prosdecent breaks, decent pay, nice customers
Consgetting stuck in the freezer is not pleasant and you will be kept there if no fuss is made.
A typical day: mindless rush from Milton, waiting for loads to be done up to 3 hours waiting a day for runs that take 14 hrs to finish = 17 hrs. Nobody cares if you exceed your hours.
You have to use company equipment, cart, scanner, logbook, circle check, report sheets to fill out prior departure and after arrival. Occasionally unload your own trailer.
Your shift going to start between 2 -8 am.
You'll have 5-20 calls a day, average 18 for good with long walks and hard to access entrances, deliver through live kitchens walking by 2 inches from flames as high as 2 feet; some quick drop offs as well.
Forget lunch break, eat whenever you can - while driving, delivering, but can't stop. It's the "war room" mentality.
How it works? Senior drivers 10+ years at GFS will have average 10 calls a day, new drivers will have average 18.
You'll have to scan every single cases as of scanning time 0-20 second/item plus the investigation of missing bar codes that cannot be scanned.
Your pay is good, but the value runs will be assigned to friends and buddies and seniors, and who are blending in. However the good pay does not measure up with the job we demand you to do.
Great thing for new drivers we have automatic tractors, that are slow to enhance delivery speed.
Manifest has a time limit for each call, and the time is underestimated in most cases, always. The addresses are mostly correct, some are not, so good luck finding it!
Over the years I did learn that whoever criticises th
Pay is good for the back breaking work we do.
Company events are great, see you all at the Rodeo. This will be my 2nd year attending. Drivers all have a good working relationship and we all help each other out. We all work very well together like a good oiled truck. BUT Supervisors and Management need a lot of work. Very much to negative on every angle. We have to rely on the clerks or cleaners for smiles and respect. Too much gossip and rumour spreading mainly by supervisors and why do we have so many supervisors on one shift it confuses things when we call in to get our issues deal with we speak to a different person every time there were 5 on at one time. Better training plans to be put in place for new folk instead of rushing them through and hoping for a good turn out. Management needs to do a better job of being more understanding and caring of the new people coming in and being more present to them instead of making them feel like they don’t belong and that they have to figure out things on there own. New drivers need more on road training and cart building training. To many injuries are hapening because improper handling practices. Pre-shift exercises should be enforced and followed through with. I think we should have senior lead drivers for all shifts including freshex and coffee company not just the downtown team. Give a chance for us older ones to take on more responsibility and let us take the lead on dealing with our drivers issues while out on the road. Bee
It's true that the job of a sales-service delivery driver at Gordon Food Service is really physically demanding; but the compensation is beyond fair. I would even say it's extremely generous considering the work we do. I have been in the trucking industry for years and am aware of what else is out there. I do not believe I could earn more money anywhere else in trucking, unless I decided to take on the responsibility of buying my own truck, and ran it constantly. I make more money as a company driver at GFS than a few of my friends do who are owner-operators without the stress. Although our schedule is four days on/three days off, there are currently unlimited opportunities for overtime as we continue to grow and expand. I cleared six figures in my first full year at GFS. I definitely worked extremely hard to earn that; but it is possible. A big differentiator between us and our competitors is that GFS rewards drivers for their performance. We do not get paid hourly. All of our routes are designed to take 10 hours and every driver is home everyday. Our compensation formula takes into account number of kilometres driven, number of stops, etc. While safety is always our number one priority (safety bonuses are even paid to drivers quarterly) and our second most important priority is maintaining a high quality customer service experience, we do not miss out on any money if we are finished our route in 8, or even 6 hours. The drivers who do really well at GFS are those who are har
ProsGenerous compensation, rewarding work, support and appreciation
ConsPhysically demanding, challenging and stressful at times
It's a really hard job, they don't give you walkies, they give you pump trucks, on top of it most of the pump trucks are hand me downs, they don't actually work. They don't give you ramps for docks, so if the dock doesn't have one its cool they give you a handcart to break down the whole skid and stack the boxes on the handcart then roll in to the businesses for them. They make you go up and down steps. Majority of the time you are by yourself offloading these 36 footers with one tiny hand cart, full trailer, and really tight schedules. They have you rushing all day you never really get a break but you are allowed 40mins break a day but no one usually uses it because they use that time to catch up to the tight schedule, otherwise you'd be out all day. Pay is good but no where near worth all the work they have you doing, and it says $30 here but you start at $28 and make it to 30 after a year. Also you don't get paid hourly.. you have a set pay depending on the load that you have for the day. The older guys have the good loads at about $340 a day and you will be at like $270 a day or less never more. Also the only way your paid hourly is if your a driver helper or not doing a broadline load which there really isn't much else of other than broadline or rider or van.. rider and Van are short hours. They don't care about you or your family at all, they just care about their product, you express problems your having to them they don't listen. Very weird work culture. One thing the
Pros4 day work weeks.
ConsShifts, equiptment, management
Questions And Answers about Gordon Food Service
What is the work environment and culture like at Gordon Food Service?
Asked Aug 5, 2016
It is hostile and toxic.
Answered Feb 24, 2020
When we ask employees about what is different at Gordon Food Service, the culture is what comes up most frequently. People really connect -- both with their leaders and their co-workers. Those that are customer facing, like our delivery drivers, store employees, and Sales teams also connect to our customers. There are great stories of how these relationships grow over time and increase the camaraderie within and across teams. Gordon Food Service employees really get to know each other as people.
Beyond the culture, the work environment varies with the job. Our warehouse workers and delivery drivers have very physical jobs; they get a full workout without ever stepping in a gym! Most drivers are up really early to start their routes before dawn, but most are also home every night and those that do run overnight routes have hotels and don't have to sleep in their cabs. Our store employees work at a really fast pace as well -- that's retail! But most like the fact that Gordon Food Service has more limited hours of operation than a lot of retail (earlier close in the evenings and closed on major holidays). We also work with our store employees to provide flexible schedules that allow them to attend classes or manage other commitments.
We would encourage anyone considering a role with Gordon Food Service to ask questions throughout the process to ensure a good fit. Social media is a great place to start, but get a balanced perspective by collecting more feedback as you meet our teams.
Answered Sep 10, 2019
What is the best part of working at Gordon Food Service?
Asked Dec 13, 2019
Good coworkers
Answered Oct 28, 2020
The bonuses
Answered Oct 22, 2020
How often do raises occur at Gordon Food Service?
Asked Oct 4, 2017
Annually. Even top performers should never expect more than 2%.
Answered Feb 24, 2020
Gordon Food Service’s compensation philosophy is to help maximize the recruitment, performance, and retention of high performing employees.
For most of our employees, pay increases are an annual event, depending on hire date, budget, performance and manager discretion. Employees hired in the 4th quarter are not eligible until the following year.
Other employees may receive more frequent rewards based on achievement of key performance indicators instead of an annual bonus. Warehouse employees who earn incentives and drivers who earn component pay also have annual reviews of their rates.
Answered Dec 13, 2019
How long does it take to get hired
Asked Oct 22, 2016
Paid overtime after 40 hours
Answered Oct 12, 2021
It depends on the position and what the hiring process looks like. Some positions may require 2 or more interviews, while others may be as quick as a one or two day process. We typically say to plan on 3-4 weeks, with it hopefully being shorter.
Answered Dec 13, 2019
What tips or advice would you give to someone interviewing at Gordon Food Service?
Asked Aug 9, 2018
Walk away fast! No....RUN!
Answered Feb 24, 2020
We would recommend doing some research on the company- it's always good to know about the company you're interviewing with. You never get another chance to make a good first impression, so dress at least business casual (if not professional). It's always good to dress a level or two above what the dress code is for your position- if the dress is casual (warehouse or drive roles) you should dress business casual. If you're interviewing for an office position where the dress is business casual- make sure you're dressed professional. Lastly we do behavior based interviewing- so research that! We're looking for specific examples of times when you've handled situations. Follow these simple tips and you'll be ready!
