I am going on five years with LKQ and for the most part it's a good company. I have worked at Three different plant locations in the driver capacity and even though the work is hard it really does beat being unemployed.
Starting out it was a great place to work. The Management team I worked for was the best. They were up front with the low pay and the fact that there were no pay increases in the near future. Being unemployed and desperate for a job offering health benefits and paying more than minimum wage I took the job.
The hours were extremely long 12 to 13 hour days. The work was hard but the management was supportive and never complained about overtime. As long as your money was right and the customers didn't complain you are left alone. You also had to show that you were working hard and were not padding your time.
Then the Greenleaf buyout happened. Upper management felt that shutting down the plant I worked at and moving everyone to the Greenleaf location was a better idea. Keep in mind they did this pretty and much told everyone that not only would there be NO raises but no compensation for making our commute from, in my case 8 minutes, to over an hour one way.
On top of that they did not move the management team but left the Greenleaf employees and management in its place. With this in mind, the old "Greenleaf" employees held a great deal of resentment and the management team treated us like second class employees. I ended up quitting on good terms but it was a
Prosas long as you do your job management leaves you alone
Conshigh turnover/bad communication/pay below market value
Very bad culture; no development of relationships; noncaring attitude towards employees
Well, I'm not sure where to start. Compensation got 2 stars only because they are competitive with pay, but they offer no salary increases and benefits are good. I worked for a micromanager so was not allowed to make my job my own. I also had to put up with constant complaining about other employees until the plant manager got tired of listening and fired him or her. As for the plant manager, he doesn't do anything but what his office manager says. All staff walk on eggshells around her because they know once she starts complaining about you,you are gone. They are going to a new process eliminating the functions of my job eventually. They decided to terminate me early. I had taken time off (which they made me use PTO even though I hadn't earned it yet so now I owe them $$) to get teeth pulled and in have no top teeth. Have an appointment in two weeks to get dentures. They wouldn't give me two more weeks, so now I have no insurance and no income to get the dentures. If the management is not worthless because they don't know their jobs, this really makes them worthless. I had a good performance review (not sure why I had one anyways, they don't give raises). I now have to interview for a new job with no top teeth. Awesome. The fact that they couldn't keep me until I got my dentures really shows what kind of people are running the show. Also when they told me they were eliminating my job, the conversation was full of hostility and the slanty-eye look the office manager gives whe
Overall a good place to have a career with a good balance of everything you need and some things you want.
A typical day would be fairly structured with time schedules to keep and quotas to make, but as long as you do what you're supposed to when you're supposed to do it, you shouldn't step on too many toes. It's a pretty laid back atmosphere where most everyone appreciates humor and sees the brighter side of things. I never had any issues with co-workers the entire 5 years I was there save for a few management problems, but these were somewhat easily rectified with a mutual compromise one way or another. I learned everything I know about the automotive recycling business from them. It's an amazingly complicated and logistically challenging business to be in and from what I've seen, and the other similar businesses I have had personal contact with, this is one of the best places in the business. They are an international corporation, and being as such they obviously have the prerequisite "top brass" that has absolutely no idea what's best for the workers, future or the company itself. I met most of the executives for this company and some were just like me, some were bean counters that only cared about the investors and the bottom line, and some were completely hopeless and you had to wonder how they got that far and that successful, but this is all par for the course for any corporate entity such as this. That's why I never held it against the company. I was very happy where I was and after all, what's the point of working somewhere unless you can all gather around the water cool
Prosgood family-oriented work environment with opportunity for advancement.
Consever-increasing work loads, sales is a revolving door with new faces every day, typical corporate attitude with most things.
This is one of the few companies I have worked for that I am giving a high score to, and I have had a lot of good experience from this job. This will be a rough overview/FAQ - type review, my experience was at LKQ/Keystone in Leominster, Massachusetts.
This job was a well - run balance of work and life by your typical standards of a full time job. $12/hr, 5 days a week, even paid overtime for the weekends at your pay rate. They wanted you there at 0700 hours and would work until 1700 hours, and every day was a new experience. I worked in CORES/Tires, so I got to see quite a bit of the place. Your compensation/benefits are available after a probationary period, as were your days off/paid vacation.
Job Security was simple: Do what you were told/do the job, adhere to the standards of safety, and no problems. The brilliance in its simplicity of it was great for a former military man such as myself, and I never felt lost in the directions given to me. On the other end of the things, I also felt pleasantly challenged by the workload, which was plentiful and ever-present. I cannot speak of Advancement, because I was not there long enough to advance to a position in management or otherwise.
The Management was nothing short of the following; Direct, Concise, and they had no problem with correctly managing problems on-site or reminding us that safety was the priority in the mission. They also demand the best quality their employees can handle.
The Job Culture is mostly G
ProsGreat for Former Military, Good amount of work, Good Management
ConsGuy-run means Ladies will have a hard time fitting in.
Stressful and hectic workplace with zero structure or organization.
Every morning starts at 5:30 am. Drivers come in and verify car parts to be loaded on truck and load the truck. Car parts include anything as small as a fog lamp or window trim to large drivetrain parts such as engines, transmissions, or front and rear axles, and you are given a fifth wheel puller (that is a metal hook about 3 feet long with a handle on one end for those who don't know) to move these parts off your truck throughout the day. Management consistently runs around with no clue of what to do, and if a driver calls in to work you are very likely to get your workload doubled for that day if you come in and show that you are good at what you do, because management has no backup plan to help fill in the holes that are made when a driver calls on or quits (which happens a lot, terrible turnover rate). Nobody wants to stay here to work, very negative environment and no room for moving up. You come in at $12/hr and you will leave at 12/hr. Veteran drivers, who have been there for 5 plus years (there aren't very many of those) are still making the same as when they started. Plus you earn PTO time, that means if you get sick and need to call in just once or twice in a 1 year period then there is no such thing as a week long paid vacation for you, because they take that time you were off and take it out of your vacation. This place may be great for some people but I for one would like to do something with myself and no feel shafted every day at work.
I am not scared to wo
ProsYou are kind of your own boss out on the road, Company issued cell phones, Decent pay due to overwhelming amounts of overtime
ConsNo pay raises ever, Will run you ragged hard workers want to go home too, you have no idea what time you will go home when you come in at 5:30am, your day could be 9 hours long or your day could be 13 hours long. Disfunctional and disorganized.
4.0
Quality Control Supervisor | Bellingham, WA | Sep 14, 2021
Great place to work; Meant for those that can adjust and multi-task
I only worked there a few weeks and as a place for a first job, it wasn't that bad. The people are caring and supportive, and are willing to work with their employees to help keep people happy. Any complaints I have are centered around myself and my unique situation, which should not reflect on these people. They are willing to adjust your hours to fit your needs, provide equipment such as back-braces and gloves, and more. One of the most impressive services they provide is taking in suggestions and adding accommodations to improve the comfort and convenience.
With all these positives I must admit this though: This place works as an assembly line, both in the figurative and literal sense. That means you must try to keep up your part in order to progress. You may get lucky with something simple like cleaning threads and ports, but some jobs demand high-levels of multi-tasking to maintain workflow. Not all of them can have their time taken with. I'd imagine most of these jobs require fast-paced effort over a total of 7 hours non-continuously [There being two 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute lunch totaling out to one hour]. Not only is a fast work ethic mostly required, but the ability to meet a high quality level is also heavily desired. If you are unable to meet these types of demands, either wait for the right position to open, talk over it with the employers, or sadly look elsewhere. Also, there are Saturdays that you have to show up on as well
ProsOpen to make accommodations and is full of friendly/caring people, Not all jobs are demanding and can be done with ease, Provides on-site training.
ConsHeavily dependent on working fast and effective; Not for the weak, Mandatory Saturdays on a bi-weekly basis, Requires a website in order to apply, payment is made via a credit card that doesn't have a chip.
5.0
Accounts Receivable Clerk | Stockton, CA | Nov 14, 2019
Na
LKQ in Massachusetts is an extremely large operation that employees 100's of well trained, customer service driven professionals. They understand one of the most important possessions a person has is their automobile. When your automobile requires a repair , whether it's your personal vehicle or the company owned vehicle you use to do your job everyday, it is a stressful situation that can become even more difficult when the parts you or your mechanic are depending on to complete the repair are not in the condition you expected. LKQ takes pride in working with you or your mechanic to come to a quick, affordable resolution when unexpected problems occur. Many factors come into play when a used mechanical part fails or doesn't function as expected and many of these problems are unfortunately not within LKQ's control. Often times there are additional new parts and installation procedures that are recommended by LKQ to ensure the used part functions to the best of it's ability. If any or all of these install procedures are not followed closely it is the responsibility of the customer and their mechanic to work out how the repairs can be completed as promised. LKQ provides detailed warranty information as well as install procedures for all of the parts they offer for sale - Used , new OE and remanufactured drive train parts all require a different set of install procedures. When a mechanical problem is reported to the LKQ sales staff they immediately put you or your mechanic in co
Easy going, must have excellent attention to detail
I've been with this company for 2 years now. Never thought I'd be able to move up. My hard work didn't go unnoticed though & eventually I WAS able to move up. It took a while, and I even became super discouraged there for a moment when they were bringing people in at the same wage I was making after 2 years, but I did the work of a supervisor on top of my own job . Getting my promotion definitely changed my outlook. The job is fairly easy. A lot of it is just common sense. Communication can be a problem sometimes but if you ever have a question it is really never left unanswered. Just can't be afraid to ask. I enjoy my job with LKQ & see myself sticking with this company for many more years to come. I am able to learn something every single day & have always been willing to learn as much as I can. They have worked with me anytime I needed time off. They're more lenient than any other company I've ever worked for as long as you have a reasonable explanation of things. A typical day is picking parts, staging parts for the delivery drivers, receiving customer orders & making sure they're staged in the correct routes to be delivered. Loading & unloading trucks/containers. There is some inventory work, but they have their own inventory position/crew who are good at what they do. There are also times where a part or two needs canceled off an order, restocked, and bin moved into the location. There are many things to do in a typical night for ALL departments, & teamwork is the best
As an employee at LKQ in Lexington, Ky I can tell you it's no joke. Going in everyday and having to act different just to please people who you know have great disdain for you. The management at this location has no clue what they are doing. The only reason most of them are where they are is because they know somebody. If you don't know anyone and came from the "outside" you will go no where very fast.
Then there's throwing whoever and whenever under the bus. Management cannot and will not take responsibility for anything. Everything is your fault. They choose one person per month to place all the blame on. If you are not liked you know it.
Oh and the stress level is ridiculous. Everyday you have to worry whether or not Ur job is safe or not. Job security is absolutely non existent. When u do think its safe something happens to cause that to go away. When I was hired I was told I would have a 90 day evaluation... Only to be told that it wouldn't come until you've been here a year. Really?!?!.
This location is a mess. There's nothing that anyone knows. The people who does know what's going on is the ones that always get into some kind of trouble because management is afraid you just might know more then them. It's all about ego and power. The pay is most definitely not good enough to be putting up with this Stuff. You have to be a favorite of the warehouse manager to get anywhere in this company!
Prosovertime is a plenty!, however they will use it against you and say that all ur overtime is considered a raise!
Conseverything!!!! from top to bottom the atmosphere and morale is pitiful!!!!
Amazing Job Amazing Benefits! Lacks in Wages & Time off!!!
I have worked at this company for a while now. This is an amazing job/company to work for I personally enjoy it day in day out. I get treated with respect and everyone's opinions and ideas are valued. Problems are solved here at LKQ with easy solutions that work with everyone involved. Management is wonderful and everyone is easy going. This job has been a treat and I am proud to be an employee. However two things come to mind that negatively impact this experience. The first is the company's PTO system it is very very low. Lets say I want to take a year end vacation but get sick in spring or get hurt or just need personal time off. Your PTO gets used very very quickly and there is no option to take an unpaid day off so come time for your vacation you either squeeze by just barely or you have no time off and plans cancel. Would be far better off with an extra 3-5 days PTO. The second thing is wages. Still above minimum wage but in my state wages are getting very close to my own and I feel and many other employees feel that we should be paid far more than a dishwasher or fast food worker due to the amount of work we do and what we provide the company. Besides that LKQ is a wonderful company to work for and we all treat and act like family with one another. Days go by fast and we are all respected and have great work experiences.
ProsSecurity, Benefits, Great Management.
ConsPTO system needs to be updated!!!, Pay is lacking compared to minimum wage jobs that demand far less work.
Day to day this was a basic warehouse job. As a warehouse worker you come in and are assigned a task or series of tasks from your supervisor... Could be order picking, could be unloading a container, building skids, staging etc. Pretty standard stuff.Full time delivery drivers had a set area of the city that they covered everyday which was nice because it gives the opportunity to get very familiar with a route and the customers. Eventually, they combined the roles of warehouse and driving staff and made it so everyone hired has to have a license and must be willing to do deliveries, but didn't offer any extra pay or bonus after raising the required starting qualifications for the job... On top of that you'd be thrown onto a new route constantly that you might not be familiar with and didn't know the customers shops. While the full-time drivers were allowed to do a route over and over to become familiar, you'd be left to meets the same standards but with little chance to get comfortable and learn. You'd do your best but still get told you took too long or it should be done faster. Then the next time you are asked to drive you try to rush and that leads to mistakes... Which you are then told that you're screwing up too much or simply pulled aside and written up. Direct supervisors seemed to understand more when things didn't go as planned and tried to listen and work with you. Too bad that effort seemed to get overshadowed by the operations manager who would sit in his office a
Prosclean work place, nice equipment, friendly coworkers
Conspoor management, toxic culture, high expectations for average pay
Working for this company is not long term for most people. If you ask alot of people at the location, most will tell you that they have worked there for less then 5 years and most make less then $30,000 a year. This company has a track record of eliminating those employees who want to be compensated for their hard work. I was personally promised a raise after 3 months. We took our store from the bottom to the top in our region and our store is making over $10,000 a week in additional revenue and was given ZERO raise. Our manager then went on to make promises but never came through on one! He even went so far as to tell every employee that the yearly budgets were not out and that was 3 months after the budgets had been out. We confirmed this by two other Manager of other locations.
Benefits as Medical and Dental are decent, but forget about seeing your families. There is almost ZERO vacation given for this company and NO SICK TIME AT ALL!! They do have Long Term Disability but for the pennies they would pay you, you couldn't live.
The company takes the idea's of employees and use's them for their own gain and tells the people that came up with them, thanks!!
I am still a current employee for this company, and one of the highest paid at my location, but every week I keep my eye out for a new opportunity else where!! By The Way.. Keep your eyes out on the internet for openings at your location.. Before they fire an employee they actually post for the job on Monster.. One of t
Prosmedical and dental
Constoo many to list, no individual reconigtion, no raises, we have to pay for our own office supplies
Questions And Answers about LKQ Corporation
What advice would you give the CEO of LKQ Corporation about how to improve it?
Asked May 25, 2017
Start by showing your employees that you appreciate them. Communication is key when running a successful location. In this location it's secretive the managers vs the workers vs being a team and operating as a unit.
Answered Jul 22, 2021
If you tell employees that they are "valued" or that they are the reason the company succeeds, don't turn your back (show true colors) when stocks drop a nickel. Hypocrites!
Answered Feb 7, 2021
How do you feel about the future of LKQ Corporation?
Asked Oct 30, 2016
Management force to bring used stuff look like come out of dumpster to customers.
("Sell it"). All they care about is money.
They don't care about shops or employees
Answered Jul 24, 2019
There a bunch of Greedy people! Not worried about there employees only there customers!! 30 cent raises what a joke! If you get 1 hour of overtime they wanna get rid of you. Bloodsuckers!!!!
Answered Jan 12, 2019
What is the interview process like at LKQ Corporation?
Asked Aug 10, 2016
Took forever to get on couple of months had,job not been,down,street from,my house,I,would have got a,job elsewhere.
Answered Jul 24, 2019
The interview process is very laid back. Management is very understanding of potential employees coming from all walks of life. I actually ended up talking more about life in general than the actual job requirements during my interview.
Answered Mar 26, 2019
How are the working hours at LKQ Corporation?
Asked Aug 10, 2016
No set hours,work,till,they say you go home 12 plus hours a day. Then want to fire you for overtime.
Answered Jul 24, 2019
Lol Extended
Answered Mar 14, 2019
How would you describe the pace of work at LKQ Corporation?
Asked Dec 4, 2016
Always fast and fun makes the day go by quick
Answered Jan 15, 2019
Fast paced because you are always looking for parts. No solid management system. Managers don’t know or do the job, so they don’t fully understand the issues. One person loves overtime they will say everything is perfect.. if a person like efficiency and productive time they will say the processes are broken.
