A Last Resort at Best - Anonymous employee Arrow Electronics Employee Review

As an experienced professional, I thought I knew the right questions for vetting a prospective employer, but clearly I missed the mark on this one. While most employers try to paint themselves in a positive light, it is only in retrospect that I understand just how severe and numerous the misrepresentations were at Arrow – from the recruiting process onward. Opacity seems to be the modus operandi and questionable business practices are so engrained in the culture, they have become normalized. Either the chief decision makers are woefully out of touch with the true culture of their Company or they simply don’t care. I tend to think it is the latter. To assist in the decision-making process for anyone thinking about accepting a position with Arrow Electronics, I’ve highlighted the main areas of frustration based on my experience. But in short, read and listen to the reviews – it is as bad as people indicate. The reviews aren’t just written by a few “bad apples” that are upset – there are numerous, deeply-rooted, systemic issues at Arrow that you should seriously consider before deciding to work here. Misrepresentation #1: “Arrow is a Tech Company – we’re like Google” – Firstly, Arrow Electronics is not a Tech Company – their customers and vendors are Tech Companies, but Arrow is a supply chain manager. They ship electronic widgets from Point A to Point B – plain and simple. There is a small segment of their business that adds value to these electronic widgets but by and large the innovation is coming from the businesses Arrow contracts with, NOT Arrow. Publicly however, you may have been intrigued by the “5-Years Out” video distributed by HR or maybe you saw that commercial for the solar suitcase or the race car – nothing in those publications is representative of the day-to-day – merely marketing gimmicks. If you join Arrow thinking you’ll be part of this “innovation” or the general attitude that comes with innovative tech companies, you will be sorely mistaken. Which brings me to my next point… In contrast, Google IS a Tech Company and their culture mirrors that. They’ve built a work environment that is flexible, empowers their employees to think outside the box, encourages them to think proactively and trusts them to pursue excellence in their respective fields. You will find NONE of these traits at Arrow. It is a stodgy, rigid, 1950s hierarchical organization that rewards blind adherence to orders from executives, lacks any sense of flexibility or openness to new ideas and one that actively discourages and retaliates against any who dare to buck the status quo. They rule with fear and control – threatening to take your job, smear your name, or sabotage your career. If you need just one example, take COVID-19. Google is flexible and caring enough to allow employees that can work from home to do so until at least the end of 2020. Arrow, on the other hand, tried to mandate a return to the office, while still under a shelter-in-place order. They’ve even gone so far as to disallow exceptions due to child care challenges or vulnerable individuals in the household. I’m sure vulnerable individuals will be mandated next. Misrepresentation #2: “Diversity and Inclusion is Our Number One Priority” – Denver, Colorado is not exactly a diverse place to begin with but coupled with a complete and utter lack of concern for actually making a workplace diverse or inclusive, this statement is just laughable. For a Company that ranks this as their NUMBER ONE priority, you would think they might observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day or at least post some inspirational message on their social media about his contributions to diversity and equality. Nope. Or maybe recognize Autism Awareness Month? Cesar Chavez Day? Asian Pacific American Heritage Month? Pride Month? Nope, nope, nope and…..nope. Being diverse and inclusive encompasses a lot of territory, but apparently, Arrow has decided the better option is to just reject all forms or diversity and inclusivity. And this is of course excluding the plethora of recent events (post-May 2020) which Arrow could have used to strengthen their stance on diversity and inclusion but instead they have chosen to remain silent. Deafening silence. Observing Juneteenth? Not Arrow. We get it – Arrow Electronics is a good ol’ boys club and you want to keep it that way. Just don’t slap some trendy buzz phrase out there that diversity and inclusion is a top priority because CLEARLY it isn’t. Misrepresentation #3: “Ethics and Honesty are Core Values” – In my opinion, profit at any cost and haphazardness would be more accurate descriptors of Arrow’s “core values”. We take compliance training classes like every other place, but it’s window dressing. Without getting into specifics, the substantive actions of people in positions of authority, managers and above, blatantly demonstrate that their actions are not even remotely guided by ethical behavior or honesty. Their actions are guided by profit. And while some might argue that is true for most of Corporate America, I would ask you to stop and consider, when the last time someone at your job or in your career asked you to do something that was glaringly wrong? Something that made you morally uncomfortable and could result in serious consequences if these actions were to be made public? Of the many times that I’ve confronted my supervisor about this, I’m always given the same corporate puppetry lines that have been highly edited, filtered and polished so as to remain meaningless and opaque. Transparency and candor are foreign concepts at Arrow. To further compound this issue, is a perpetual desire to act before thinking plans through, which creates an endless series of confusion, ambiguity and an overall lack of personal accountability for pretty much every aspect of the business.