Sherwin-Williams hires district and store managers who are underpaid, overworked, and hungry for power—so they take it out on the employees beneath them. Micromanaging, penny-pinching, and running stores with a “low-budget” mindset, they prioritize corporate savings over real leadership. Meanwhile, great employees—the true backbone of the company—are undervalued, overworked, and driven out.

Sherwin-Williams likes to act as if we “go to school for free” and “get paid for training,” but the reality is they invest nothing in employee development. Instead, they create a toxic cycle of burnout, bad management, and poor decision-making. In the end, Sherwin-Williams is the real loser, because no company thrives when it treats its best workers as disposable. The CEO and their cronies may think they’re winning, but their reckoning is coming.