Vantaggi
While the benefits at first seem appealing, just like everything else at this company the truth is disgusting. The only TRUE positive is your peers and by peers I mean other Tech support reps or a few supervisors and that is literally it. It also appears that the CEO Stuart truly cares about the growth of his company as per the few meetings he will have the entire department seem to come from a place of sincerity but it is quite hard to discern the level of sincerity with how the tech department is ran. The other departments alongside management of this department see you as inferior beyond comprehension.
Svantaggi
Where to start? We'll start with the toxic environment that is hidden under their "core values" that they preach as gospel. Your value to the company is non-existent and at a moments notice you can and WILL be fired for no reason. They have done this to multiple people constantly. Certain instances of individuals who are recognized for their immense work by their peers and receive awards for their work are terminated without cause. A common trend you will notice is a potent lack of transparency that can be felt from the moment you start. They will feed you false promises of "incentives" under the pre-text of holding no one accountable to any standards when making these promises. They have made brazen lies on multiple instances to multiple individuals/groups. In lieu of this, they will play a game of running you around in circles like some kind of sick form of entertainment. Think of your career, time, and value as a joke (the kind in which they tie a string with a carrot and dangle it for you to chase with full intention of leading you off a cliff). They will use false promises of growth within the company or at the very least the department, raises, incentives for taking on far more difficult shifts, all in an attempt to keep you chomping at the bit juuuust long enough before they terminate your employment. Speaking of "lieu's"...they will promise a concept of "Lieu days" for days that you accumulate through working on a holiday, which these days are ready to be used to give you a paid day off to be used at your discretion. In case you have a family member who is getting married, or a loved one who needs some assistance this system will allow you to get those important days off. Sounds great doesn't it? Hold on, we forgot about the core value of "integrity" that they hold so dear! They forgot to mention that you cannot use these lieu days 'whenever' you would like but instead have to book in advance to be used. Still not so bad right? Forgot to mention that you have to ensure no more than 2 other persons are booking your day off or else you will be declined this day off. The policy of how many people can be off those days can be changed at literally a moments notice without anyone notifying you that they have changed it. Additionally they will enforce this new policy that they have changed that day and decline your request from a week or more ago, they don't even notify you that it was declined. Make sure you remember to check everyday only to have it declined. Keep in mind for these requests you will more than likely have to book weeks in advance, wait weeks for it to be reviewed only for it to be declined after waiting for weeks. Why not just enjoy your holiday/extended weekend then? Well...keep in mind you WILL be forced to work those holidays but hey at least you get a lieu day that you MIGHT be able to use somehow right? Wrong! You forgot about the false promises that get constantly made, didn't you? The lieu day system gets removed, just like a lot of things you will notice. So yes, that means you are forced to work holidays and your compliance is a non-factor. On to vacations, this one thankfully will be short because it's not as bad as the lieu day debacle. It's FAR worse, imagine the pain and headache of booking your lieu days but amplified...that is booking your vacation time that you have accumulated. The reasons I can think of this being so convoluted is one of three reasons or some twisted amalgamation of all 3: 1) The management is so severally incompetent that they are unaware of how to adequately schedule time off requests/scheduling that it backlogs an immense amount of work that agents, leads and supervisors have to clean up due to a lack of staff. Additionally the tasks of the job regarding answering calls, emails, chats all whilst reading team messages are so daunting that it is impossible to do all at once...yes all at once. The management is so beyond distant and disconnected from the individuals/teams that they are in charge of overseeing that they make these changes at their whims and desires based on company needs whilst simultaneously jotting down your reasonable requests for it to be thrown in the garbage because the company needs supersedes anyone in this department. All the while your work ethic is questioned constantly while actively trying to assist customers of all sorts, why? Since they are so (willingly) distant from everyone else they cannot understand what you are tasked with and what is so complicated about it. 2) Superiority complexes: The management appears to have a sense of superiority regarding any and all situations. You need assistance with scheduling time off? Well that's tough, you're going to need to WAIT on when they deem you a necessary peon to assist. Enjoy being talked down to in a condescending tone? Perfect place for you! They appear to view everyone within this department as a nuisance, no exceptions. Somehow ave a planned routine planned out on sporadic work scheduling? Tough luck, enjoy having it flipped on its head after a month. In the time I have worked there the ridiculous scheduling has been switched half a dozen times. Work and life balance is quite literally impossible. You would think they are open to constructive criticism or some feedback on how to better assist you with their transitioning schedules that they notified you a month prior (not of your upcoming time or days off but when the schedule changes, don't worry they will give you all that useless information like your start times and days off a few days before the changes are implemented at the very least) good luck, now your character is called into question. This could quite possibly be due to the palpable God complex they have, as to say "How dare a peasant speak to me about my decrees". 3) They do not care and plan on firing you anyways. This is self explanatory, as they understand that these changes will rub quite a few people the wrong way and in attempt to avoid this, will fire you with no cause only to go ahead and hire the next herd of poor individuals who will be used, abused and thrown to the side. During my tenure, it is difficult to say if the CEO, CTO etc...share the same sentiment or that they may have accidentally given the keys of a crucial component to the wrong individuals and are slowly deteriorating as a result. Nonetheless this will and IS having a gradual decline in quality and capability of the company as a whole and should be addressed by one of them to avoid a massive implosion. There have already been several implosions of other individuals experiencing this toxic environment. This has resulted in instances where I have heard managers threatening agents with termination or exposing very personal information in an attempt to silence anyone of any tenure into silence. This means that at any given point due to one of the 3 factors listed above your opinion is a non-factor. These "core values" they try very hard to sell you on appear to be in-quantifiable standards they use to deem when (not if but when) your termination will come. They hold themselves to no standard whatsoever if you are wondering. There have been incidents where they have promised individuals additional pay for taking a 6pm - 2am shift for taking on such a daunting task. When it came to paying or applying these paid incentives they played the same game they always play "Who said that?". Remember integrity? Neither do they. Once your purpose was filled as they did with this shift/rotation as it is quite busy during their time of need they were disbanded with a 2 week notice of their rotation being cancelled and the promise of extra pay is irrelevant because that shift no longer exists. If you complain like some of the individuals on that rotation have you will find yourself at the unemployment line. Why not avoid joining that shift? Well, like before they will changes to rotations based on company needs so they WILL find people to take these less than humane and desirable shifts with or without compliance I can bet. Next onto "career growth". Let's say you are someone who thinks they can whether this storm of unspeakable proportions and have a wide-eye'd future ahead of them thinking you can grow. Bad news, they will stop you. This is not a joke, there is instances where other departments will need some people with experience in other fields to aid them for their upcoming work temporarily with the "possibility of a contract extension", the work can sometimes be acknowledged don't get it wrong the issue is with the managers...again! In the time I have spent here I have personally witnessed the head managers stop my peers from receiving employment in other departments because the needs of the tech support department is important. By needs, customer service. During that time I cannot recall a single person has moved out of Tech support because management did not want them to, I am not joking. To conclude, understand one thing: You are not valued in the slightest. Your situation, your individuality and what you bring is irrelevant. You will be grouped together with other people based on your ethnicity, nationality and religious creed as they have accidentally let slip in many instances. You are expandable and in attempts to do so offer "contracts" that let you know, once the busy seasons they encounter are over...your fate is in the hands of people who deem you a worthy peon for additional bread crumbs until deemed for dismissal. Do not for a moment think you can speak to HR as well, they are almost as distant, borderline unreachable and uncaring as the tech department managers. Save yourself some sanity and do not sign your soul away, you, who is reading this is worth far more than you are selling yourself for. There are some "positive" reviews here that make no sense in contrast to this role. Upon contacting every past and current employee in this role have, in attempt to understand how they may have arrived to such a conclusion given their tenure, they have all professed no recollection of posting such comments. I wouldn't stoop as low as to claiming that they falsify testimony in an attempt to lure unsuspecting fawns because if so, above all the disgusting infractions I have experienced or witnessed first-hand that would be the most disgusting. To pose as a safe haven for people who value themselves regarding growth for their future only to willingly fool them is sickening, I pray that they are not THAT slimy. Yet, I wouldn't put it past them at this point.
