Unhealthy work environment; unquestionably the worst IT job I've ever held in my life. - Field Service Technician bei Innovative Network Solutions (Michigan): Mitarbeiterbewertung

Unfortunately, there's far too many Cons that outweigh the Pros. I'll start out by saying that, as stated in other reviews, this company's management is an abhorrent mess. It's probably the poorest-run company I've ever worked for, and that isn't hyperbole. There's been a greater than 50% turnover in the technician staff in the past year, and the clients have all noticed the churn. It will be impressed upon you that you are a "team" and that word will be thrown around like a five-year-old with a rag-doll, but pushing together a sandwich just makes it's filling fall out. Much will be promised to you in the interview and hiring process, and none of it will be delivered. You're given a rough outline of expectations that change on any given day, and thrown into a trial-by-fire situation. Benefits are available after 90 days, but they aren't cheap or very good. You'll be paid a below-market rate (and this company has a history of underpaying everyone it hires), Salary-based, no overtime pay, NO comp time, a loose definition and execution of "Flex" time, and after a few months you will be expected to be part of an on-call rotation attached to your company-issued phone. You will be expected to work Saturdays and this will happen a couple times a month, minimum. When you do work Saturday, your request to leave early on any given day is denied, and the only way you can ever get the time back is if you can manage to sneak out of a client an hour or two early a couple days the following week. If you do not work a Saturday, whether you have a legit excuse or not, you'll never hear the end of it from the boss. The person who plans the project will tell you "2-3 hour" job, and it will become 6-8-10 hours. So prepare for 50+ hour weeks for 40 hour compensation minus extra wear and tear on your vehicle. Speaking of which, you use your OWN vehicle, drive 1,500+ miles a month, but will only be compensated with a gas card. They tout it as a "use it however you want 'benefit'", but will monitor and call you out on it's usage, regardless. Schedules are written only one week at a time, are issued out on Sundays, and frequently change at a moment's notice; your own schedule won't even be consistent despite visiting the same clients. The Lead technicians, despite being nice individuals on their own, are frequently unavailable because they are too busy themselves, and while technically skilled, have woefully inept management skill usually resulting in a strategic and logistical nightmare. They use a helpdesk to field calls, but it is understaffed. Management doesn't know what "direction" to go with in a helpdesk, so clients are told to call helpdesk first, but then receive poor service or contradictory information, or helpdesk is unable to help, and they end up having to dump client call-in issues on you regardless. Which makes them afraid to call anyone at all. The helpdesk software itself is junk. Delivering "good customer service", and low-balling the customers on their contract price, is just the company's way of covering for poor communication and inadequate rendering of services. From a technical standpoint, the underlying infrastructure at almost every client, is out-of-date, disorganized, and the closest you'll get to standardization is "almost all machines are Windows 7, and the majority of the servers are on the same OS". Further than that, it's a hodge-podge of cheap equipment, duct-taped together. So you never really know what you're getting into, and the varying levels of consistency in infrastructure makes it difficult to support multiple clients. Documentation was improving since I was there, but is still badly executed and frequently missing. Helpdesk calls and field issues almost never get a ticket assigned, so there's no history or record of past issues except for verbal history lessons. Usually from the client themselves. For some reason management is afraid to push forward on roll-out and improvement initiatives, probably because they just trip all over themselves and botch the execution regardless. Management style and expectations, as mentioned before, is VERY inconsistent. They will frequently side with the client, and throw you to the wolves if there's a problem. If there is a project or incoming equipment in the pipe, even as a primary tech for your clients, you won't know until the last minute. They are tight-lipped and nobody understands why. As an example, a client may order a few desktops to replace some old XP machine. Sure, you know for yourself they are old and need to be replaced, but suddenly one day you'll get an email from the office saying that new machines are in and need to be deployed ASAP, right out of left field. You'll be scheduled for Saturday for a project, but not actually given details as basic as "arrive at such and such time" until probably the EVENING before, at best. Even then you'll rarely get the full details, as if they're trying to trick you into it. Usually because it's a wiring job. You'll get a "Performance Review", but it's nothing more than the bosses grasping for straws finding something bad to say about your work, asking for a status on clients when even the Lead Techs don't know (which they should), and otherwise talking AT you. Shooting down your opinions and ideas, telling you what you've done wrong, and sending you on your way. It's really more of a Disappointment Lecture. There's very little positive reinforcement, and you get used to "no news is good news" and receiving lots of complaints and chastisement, but no appreciation for the work you do, and a "thank you" is LITERALLY the last thing you can expect to read in a management email. For a company whose slogan is "It's about people, not machines" (which is drilled into you from the onset), they are laughably lacking in empathy or warmth. Lastly, no matter what kind of employee you are... good, bad, or otherwise, if you do choose to work for this company, the best advice I can give is this: Make every effort to avoid the office, and stay out of the boss' cross-hairs, or your life will be miserable.