Undervalued/Underappreciated - Help Desk Technician Unified Technologies Employee Review

I enjoyed my time at Unified, did some interesting work

management was a bit a drift for a while, but after the sale things got better

The people: There are still some great people working at Unified Technologies, seasoned professionals as well as some young "go-getter" types who form a good team. There are also still some great customers doing business with Unified Technologies. That being said, it seems as if both are changing as staff and clients are seeking better opportunities elsewhere.

Compensation: Salaries may be inline with local "in-house" IT jobs at smaller organizations, but are under par when compared to other IT providers in the area as well as larger employers seeking internal IT staff. HR policy for performance reviews is non-existent so many people do not see an annual cost of living increase, some have not seen a change for years. Mileage reimbursement for use of personal vehicle is 25% under the federal rate, this impacts some more than others as some employees do not travel. Some travel local from customer to customer all day and others travel less frequently but to locations a couple hours away. Management will make a lot of empty promises and tempt you with something that sounds appealing(career growth/training,money), and it will probably never come to be. Work/life balance: Better for some that others but many individuals are over-worked. Our industry requires work to frequently be done outside of normal business hours, that is no secret. The opinion of the organization is that this is "part of the job" but they also feel that it should be in addition to working a full 8-5 5 days a week. Comp time or flex time do not exist. If you get scheduled to work a weekend or several hours in the evening do not expect to get a day or half day in return. If you work a late night (scheduled or not) the expectation is that you will be back on the job first thing in the morning and working a full day. Be prepared for your calendar to be micromanaged and cross-checked at every attempt. Improper Distribution of workload can lead to similar results. You will often be assigned too much work with the comment "just get it done" putting you the employee in a position to either sacrifice your evening/weekend or not complete the work. While this can be common in many workplaces, it seems to be standard operating procedure for UT. Seeking assistance is correcting this overload is not an easy task. Management: Unified Technologies is the result of a merger between two organizations, one being a networking/VoIP company and the other an IT services company. This results in single entity owned by 3 (formerly 4) individuals with different backgrounds and management styles, this alone causes some challenges. There are another 5-6 vice presidents, a few directors, and beyond that another group of managers. Keep in mind that the whole company is only 35-40 people. Given the size of the organization almost all staff interact with the owners directly in some capacity. It is not uncommon for a staff member to find themselves working under the direction of an owner or other management personnel only to be scolded by another and pointed in another direction. This seems to be a daily occurrence as policy and procedure change on the fly and are communicated verbally in small groups, often leaving a portion of the organization not knowing the latest change in how the business's day to day operations will function. The several layers of management seem to be the result of the "Lead by Fear" mentality that permeates the company. Micromanagement is growing more and more prevalent as more and more administrative/management staff are brought on to monitor the small group of technical employees who carry out the income-generating work. If you are coming in as an engineer or technician prepared to spend a good amount of time attempting to explain why you did something a certain way to someone who doesn't not understand the work that was done in the first place. Accusations of something being done wrong (for lack of skill/effort) are very common and are often communicated out in the open for colleagues to observe before the truth of the matter is even understood. Be prepared to wander past closed and open door meetings as well as impromptu discussions where management is yelling and treating staff/other management. Constructive feedback from staff is seen as a challenge and is often met with the threatening of one's job. The result of this continued behavior has built a group of people who spend most of their time deferring blame and "CYA"ing instead of focusing on completing customer facing tasks. CYA stands for Cover your "backside". This is leading to rapid turn over with many employees lasting only a month or two.