Tracking hours is handled oddly, I was asked to always put down that I took an hour off for lunch when most days I was eating on the run, and rarely had any time off for lunch. Then, if I compensated for the hour I didn't actually have off on my time sheet, I was asked why I said I worked late when I didn't. A bit frustrating.
Phone support shifts were unreasonable, and not paid properly. I would be asked to work the one phone support line for all Future POS customers nationwide, by myself, Friday 5pm-11pm (after working all day Friday, 7am-11pm Saturday, and 7am-noon on Sunday, and I was only paid for the time I handled calls, despite the fact that I was required to be available for all of those times, and needed to be at my computer to do it. Then of course, work as usual on Monday. This was rotated among 5-6 employees nationwide, so I had a weekend like this every month and a half or so.
No flexibility on shifts, including the use if your paid time off. It didn't matter that I was hourly, it didn't matter how far in advance I requested it, any deviation from the standard 9-6 work hours was not really allowed. Even when working on a project full-time that could have been done from home, I was required to be in the office, despite having been told originally that I would be allowed to work on projects from home.
Because there was only a manager and two techs, and because I was not the tenured tech, most of the time after hours service calls would be my responsibility, so my nights and weekends were almost never safe.
Constant contact from clients at all hours of the night. Future POS has a phone support line, manned by only one person after office hours. And only until midnight. So when the bars and late night restaurants have trouble with their equipment at closing time, they aren't even trying the phone support line, they're calling the techs directly. Not only that, but they are often upset with Future or their equipment, and the tech takes a lot of crap, even though the tech is generally not responsible for the problem.
Poor training, initially and ongoing. Definitely learn on the fly, and there is very little direction for what to do with old equipment, recovered equipment, damaged equipment, etc. Everything just piles up until the manager gets fed up, and then you spend a week or so "sorting" things. There are still pieces of equipment in that office from the 70s and 80s, that are no longer used in this line of work.
