Middle management is very inconsistent and totally unreliable. Area managers are hit or miss, but directors are total ghosts when you need them but are on your back if you don’t have a PO# at the end of month. Directors also drag their feet when it comes to raises with the PM promotion track and will undercut you every step of the way because they know it will ultimately affect their wallets down the road. So if you expect a raise, don’t expect it for months, if ever, once you request it. And this is with the company constantly updating/adding SOP’s and presenting more and more responsibilities to PM’s every year. AM’s can be impossible to reach at times and leave you high and dry on the days when you most need them for help on a site or if your equipment breaks down.
Burn out will happen, and leadership acts like they care about your health, but don’t mind loading up your schedule regardless of who you talk to. Your AM and Director will see it as weakness. The travel isn’t too bad but does wear on you. If you tell HR you’re burnt out they could care less despite presenting themselves as protecting the employees. HR is there solely to be the shield of the company (as you can probably see in their responses here).
Work/life balance is not ideal. Weekend and night work will be expected of you when called upon. You’ll be expected to travel 2-3 hours one way if that’s what it takes to get to a job site.
Overdoing it with the corporate “buzz words/phrases” that they jam down people’s throats and if you’re not entirely bought into the GPRS way of life, you’ll feel like an outsider and leadership will use that against you. If you don’t see eye to eye with an AM or director you might as well leave.
Software role outs have been a complete disaster. Going from infor to service pro and then to netsuite has been a huge misstep. We’ve been hearing about sitemap for how long? And there’s still no clear vision of what’s going on it with it to the PM’s, but it’s being hailed as the best thing since sliced bread.
I really do think the very top tier people in the company try to look out for the people in the field, but as private equity came in the company has slowly lost its luster and that’s why the longer tenured employees are getting fed up and leaving. More and more pressure is trickling down to the field level. Most people in regional/area roles (directors, area managers, vertical sales, business development) are only in those positions because they’ve been with the company for 10-15 years or have special relationships with people back in Toledo. Just because someone has been with the company that long doesn’t make them qualified to be overseeing entire regions or even managing multiple people, especially when they have a hard enough time picking up the phone
