CompuSystems reviews about "raise"

21% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

11 reviews
4.0
Nov 7, 2014

So far so good...

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Exciting industry, fast paced environment, and very supportive managers. I've been an account manager for a few years and I really like my job and the people I work with. I've received a pay raise every year I have been here. They have lots of good perks: work from home, flexible schedule, company parties, yoga, wellness classes.

Cons

Can be tough at times juggling multiple client requests at once; some of the processes and procedures are outdated; long hours when you have to work a show.

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CompuSystems Response
11y
Dear Valued ESM, Thank you for your feedback. I'm very happy that you like your job, the people you work with and the perks. It's great to hear the managers are supporting you properly. We are evaluating all processes and procedures and we are making short-term adjustments and long-term adjustments. All procedures will be greatly improved throughout 2015 and 2016 with our new platform. Thank you for your input regarding staff communication and corporate initiatives. We have made a conscience decision at the executive level to improve communications. You will receive weekly emails from me and your C Suite executive that are sent specifically to keep you informed. Also, if you would like additional information my door is always open. Sincerely, Chris Williams President
1.0
Jun 12, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The job is close to home. Experience is there at times if you are willing to experiment a little beyond their set standard box.

Cons

Double the hours in overtime, work life balance sucks, pay is low, raises are non-existent, promotions are non-existent. Appreciation is hardly seen at this company. You are worked like a dog and treated worst then one.

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CompuSystems Response
11y
Dear Former Web Programmer, Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry things didn't work out for you at CSI. We always hire with the intention of our team members staying for a long, long time. The Web Programmer job is fast paced and requires both analytic skills and programming skills. It also requires juggling multiple tasks at once. We know it's challenging and I want to thank you for the contribution you made while you were here. We are in the process of developing an entirely new platform that will greatly simplify the job of the Web Programmers. We believe the new platform will fix any work/life balance issues that may exist. That platform is being developed in 2015. We greatly appreciate all of our team members and I sincerely apologize if we didn't express that appreciation to you. We will definitely do a better job of that moving forward. If you find yourself between jobs in the future please take another look at us. You'll be amazed at how the Web Programmer job improved with the new platform. Sincerely, Chris Williams President
2.0
Dec 30, 2020

Downturn due to Covid

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great Coworkers, travel, autonomy varied duties.

Cons

Pay cuts , mandated furlough, benefit cuts, no raises for years, new investors

1.0
Mar 26, 2014

Fast-paced environment with little room to advance

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Exceptional co-workers, easy access from many major roads, parking is widely available. Casual jean dress code for those who like to be comfortable. 15min massage sessions once a month were given at my time there. Some fitness club and yoga. Some after work activities initiated by employees like meeting up after work for a drink or ball play.

Cons

The pros are pretty much your co-workers that will help you or offer you a shoulder to cry. There is one review here that made me laugh so hard because this person had the full CSI experience “A sinking ship, don't even bother.” Fully illustrates the life of a programmer or developer and two other reviews were very informative “Don't waste your time and skills here. CSI is not a place for career growth.” And “CSI needs to get it together” CONS Consistent lay offs Lose a client, lose staff roller coaster (someday commented this and I couldn’t agree more). Little or No training. Revolving Door (here today and gone tomorrow) sometimes you don’t even get a chance to meet that person assigned to your team! Most positions required to put in long hours, work weekends and be on call. Everybody was in a salary freeze for 3 years. If you get a raise (that if you get one), prepare for a 1% or 1.5% (and it will never match the cost of living) be happy with that or no raises ever. They can start another salary freeze at any time so don’t push it. Negative environment, most people there hate it, frustration and stress is on the roof! At least everybody has something in common right? I can't think of any pros that were beneficial to me in a personal or professional way. As many here mentioned, technology is outdated, custom made and the experience you gain here can’t be applied in other companies. I am seeing positive 4 and 5 star reviews of the company here and that makes me think that management is desperately trying to increase their ratings by writing some reviews themselves or were made by new employees within their first months or year that have not yet experienced the big waves that will soon hit them. People would continually leave and they would not be replaced, some are replaced by new graduates that would instantly quit once they had a feeling for the departments, the stress and the long hours. No real advancement opportunities, I have seen people in the same position for many years. When they promote people, they usually play favoritism. They promote who they like and not who is best prepared for the position. This is why they lose many talented people. Most promotions are just lateral moves, you get a new title and you are given more responsibilities. The only increase you get is an increase in your workload. Forget about that raise/incentive for your new position “you should be happy with your fancy title!” I think of many examples of people who had these “promotions” but I rather don’t say anything and maintain these examples anonymous for their own good. When people leave, they don’t fill the position. They give you all of the responsibilities with no financial incentive. Call this "an opportunity to prove yourself". No, even if you managed to do it, don’t even think they will give you a promotion. You just proved you can take more work and that's what they will give you, more work. I have a lot of ESM friends. Some have quit and some are still in the company. My advice to you is to think it twice because if you have kids, this position may not be for you. This position requires working after hours and some weekends if you are in a project or onsite and the position requires a good amount of travel. Most ESM’s are either recently graduated young girls or single women. Everything is all good until they marry or decide to have kids and that’s when problems start, when you want to spend more time with your kid or significant other and that’s not possible because of your job. This is why many quit or don’t come back from maternity leave. The veterans ESM’s who have been with the company for so long either have grown up kids or are working part-time, a privilege for a very few. If you are looking for a work-life balance position, this is probably not for you.

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CompuSystems Response
11y
Dear Former Employee, Thank you for taking the time to write a review. I'm sorry things didn't work out for you at CSI. You made many points in your review but some are simply not true. We have not had consistent layoffs. In fact we have more employees today than we've ever had in 38 year history. We did right-size a bit during the height of the recession but during that time we also actually added entire departments that didn't previously exist. We did not have a salary freeze for 3 years. In our 38 year history we've only gone one year (during the height of the recession) where we didn't give raises. Regarding advancement opportunity, they're abundant. Over 90% of the supervisors, managers, directors, vice presidents and executives have been promoted from within. And those promotions always come with pay increases. The ESM position is a challenging one but many of our ESMs have been working in that position for 10 years or more. They love the excitement, the constant change and the ability to manage projects. They make up some of our best employees. I am sorry things didn't work out for you at CSI but I do wish your review would have been more truthful as that's what benefits readers the most. Thanks again for our review and thanks for your hard work while employed at CSI. I do appreciate it. Sincerely, Chris Williams President
2.0
Oct 28, 2014

NO ROOM FOR GROWTH!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

The co-workers are friendly. The work hours and location is convenient hours. That pretty much sums it up.

Cons

There is no room for growth within the company. Pay raises are at a freeze. How does an employer have employees and not give a raise in 3 years. It is very depressing! Company should incorporate paid sick days or sick days without pay that way someone won't have to worry about being forced to come to work while they are sick and spreading their germs. The only benefits paid holidays and vacation days which the vacation days must be preapproved. Company's attendance policy is crappy.

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CompuSystems Response
11y
Dear Former Employee, Thank you for your feedback. We appreciate it. You are right, we have a lot of friendly people here and our location is even better at our new office in Downers Grove. However, your comment about raises is incorrect. The company only had one year of no pay increases due to the great recession. Plus, we offer great benefits including health, dental, and vision insurance, flex time/work from home, and company match 401k (even chair massages). Also, over 90% of our managers, directors, and executives were promoted into those jobs. This proves there's ample opportunity for growth. The sick day benefit only applies to salaried exempt employees. This group represents 80% of our workforce. I'm sorry your experience was not better. We are implementing changes to improve employee engagement and better the work experience. Sincerely, John Gaziano CFO
1.0
Dec 5, 2013

A sinking ship, don't even bother.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Compusystems has some good people working for it. Most people I met there are good-natured and intelligent. They have some... interesting ideas here for employee wellness like weekly yoga classes, Weight Watchers meetings, a walking club (or something along those lines) etc.

Cons

I mentioned above that the employees are generally easy-going and approachable. The problem is none of these good folks are in significant leadership positions. Company leadership is severely lacking. While I was working there, I could count the number of times I'd seen my manager in any given month on one finger, at most. Anyone above him? Forget it, I wouldn't know who they were if they slapped me in the face. The way I see it, this company has two key problems: 1. Severely outdated, frustrating, and bizarre standards for development combined with insane, horribly fragile and inefficient business processes 2. All these inefficiencies and frustrations lead to an enormous backlog of work that never goes away because they don't have enough people to cover everything, and the company couldn't care less about retaining the employees they do have. People are REALLY stressed out as a result in many departments. The amount of profanity I heard people using there is kind of crazy, and there seems to be some serious pent-up hostility between many departments here. It's hard to know whether upper management doesn't know about this, or if they do and they just don't CARE. Outside of the token employee wellness gestures above, I often got the sense the Compusystems just doesn't care about its employees, or worse yet, actively hates them. I had this impression from the very first day when I saw the office I'd be working in, which would have looked old and dismal over 30 years ago. Communication at lower levels can be pretty lousy, too. I remember one stretch of about two weeks when I sat idle with no idea what I was supposed to work on until I told another developer about it, who just happened to have some idea of what was going on. They've been around for over 30 years, but there's no drive to do things the RIGHT way here. Apparently they've built their success on three decades of following awful or nonexistent practices and praying every day that they don't come crashing to the ground. In 2012, they froze raises for EVERYBODY because they decided to hire some "consultants" for an unspecified large sum of money. For a while, I thought they had taken the money and run off laughing to the bank. However, in October of that year, they announced a whole bunch of changes, including a ton of layoffs. If it sounds like something that fell right out of Office Space, on some level, that's what it was. Turnover is sky high in all departments except management. I saw people last for less than six months and people who had been with the company for over a decade leaving, voluntarily or involuntarily, in my short time there. The whole company kind of seems to be falling apart, both figuratively and even literally. The roof leaks and water soaks through to the ceiling panels on the 2nd floor when it rains heavily. Sometime last year, two panels fell out of the ceiling and better yet, the company doesn't rent out that particular area, so who knows when they'll be fixed, if ever? It's one of the great mysteries of the universe how this company makes money, in my opinion. The only reasonable theory I have for why they're still in business at all is that there's little or no significant competition on the services they provide. In any other industry, more efficient, innovative competitors would boot Compusystems out of the market so fast they wouldn't know what hit them. Stay away!

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CompuSystems Response
11y
Dear Former Anonymous Employee, Thank you for taking the time to write a review. I'm sorry things didn't work out for you at CSI but I want to thank you for your hard work while you were here. You've said a lot and clearly your experience wasn't positive. I apologize for that. Our previous building was very old but it served us well while we were there. It allowed us to grow from about 75 employees to 240 without having to move. So from that perspective it was great. However, it was not good enough for our staff and that is why we allowed our lease to expire and then move into our new building, which is "A" rated space. It's absolutely awesome. Management cares greatly about our employees. We have changed our communication process to where we now keep all of our employees up to date with weekly communication. We're also in the process of building an entirely new technology platform that will lessen the workload of each employee. Everyone will get entirely new tools that are much more efficient. Also, the new platform, due at the end of 2015, will allow us to add some key positions and departments that don't currently exist. The result will be more training, more employee development and better management. I hope things are working out for you in your current job but if you find yourself between jobs in the future please take another look at us. I think you'd be really happy working in the new environment. Sincerely, Chris Williams President
3.0
Dec 12, 2016

Good Starting Point for young crowd

Anonymous employee
Recommend
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Business Outlook

Pros

Friendly environment for those starting their careers. New building and located off a major expressway, parking garage, new deli. There is a 401K, health insurance (with working spouse premium), Vacation time, sick time for Salary employees. Depending on your manager and department could have a great work life/balance, but not consistent throughout company.

Cons

Once you are in a department there is not much room for advancement or promotions (I've asked). The only way to get a "promotion" is to switch departments, but doesn't mean you'll see a raise, but you might add something new to your resume. Over all there is no formal training depending on your department. In the early years I saw a lot of cross training between certain departments, but as the company grew that kind of dwindled (again I've asked for training and was told it would happen, but didn't). There seems to be an unbalanced workload for some employees vs others. Stil waiting for that department pizza party ;)

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CompuSystems Response
9y
Dear Former Employee, Thanks for taking the time to write a review and thanks for 10 years of hard work. I really appreciate it. Also, I hope your new career is going well. Your review pointed out some key areas that we've been focusing on and making good progress. Work/life balance is critical no matter where you work and we just released an entirely new, industry-leading registration platform that will allow us to find and implement the perfect mix. Another key area is employee engagement. Recognition is a big part of the engagement process and we're going to continue to recognize people and groups throughout the year. I will pass on your comment about supervisor appreciation to the appropriate staff and try to improve in that area as well. Thanks again for the 10 years. Chris Williams President
2.0
Mar 2, 2018

Work at Compusystems

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Peers are good, let you telecommute.

Cons

Management not great, experienced favortism, pay and benefits not great at all, no raise and no reviews.

5.0
Mar 8, 2021

Great place to work!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great co-workers, always work to be done. I work with a great team, always willing to help out when needed!

Cons

Raises are low, hours get cut if it's slow.

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