Good place to learn but not to stay long term - Level I Helpdesk Zimmerman Advertising Employee Review

Valet forced down your throat: Forced to have valet guys park your new car doing burn outs and turn corners on two wheels every morning. If a valet guy parks your car under a tree on the required Z parking lot and a tree branch falls off and dents it, you are responsible to pay for it. Constant revolving door. One guy quits or gets fired on Wednesday or Friday, his or her replacement will start the following Monday. Turnover is much worse than a call center or fast food hamburger restaurant. Terrible benefits. You have to work 5 straight years for the Z to match your 401k at 4% to be 100% vested. Compensation appraisals are not guaranteed and if they are given expect less than 2%. Very little recognition for accomplishments especially when handling high priority projects in a timely manner. No raise to speak of despite the fact I was in the top 10% for performance on my team. Snobish and uppity executives who care more about their pocket books and moving up the food chain and not their own staff. If you don't hold the Director, VP or EVP title they will walk past you like you are invisible. I will try to give a friendly hello in hallways or elevators and was commonly greeted with silence or being ignored. When the new Apple *whatever* comes out and executives go "Ga Ga" over it, IT Management expects you to drive your own vehicle to the Apple Store at 5am to wait in a long line to buy for executives (who's salary easily exceeded well over 6 figures) using your own money and you will have to wait two weeks or longer to get your money back. If the Helpdesk team does not decide who goes then IT management would randomly pick someone and force them to go. Why can't an executive assistant do this duty? You think staying overtime will get you time in a half pay with a nice big fat paycheck like most companies? Wrong. At the Z you will be paid HALF your RATE when doing overtime. So if you make $18 an hour base you get paid $9 an hour when doing overtime and make lesser as your OT time increases. Poor work life balance: You are expected to answer every text, email or tweet from your coworkers and management on your days off during all hours of the day. Working in IT requires 24/7 mandatory on call rotation which is surprisingly not listed in the work responsibilities section of the job role in Helpdesk. Poor leadership and communication from IT managers. They are Completely out of touch from policies, procedures, and practices. Their request and responses are always vague and not clear. If you make the mistake in trying to "assume" what they are requesting and do their request incorrectly it could cost you your job. I always had to go to their offices for verbal clarification to cover myself if directions weren't clear. Piled with endless work. Never ending flow of new hires (8 or more per week), terminations (6 or more per week) and office moves as if the company likes playing musical chairs. Last minute notices for new hires is extremely common. Hiring managers don't understand it can take a few hours to get someone's laptop and phone setup after you tell us that you just hired someone 5 minutes ago and they need their laptops setup NOW as the new hire needs to work NOW! Hiring practices and communication with HR are discombobulated to meet IT realistic time of deployment which is the root causes of stress and burnout. Always short staffed due to extremely high IT turnover and not enough coverage or ample time for training new IT staff or taking lunch breaks. Average lifespan for an IT personnel is 5 months to 2 years before shipping out due to low morale, high pressure high stress environment, lower than average wage, no career growth, and bad management who seems out of touch with team needs and direction. IT management are not willing to go in the trenches and get their hands dirty like the Helpdesk. Always threatened by some executives who have no self respect for themselves or their employees they manage daily or coworkers they work with. Ive never worked for a company where leaders curse like druken sailors. F this and F that was quite common. They will be nice to you one day but are quick to notify your dept head or the CEO while blatantly broadcasting your name as if you are the devil himself if things hit the fan. If you need something from them they will put your request on a back burner. Why? Because they CAN as they are overpaid EVPs and you are small fish to them. Since I been there in my short stint (less than 1yr)I seen 13 really nice IT guys come and go. Most being fired or some leaving due to high stress as they found better opportunities from different companies willing to pay a lot more with competitive industry salaries(50k+ vs Zimmerman 35k) that offer much more professional work friendly environments. Zimmerman start most IT guys at 35-40k where most companies start at 47k or higher. Working hard with extended work hours while being paid HALF your hourly rate to catch up on work on your OWN time was never good enough. Exceeding the bosses needs during emergencies was never good enough. Stopping what you were doing to help the boss or executives who needed help NOW and not receiving a simple THANK-YOU from your hard work and dedication to resolving their issue in a quick timely manner for them was never good enough. I've seen hard working Helpdesk guys leave 1-2 hours later after working their full 8 hours just to catch up on work. IT Managers are quick to point out mistakes and broadcast them to you and your team to humiliate and slander your credibility. Yet rarely give zero credit for good work. Buying random breakfast is not giving credit. Vouching and fighting tooth and nail with upper level executives to get your best guys higher pay is giving good credit. Providing detailed and helpful assistance in a time of need is giving good credit. Though I performed admirably up to the end, I always felt I was one step away from the chopping block. Lived every day in fear of what nasty feedback I'd receive and having fear of losing my job on a daily basis.