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Granite Telecommunications

Engaged Employer

Granite Telecommunications reviews

3.0

45% would recommend to a friend

(1,406 total reviews)
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Rob Hale Jr.

61% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

Granite Telecommunications has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 1,406 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Granite Telecommunications employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Telecommunications industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
1.0
Jul 16, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Free gym - Good training program (military style) that prepares you for ANY OTHER JOB after that. Basically, if you survive GRT for >6 months, believe me my friend, you can survive ANYWHERE ELSE. - If you are willing to learn, there are so much to learn, the best skills you can learn from the job are as follow: MS Excel, MS Access, Microsoft SQL (I believe only Finance can get it installed in your computer), teamwork, communication, etc. - Teammates are nice and smart people. However, sometime you need to be careful of back stabbers. We had one incidence when a team member accidentally fell asleep due to taking care of her sick mother in the hospital, another teammate told on her and she got fired. - The company is next to the T - Granite Day was great. - Granite is very generous in term of donation to charities, non-profit organizations, and especially Dana Faber Institute. - Nice parking lot - Good 401k

Cons

OK, this is going to be very straight forward. Everything that I am going to say here is from my experience, I'm going to be completely honest. I promise. First of all, let's talk about the toxic environment. I was 3 mins late to work due to traffic, this was like the only time ever, and I got an email from the supervisor asking why I was late for 3 mins. Also, I got a verbal warning for leaving my desk too often. Where was I? I went to the bathroom because I drank coffee, and when you drink coffee, naturally you need to go to the bathroom. It is THAT simple. Do I need to give up on drinking coffee? Do I need to stop going to the bathroom? Hmmmmm.... Tough choice.. (In the end, I chose to leave). Secondly, let's talk about getting a raise or a promotion. THIS IS GOING TO BE THE TOUGHEST THING you can try to do while you are here. It is tougher than trying to climb Mount Everest. I am serious. You need to write a 4 page 2000 words essay (it feels like it), you need to explain why you deserve it (actually, you have to beg for it, like a beggar), and the supervisor cannot make the decision, it has to go to the manager, and the manager will do everything she can to delay giving you a raise (one of my teammates asked for a raise and she was given a 4% raise after half a year of constant begging, I solute her for this, and she was one of the hardest working people I know). If the manager doesn't like you, THAT'S IT! You will never get a raise or a promotion. It is not based on your performance, it is based on whether your manager likes you or not. She will give someone 2 promotions in 2 months if she likes that person, and she will not give you, not even a 1% raise if you are not her favorite (at this point, it doesn't matter if you work hard or not, you will not get one). It's difficult, so sometime people just give up on asking for a raise/promotion and start feeling that they don't deserve it. Thirdly, let's talk about the work culture. The work culture is set up in a way that it encourages people to sabotage each other, finding each other's mistakes, and stepping on each other so you look good in the manager's eyes (why? because you need to be in the "elite favorites group" to get a raise or a promotion, remember?). Anyway, your works will always get second-reviewed by other teammates. You will constantly get corrected, penalized, and looked down to for making mistakes (people make mistakes, we are not machine, and even machine makes mistakes, come on!). Sometime you'll find yourself arguing with your teammate, who has no ideas what he/she is talking about, over some small stuff that doesn't really matter, and guess what, all the "higher level group" will be CC'ed on the email. It is a system when you will feel like you are being constantly monitored down to your hair follicle, and yes it will eventually drive you nuts. In my team, people who stay there for >3 years fall into these categories: 1) doesn't have a college degree so this is the best they think they can get; 2) people who are too afraid or lazy to look for other jobs; 3) people who just cannot get another job. Mind you, there only 4 "senior" people who have been on the team for >3 years, the rest of the team (about 20 people) has only been there for less than 2 years. What does it tell you? The turn over rate is so high.

1.0
May 2, 2015

The worst work experience imaginable

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Close to the T -Gym on site -Vacation/sick/holiday pay -Occasional bonuses paid to entire company

Cons

-I can't believe there are people on here trying to defend this company. EVERY negative thing I have read here is absolutely 100% true. There's no rhyme or reason to who gets promoted, they are incredibly inconsistent with it. Granite has a lot of supposed criteria in place that they use as an excuse to not promote people, but they are more than willing to bend these rules for people who are darlings of management. They play favorites like you would not believe. I once saw somebody get hired permanently in the provisioning department, and a month later, that person was given a position as a corporate recruiter on a platter because she was a young, attractive female who a couple managers liked, despite there being a rule in place that new hires could not transfer departments within a year of being hired. Prime example of management bending the rules. And the corporate trainers actually use this employee as an example of how easy it is to find a career path there. -You cannot get a raise without being promoted, and the higher-ups routinely drag their heels on promoting deserving people. For a company that constantly boasts to the media about their increasing revenues and how much money they donate to charity, it's incredibly difficult to fathom why annual raises are not given out. You can be at the same pay rate for years on end. They rarely promote the best and most deserving candidates for supervisor positions. Instead, they usually opt to promote the people who they can control the easiest. Many hard workers are not rewarded, and then they have to watch people get promoted ahead of them who did little to merit a promotion. -Pay is mediocre. Between rent, bills, and living expenses, there is not much leftover. Most of my vacation days were spent at my apartment because I could not afford to take a real vacation on my salary. -The computers provided are awful, mine was running Windows XP, a completely out-dated operating system. My computer frequently lagged, I would receive emails 2-3 minutes after people sitting right next to me. Also, heaven forbid if you want to take a break from your day and look at something online...they have a filter in place that blocks nearly many web sites. -You are stuck in the department you get hired in, unless you have friends in other departments that can help you out. If you try to transfer to other departments, you are looked at as a malcontent and the directors of your department will use it as an excuse to deny or stall a promotion. When interviewing for other departments, the interviewers were extremely condescending, and said they didn't understand why I was interviewing for the position. On my last day, several people in the same department informed me that had I interviewed with them instead, they would have taken me on their team in 30 seconds, because they respected my job knowledge and work ethic, which were completely ignored by the interviewer. -Shirts and ties required Monday through Wednesday, despite being a company that rarely has customers on-site, making for an extremely uncomfortable work environment, especially when the indoor temperature is often above 75 degrees. I once clocked it at 82. Very difficult to get any work done when you're sweating through a dress shirt. I don't know why maintenance people can't seem to keep the building at a comfortable temperature. -Must be at your desk and clocked in by 8AM, and prepare to be warned if you come in at 8:05 a couple times. You have to punch in a timecard, even as a full-time employee. Vacation time is tracked right down to the minute. -You constantly feel like you're being watched, the COO routinely makes the rounds to make sure people aren't on their phones. -Mandatory Monday morning meetings that are little more than the owner cracking dumb jokes, fawning over the sales team, and watching people make fools of themselves for free Red Sox tickets. -Management doesn't seem to genuinely care about their employees, you are expected to come into work even when the governor is encouraging non-essential employees to stay home. And Granite actually views themselves as an essential utility, an incredibly self-absorbed and arrogant viewpoint that alienates their employees and makes them feel under-appreciated. Morale is consistently low throughout many departments.

1.0
Feb 7, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I like the team I work with, but I got lucky. A whole hour for lunch. Gym on site. Bonuses based on annual company revenue.

Cons

I don't even know where to start. The recruiter actually told me, "I know the Glassdoor ratings are low, but you shouldn't listen to that." Well, I took her advice, and it was the worst decision I ever made. I've been with this company for a while now, and needless to say I am looking elsewhere. The whole company is a giant high school, with management being the popular football players and cheerleaders that do whatever they can to make the rest of us miserable. Let's see, just a few mentionables are that they'll dock your pay if you're a minute late to work, no exceptions. This past Thanksgiving they told everyone that they could have the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off, and the Tuesday before the day came, they changed their minds and told everyone that if they didn't show up to work, they'd be fired. I watched employees actually have to cancel plane tickets and plans to be with their families. I even watched employees cry. I could go on, but I won't. This company's treatment of their employees is downright disgusting.

Viewing 19 - 21 of 1,406 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,564 Granite Telecommunications reviews submitted anonymously by Granite Telecommunications employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Granite Telecommunications is right for you.