- Compensation
- HR
- Management
- Very limiting work environment
- Rapidly expanding company with little to no scaling to keep up with demand
Compensation:
Between Tier 1 agents being hired on for higher than Tier 2, the terrible “merit-based” raise system (with a max of 3%), and the complete lack of cost of living adjustments, the monetary compensation here clearly lacks anything to be desired. Despite that, benefits are rather good with moderate access to PTO, and Medical/Dental/Visual.
*Recently, however, Jamf has entirely removed any sort of covid sick leave, so that access to PTO is rather moot should one be so unlucky. There are opportunities to use other means to cover extended leave, but any of those requests can take as little as a couple weeks or as long as a few months.
**Looping back to the paid holidays. Offering 24/7 support is awesome for customers, but means some people get the short end of the stick working weekends or holidays. In addition, there’s no “getting that holiday back” - If you work service desk or on-call during a holiday that the rest of the company gets off, you’re just out of luck on that one.
HR:
During my time at Jamf, I attempted to go through the process of receiving accommodations that ultimately would have helped me perform my job better than what I was able to. This, of course, needed to be done through HR (which also has not scaled with the company, and can also take weeks to months to get any sort of progress on a case.
Upon asking for the information on how to apply for accommodations, the HR Representative working with Support at the time made it very clear that they did not believe I needed them because my disability is mental health related. They instead provided the information to take a leave of absence. Following that, anytime I tried to get any additional information, I was shoo’d away and told to call the number they had given me. Never getting the accommodations I needed, my performance continued to drop and no amount of explanations or pleas for help from my manager would get through the “Get on the GL or you’re fired” attitude tier 1 managers have over their employees.
Even going to higher level management would ultimately lead to nothing as they’d give a boilerplate “Yeah I’ll look into that” with no action or further communication surrounding the issue.
Management:
Tier 1 support requires a call center level dedication to the phones, and everything else can just fall by the wayside. If you waver on the phones for whatever reason, be prepared to face unreasonably severe consequences.
Managers will continually spout “The GL is the most important part of the job” while also assigning a full case queue and chat shifts everyday. The latter two are more like busy work as managers will routinely pull people from chats or casework to “Meet the demands of the GL” leaving no time for any other sort of learning or progression in your support career.
Tier 1 Management also has a bit of a problem with treating employees as disposable. Mental Health or Physical Wellbeing are less important than the GL. Managers will encourage taking the entire day of PTO if anything is preventing you from being on the GL. Construction outside? PTO. Ear infection? PTO. Allergies making you sneeze? PTO. They would rather not have you at all, than be available outside of the GL.
Regardless of what you bring to the table, nothing is more important than the GL.
Very limiting work environment:
As mentioned above, nothing matters aside from the GL. This includes the company value of “Relentless Self-Improvement.” There is simply no time, due to the way management treats employees and the lack of scaling of any department to meet demands, to learn or explore anything. Tier 1 managers subtly push that if a case requires any level of research just to consult so you can get back on the GL.
There is absolutely nothing earned for over-performing in Tier 1 support. You won’t have managers breathing down your back, but regardless of the documentation you provide, questions you’re able to answer, cases you’re able to close, if you’re not on the GL it just doesn’t matter. Again, management actively rewards the bare minimum of droning through 3 hours of calls and coasting everywhere else.
It’s not all bad though. The people I worked with fostered one of the most amazing communities I’ve been a part of. It’s really sad that Jamf doesn’t recognize or reward the talent they have. Maybe they would have kept some of the really amazing people around.
Ultimately, this is a fine place to work for the Jamf experience, but your talents will be better recognized elsewhere. Thriving in Tier 1 support is as simple as doing the bare minimum and having no desire to grow your tech support skills beyond what is strictly critical.
