Well where do I start? Let me preface this by saying every individual office is basically treated as a franchise so your experience will vary based on your individual manager. Some managers are probably really good, but the ones I had were an absolute joke.
-All management cares about is revenue. The only way to have a happy manager is to bring in lots of production every day. Had a good experience with a client? Who cares, how much production did you do? It's 100 degrees out? Who cares, I need production. No such thing as a valid excuse, literally all they care about is how much money you made for the day. Finished your job early? Expect them to send you more work. Every time you talk to a manager know that the only thing they care about is how much money you made them.
-Managers are paid based on profit which encourages extreme frugalness. Nothing is maintained. Everything is treated as run it until it quits. Both offices I worked for had virtual junkyards of equipment that doesn't run and either will never get fixed or won't get fixed until the new year when the managers pay cycle starts over. All of the equipment will have problems that never get fixed. Trucks, chain saws, sprayers, spreaders....you name it, they all have issues that should be fixed but never will
-Expect to be slave driven to the point of no life during the spring and summer and then all of a sudden go from 60 hours a week to getting laid off. Rain, 100 degree heat, whatever...they expect you to work. 4th of July is on a Friday? Yep you're working that Saturday. Every other company in the area will be off but you will be working. I've worked Xmas eve, day after thanksgiving, new years eve...they don't care, it's about making money. Don't even bother trying to get time off in the busy season, it won't happen. I mean the manager will take 3 week vacations in the summer, but they will treat you like a piece of garbage if you try and take time off. Then as the work load starts to dwindle forget about dragging it out so maybe you can keep your job for 12 months. They will slave drive you right up until the end of the year so they can make a nice bonus check, and then lay you off or cut your hours to 2 days a week.
-As mentioned in the pros, managers are in the good ol' boys club. As long as their office makes money, they can literally do whatever they want. An office I worked for had almost 100% turnover in the 3 years I was there, the manager drank on the job(he would mix vodka into anything and then dump it in a coffee cup to make it look like it was water/coffee), yet he still works there to this day. Numerous complaints were voiced to upper management yet nothing was ever done
-Stuck in the dark ages in terms of adapting new technology and techniques. The PHC trucks and programs are set up with ideas from the 90s. Clients are still doing the same PHC programs that were started 20 years ago because the sales team is too lazy to change them and the clients keep renewing every year. New climbing gear and techniques cannot be used because they aren't "Davey approved."
-Weekly safety meetings that are the same recycled bs every year. If anything is brought up like "we just talked about ladder safety yet we're using ladders that are 20 years old and about to kill someone," don't expect anything to change. Current Davey employees know exactly what I'm talking about
-The work environment as described makes it really hard to enjoy your job and get motivated to work everyday. There are way way better places to work.
