Honest review of working at Bus Patrol
Please if you’re thinking about changing jobs or taking a job at Bus Patrol, please read and then weigh your decision.
General reasons to change or take a job are:
1) Passion
2) Location
3) Workplace
4) Work-life balance
5) Job title
6) Company culture
7) Opportunities
8) Recognition
9) Colleagues
10) Salary
1) Passion – Phony and a lie, the only passion they have at Bus Patrol is going public and how many school districts they can get signed up.
2) Location – Locations wherever they are lobbying to get the laws change, so they can make money is where it will be. That being said they open up offices just to have a presence when they lobby, and once they have the law needed pass (in order to collect fines) or contracts, they layoff 90 percent of the staff at the office, and it doesn’t matter if you moved to the location from your homebase with a promise of stability, they lay you off just the same.
3) Workplace – Toxic, unpredictable, bad management, unqualified leaders, long story short, the first owner of Bus Patrol went to jail for fraud, then CEO/Founder Jean (who was forced out due to a hostile takeover by CEO Karoon and board) bought the company and thus created the super silos of the untouchables, who headed their sections of chaos. C-executives, managers, HR and leads lie, harass, and will put you in a lose-lose situations, so you comply in order to protect their goal of going public or securing a school district (money), even if the action is unethical (This is across all departments).
4) Work-life balance – there is none, you are told to work your 40 hours, 9-5, and to have a balance work life. But that is far from the truth. You are expected to work after hours, because they over promise what can actually be achieved with the limited man power and resources, if you don’t answer an after-hours call, you are penalized and thrown under the bus for the calamity, even though it was their ( C-executives, managers, HR and leads) mess up. You can expect soft threats to your job security during these interactions (but job security is another point, we touch on a few bullet points below).
5) Job title – every department has different title for the same people that do the same job, which means, they phase out your position and say the company is moving in a different direction, because they want to save money.
6) Company culture – Yes men/women and live in fear, this is all management besides The CEO Karoon and the original 5 that started with CEO/Founder Jean. That being said because they fear the chopping block, they do whatever will get them by and for a lack of better words sacrifice the subordinates, and keep your emails, it will save you when they conspire and accuse you of false performance. Expect to endure BP wraith when friction (customer not happy from self-inflicted complications) arises from their biggest client in NY, Suffolks county (which they are kept a float by solely), from a lack of setting SLAs and OLAs.
7) Opportunities – None, they have been a startup company for 15 years. They have a cycle, they hire for potential contracts in Canada and USA and if they don’t get it, they fire all the techs and supporting staff (across the board) they hired for the failed contract they didn’t win. They also fire in bulk in order to keep their investors happy and to keep their financial standing on paper looking good, so they can go public. In my first week in the company several people were let go and that pattern continued up for 2 months. So yes, they hire in batches and fire in batches depending on their contract wins or failures.
8) Recognition – They hold a monthly meeting and call out a few folks, but promotions go like this: C-executives promotion every year (out of the group someone gets a new title and pay) and for the rest if you’re in the circle of trust of one of the original 5, you’ll be well off.
9) Colleagues – Yeah don’t trust a person living in fear, but there are a few who ethics are stellar and worth their salt in integrity.
10) Salary – way under market unless you are an original 5 or in their circle.
You have a review of Bus Patrol, weigh your current situation and the opportunity carefully and make your best judgement.
But I would not recommend Bus Patrol to anyone for employment.
