This is a weirdly lopsided, cold, and monotonous yet stressful place to work - Dispatcher WM Employee Review

2.0
Jan 17, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

We get our own desks and management is generally polite and rather hands off if you are doing your job right. Typically they aren't always breathing down our necks. The internet has very few content filters. As a dispatcher you get to really know the drivers which is the best part and sometimes in my opinion the only real redeeming factor of this role. If you are hired and given a slow and sleepy site like Ames or Batavia/DeKalb, you will have an easy gravy job that gets you paid the very same as if you run an insanely busy site. It's the luck of the draw in this place. Regardless of your sites, some days will be slower and you can actually have a few moments to breathe every now and then. But those days are rather rare.

Cons

The highest performing employees are consistently overworked, underpaid, undervalued and unappreciated. Weak employees receive the same compensation, if not better, than those who work 10 times as hard and more often than they do. Work life balance varies wildly from employee to employee, with lazier employees leaving on time every day by pawning off their work onto the closers who are then obligated to complete it or else answer for everyone else's mistakes. Employees who are very good and exceed at their jobs are routinely punished by being given more work and responsibilities whilst not receiving any raises or gratitude. This applies to dispatchers AND drivers. The remote relationships dispatchers have with their route managers are often strained and adversarial. There is a general negativity around the office, generated by the laziest employees constantly fighting and bickering and complaining about how their job is harder than everyone else's and how they are most invaluable. It's quite bizarre and juvenile and pathetic. Employees who know which fellow employees work hardest and have the most responsibilities will treat them with aloofness and resentment. Fellow employees often conspire against others to land them in trouble or to get them punished, over some kind of envy or a petty squabble or whatever else. Incompetent employees rarely get disciplined by management, and overall there is almost an incentive to underperform because there is no benefit to exceeding expectations and excelling at what you do. It's painfully obvious that doing the very barest minimum while a small handful of people pick up your slack will not get you fired, or even in trouble. It's so weird that it almost seems as if WM has a masochistic desire to push their best employees AWAY from the company by kicking them around constantly and using and abusing them until they have burned out while coddling relatively worthless other employees indefinitely. Management, while polite and generally kind, will just demand more and more of you if you can handle everything they throw at you and you'll get nothing in return. Upward mobility feels hopeless and unobtainable once you have become irreplaceable in your current role and the only thing that can breed is discontentment and apathy. From the top down, WM does a very good job of making sure all the middling employees on the frontlines of making this company efficient have no value and are absolutely replaceable. Jim Fish and co. are very transparent that they only care about profit over people and that they have little to no care about what happens to their underlings. You are merely a cog in this company.

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WM Response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to write a review of your work experience. We understand that this industry can be demanding, but we also understand that work-life balance is important and love to hear recommendations on how to best provide a positive work experience. We are committed to promoting and fostering equal opportunity for all employees in all areas of our company. Our growth opportunities are currently a large focus for our senior leaders and we are constantly looking for ways to improve. This is an issue that we take very seriously and we are actively taking steps to amend. Recently, we launched a new careers site to make it simpler to find new careers opportunities and advancement opportunities. We encourage everyone to explore furthering their career with Waste Management by visiting careers.wm.com and joining our Talent Network to keep informed about our other upcoming improvements.

Explore other reviews about WM

5.0
Apr 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great place to work for, amazing benefits and very understanding supervisors!!!

Cons

None so far. All is going great!!

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WM Response
2mo
Thank you for taking the time to share this! We’re so glad to hear that your experience here has been a good one. It’s feedback like yours that reminds us why creating a workplace where people feel respected, supported, and proud of what they do is so important. We're grateful to have you on the team.
1.0
Jul 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I honestly can't think of any good points about WM.

Cons

Lying management Low pay Lots of employees with nothing to do, then others doing all the work... great place for the lazy and unambitious Promotions based on tenure and apple polishing, not merit Out of touch c suite No ethics or integrity HR protects lying management at the expense of rank and file Lying management, again

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