SAM Companies reviews

3.5

56% would recommend to a friend

(185 total reviews)
avatar

Christopher M. Solomon

60% approve of CEO

59% positive business outlook

SAM Companies has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 185 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The SAM Companies employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

185 reviews
4.0
May 5, 2020

Great Company

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great professional Growth opportunities for all levels of employment

Cons

Not that mane vacation days

avatar
SAM Companies Response
6y
Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback. As you mentioned, SAM is committed to our employees’ career development and professional growth. We have created career paths for each position in our organization and continue to make significant investments in learning and development across all levels of the organization. SAM also believes in a healthy work/life balance, and we provide competitive paid holidays, sick and vacation time to allow our employees the time off to focus on personal and family interests. We do continuously look for ways to improve our benefits plans and will certainly consider your feedback in our future planning. We appreciate your input.
1.0
Mar 18, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They dont care about their employees. It's all about the bottom line and they try to have Ice cream socials to make you feel appreciated, but they only do that stuff for office people, the field people get the scraps.

Cons

Majority of higher management is less than capable of managing. They do not have the employees back, they will overlook all the good you do for 1 bad thing or any negative. They will Harper on that 1 thing. They have they have 1 guy who they protect that forgets the job he is to do on a daily basis. It's like his first day every day. He is also a safety hazard. He handed stop/slow paddles to a person that had nothing to do with our operation, during a traffic control flagging operation, so that he could go get a snack. But he still works there. He also drove out in front of traffic on a 50+ mph road and ran over our cones causing cars to almost come into out work area to avoid him pulling out. Still works there. Performance reviews have been a minimum of 6 months late since I've been working for them. Nobody cares. It's been nearly 2 years since I got a raise. Oh, and they dont have any work right now because nobody wants to hire them to do anything. Survey dept is failing, the SUE dept is top notch, but they have added so much that all the good employees can't stand their jobs. The ship is sinking in Northern VA, I dont need your generic, scripted response. It's completely delusional and everything I said here is true. Do you like paying for almost half of your expensive health insurance? SAM buys smaller companies and kills their values, then they kill the company and the morale of the people they acquired.

avatar
SAM Companies Response
6y
At SAM, employee safety and engagement are of the utmost importance and numerous channels of communication have been implemented for information sharing. Safety practices are taught and reviewed in on-boarding training, weekly safety meetings and daily hazard analysis discussions. Included in the training is instruction on the reporting of any incidents, near misses or general concerns related to safety. Employees are encouraged to report these situations to their direct supervisor, safety department and/or human resources. SAM investigates all reported matters and takes prompt action to remedy incidents, deficiencies or concerns as part of its corrective action and continuous improvement programs. To encourage open employee engagement and input, SAM conducts regular anonymous employee satisfaction studies, individual employee performance discussions, has an open on-line suggestion box where all suggestions are considered by Executive Management and encourages employees to meet with an HR team member if they have a matter they cannot resolve with their direct manger. For continued employee improvement, SAM conducts annual performance evaluations and managers are to provide a final evaluation within 30 days of receiving the employee’s self-evaluation. There are times when performance reviews are not completed as timely as we planned. We continue to review our performance evaluation process to find ways to improve. SAM also monitors, considers and takes action on input from third party sources, like this one. SAM continues to increase sales and revenue and expand our geographic coverage through organic growth and acquisitions. Growth and acquisition have associated challenges, and SAM works to provide a safe, rewarding environment for employees while pursuing business goals. SAM’s benefit package, and employee events have been consistently highlighted as positives in employee feedback, we regularly evaluate and implement new policies and programs for employee benefits, and we have been identified as a Top Workplace for the past eight years.
2.0
Feb 13, 2020

Would not Recommend

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Training opportunities, up-to-date equipment and technology, compensation for education and professional licenses/organizations. Professional development is heavily rewarded.

Cons

Toxic work environment and managers don’t have the soft skills, desire, or foresight to address any it. Half of the managers spend their days sitting around and chatting, while the minority work incredibly hard to compensate. Similarly, half the techs in the office are so overworked it's sad and the other half also sit around doing close to nothing all day on their phones or facebook. Overall a very poorly balanced team. No matter how hard you work, you'll get the exact same compensation as anyone else in your arbitrary title bracket. So much wasted time in meetings. Rampant nepotism. Lack of presence or involvement from the leaders of the company - never once visited our office in the year I've been here, except for one who did not take the time to introduce himself to anyone. A 180 degree difference from the previous firm I came from (maybe we had exceptionally good leadership.) From my observations, SAM very much believes in the "right seat on the bus" mentality where if someone is terrible at their job and a generally poor teammate, rather than firing, demoting, or reprimanding them, they will give them new opportunities to try to find where they might fit better, even if there was a better candidate for that position who had proven themselves to be qualified and enjoyable/cooperative to work with. I’ve seen this happen three times. I've seen some ambitious, talented, and agreeable folks walk out the door because of it, and I fully supported their decision. I personally have been content and fulfilled working for all my other places of employment, but I dread coming to work every day at SAM because it is an overall drain on my well-being and has dampened a lot of the drive I initially walked in the door with. Will be moving on soon and sincerely do not recommend this company to anybody who wants to have a thriving career or enjoyable work life.

avatar
SAM Companies Response
6y
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We take pride in the advanced technology and comprehensive training programs we provide our employees, and the leadership skills training we have instituted for members of our management. At SAM, we value the input of employees at all levels of our organization. Employees experiencing any work related issues are encouraged to discuss them with their manager. And if an employee is not comfortable speaking with their direct manager about the issue, she or he is encouraged to meet with a SAM Human Resources team member confidentially to discuss the issue and create an opportunity to work towards a resolution. We encourage you to utilize these avenues at SAM.
Viewing 127 - 129 of 185 Reviews

Glassdoor has 195 SAM Companies reviews submitted anonymously by SAM Companies employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if SAM Companies is right for you.