Horrible company to work for if you are honest, hard working and need to question counterproductive orders!
Pros
Fiscally stable company because the owner is very frugal when it comes to "his money." Excellent entry-level job if you are inexperienced and need to learn a "little bit" about arboriculture, lawn treatments, customer service and sales. Great place to work if you can work independently, enjoy following a strictly regimented routine and never question any orders you are given!
Cons
Absolutely no managerial support unless you are willing to fight for it. Be ready for the middle managers to become punitive if you ask them to go out of their way support you. Don't bother complaining to upper management or HR about the lack of managerial support because they are all part of the scheme! Managers are taught to simply flip it back on the employee and to document these recriminations about you in your permanent file in an attempt to discredit your complaints about the middle managers not doing their jobs! The company claims to be an industry leader but the people selling and making the treatments receive very little "advanced training." Employees gather once for annual training but this is very basic mostly focused on getting new hires up to speed. I am embarrassed to say that our arborists are only allotted $200.00 a year for advanced training! Our arborists are supposed to be the experts who meet clients to diagnose problems onsite but most of them don't have enough knowledge to help because the lack of technical training limits their diagnostic abilities! Unfortunately the customer sufferers the most especially when their SavATree arborist sells them the wrong treatments because they are inexperienced and/or not trained enough. Almost a total lack of honesty and integrity that is systemic and encouraged on a local level! Middle managers are more interested in their reputation than growing our company. We are told to keep our mouths shut anytime someone from corporate stops by! Those of us who were willing to speak up honestly are punished after the corporate visitor leaves so we will think twice before giving our honest feedback again! A very convoluted commission plan makes it almost impossible for new arborists to make money unless they are willing to sell unneeded services! A strange secondary sales program has turned our field personal into used car salespeople types because they have a daily sales quota too! Our office support prople are also given a sales quota so they are under the gun to make sales instead of simply caring for clients!
