Softchoice Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Softchoice

Pros – Great co-workers
Spiffs from vendors
Beer cart

Cons – Terrible pay
Little appreciation for the hard work the employees do
Nepotism
Recognition given only to the favourites of upper management
High turnover

Advice to Senior Management – If you want to keep people from leaving, appreciate them for what they do. Also, when the economy has taken a turn for the worse and we're expected to work longer hours to make our targets...don't make the year end award a can of expired energy drink. This devalues what we do and is actually offensive.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Softchoice

Pros – Softchoice has a casual atmosphere, friendly co-workers (not management), decent benefits package, beer cart once a month, but not much else to really look forward to.

Cons – Management at Softchoice is generally atrocious. It truly is a frat club. You need to be able to 'pow-wow' with the men in management and waste time in meetings trying to understand their lewd sense of humour. Work-life balance is non-existent, unless you're a manager or willing to never break for lunch and stay in everyday. Recognition and pay is a joke for most employees. One more thing, if you're a woman, you can pretty much forget about ever advancing at Softchoice.

Advice to Senior Management – Take a hard look at the managers you are hiring and promoting in the company. The extremely high turnover-rate due to horrible management within certain departments should be examined. Listen to your employees and treat them with the respect they deserve. They're the one's actually getting the work done while management is out for two-hour fitness breaks, extra-long lunches and leaving early. The problem starts from the top.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Softchoice

Pros – The founder of Softchoice and the culture he had embedded . Everyone who had the opportunity to work under him or near him was blessed with his wisdom and was my role model in everything I do. For everyone who complimented the "beer cart" and "bring your dog to work" all started with this one man. This was just the icing on the cake but the core ingredient was the culture he had created. This culture made working for Softchoice not work and I looked forward to working everyday. Not so much anymore when he departed the company.

Cons – During my last 4 years out of 11 years i had worked for Softchoice, it felt like management no longer cared about the culture and its employees. It felt like Wall Street and all these Execs from major corporations taking over the jobs of guys who had heart and passion for the company. From there on it was just like a domino effect where the price of your education mattered more then your experience and loyalty.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't think they'd listen...

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Softchoice

Pros – In the spirit of my headline...I started with SC some years ago excited because of the core values and culture that Softchoice Employed. We once stood for Owning the end result and taking care of eachother. We didn't have vacation carry over so Management would ensure you took your vacation days. Performance (i.e. Sales numbers) were rewarded and metrics were used to measure your performance gaps and were glanced over if you hit your numbers. It was an open environment where communication, while not perfect, was still possible and provided. You could speak your mind to your managers and even directors. Customers came first and people were a very close second. Certainly we had grown considerably and quickly, but the core values were always maintained and SC valued the employees more than I had anticipated. In short, Softchoice may not have payed well, but they certainly took care of their people. By no means was it perfect but it was at least understandable.

Cons – Over my time here, we have grown, and over the past two years a shift gradually began, and recently has accellerated exponentially. It has always been an issue that we promote strickly on performance with limited consideration for qualification or merit. We have always been underpaid. These two things continue, and in fact have worsened with a recent pay cut, and promotions to VP levels with minimal experience in that level of position. The politics of Softchoice have provided a feaux "Open Door" Policy. The truth is, you want to keep your mouth shut as it is frownd upon if you have a differing idea or thought. People with one mentality run this company, and differing opinions are held back or moved out of a position that can influence change. Some of the most respected people in this organization are in positions that lack cultural influence. Softchoice has gone from a progressive and forward thinking organization to a reactive "old School" mentality that manages your activity rather than your true performance. Micro-Management is at an all time high, and mostly, there is an apparent complete lack of trust from management toward their employees.

Thus, this has become a "Typical" corporate environment. If you are OK with being a number or a cog in this world with limited to no autonomy who is expected to work within your personal time while having guilt provided when vacation is requested; If you are ok working in an environment where it is more important to manage your managers and them to manage theirs rather than vice versa; if you value living to work rather than working to live; if you are a typical person who does their job and works hard but doesn't work to completely over achieve; and if you like to provide forecasts; all while getting paid truly below industry average (Despite what SC says), then this place is for you. Don't expect a quality training from the start that is applicable and pertains the the actual job you will do. From there, you are just as good reading all the marketing material of every vendor if you want to learn as that is how we train.

That said, Corporations exist for a reason. If you are looking for a typical Corporation to work for then you have the right place. If you are looking to get out of that and go to a more progressive company that truly values their employees, please, for your sake, keep looking.

Advice to Senior Management – A year ago, we did an employee engagement survey that truly gave us an opportunity to voice our concerns at that time. Where are those results? Why are they still sitting on a certain person's desk waiting for review and compilation. Please listen to your people. Stop being so arrogant that you think that the Marketing Fluff is gold when execution is broken. Have a consistent message...When you say, "No Surprises", then don't surprise us. We may be a young and fairly imature organization, but we are all still adults and have more professionals now than ever. Treat us that way, and please have a better qualifying and training process for management!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Softchoice

Pros – They allow dogs and some of the 'real' people on staff are exceptional

Cons – Management playing favourites, high school mentality, SLT really has no idea what is really going on with the staff. They honestly think that they are fabulous when everyone is working 60hr weeks and being paid less than a Burger King employee. Oh, don't even think about going to HR......whatever you say to them is all over the office in less than 1/2hr. They keep lazy, butt kissers who get other people to do their work and lay off the people who were slaving for them. They are also a very shallow and racist group.....if you are not white, gorgeous and stacked forget about going anywhere in the company, forget about being valued, your just a work horse to be tossed aside. And the guys are even worse, talking to your breasts(even the CEO) and drunken bed hopping during company 'Rally & Launch'. Very young and immature group of managers with zero training(actually had a manager tell me that they were afraid to speak to an employee about behavioural problems). Really bad experience, at first blush it seemed awesome, then the honeymoon was over...very quickly(max 1 month) and things kept getting worse and worse. People are hiding and crying in frustration, smoking in anxiety and just plain pissed off most of the time. the 'Orange bleeders' are the 'chosen ones'-kiss butt, drink and party with the right people and voila! if you are a grown adult who doesn't party and drink yourself into a stupor every single night, Softchoice is not for you.

Advice to Senior Management – To the SLT....stop thinking that throwing parties and letting the booze flow will make everyone forget that they are not paid well for the massive amounts of time they work(FOR FREE) as they don't get paid overtime or time in lieu. Grow up, get proper training and learn to listen to the employees and realize they are smarter than you are most of the time. Seriously cut out the politics that make the office a hazard to work in....eggshells doesn't even begin to explain how people feel.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Softchoice

Pros – It is easy to get a job there.

Cons – Pay, this company pays the least I have EVER seen a company pay. There are people working there making $40K and they leave and go to a competitor and DOUBLE their salary. It's unreal. They try to gloss over the pay problem by using words like competitive salaries but they fail to mention that the competitive salary is only for the Senior Leadership. Their training sessions are a joke, the same woman getting employees to watch movies and comment on them...useless. And to add insult to injury the reference you get from Softchoice isn't worth the paper it's written on because every other company knows that Softchoice is a Mickey Mouse operation.

Advice to Senior Management – Get experience outside of Xerox.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Softchoice

Pros – Not many. Too many Xerox favorites. let go 63 people today

Cons – Exec's are a tight group who only promo who they like and do not base on performance. Lots of kiss a**

Advice to Senior Management – Make wiser exec decisions. Why would you acquire three companies build a new call center in St.Louis and then lay off half the office?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend