Alaska Communications Systems Group Reviews

Pros

If you're part of the 70+% in the union, it pays relatively well and work/life balance is positive. Great union benefits. Good "starter" job for those looking for customer service, retail sales.
Decent training for entry level employees in retail and call center.
Excellent place to do project based telecom work if you're an engineer with less than 10 years of experience.
Excellent leaders in marketing, project management, customer service.

Cons

Lack of honesty, integrity, and accountability for not speaking the truth are management mantras. Cutthroat management beginning with President and senior leaders at the top. Punative and oppressive culture which is "investigation central" in an effort to minimize trust, insulate heads down behavior, and keeping all that you do "in the box." The Golden Rule does not exist at this corporation. Deception, misinformation, overwork, and the minimalization of the terms "thank you" and "well done" are par for the course. The culture of entitlement is rampant here, especially within the union.

Advice to Senior Management

Ask yourself the question: "if employees are our most valuable asset, then why do we treat them so poorly?" Watch "The Wizard of Oz" again and then look in a mirror. Check for signs of courage and heart as functioning on brains alone is not a singular critical success factor. Calling bad good and good bad is not a self sustaining policy for managers, stockholders, or rank and file employees.

Pros

Vacation time combined with sick time.
Flexible work schedule.
"Some" people get promoted.

Cons

The way people are let go without warning
Rude workplace culture where workers either brown nose or are on the "wrong" side
Management needs extensive work
Management sets poor example for workers
Undeserving people get promoted over those that bust their behinds
Some people can surf the internet while on the job... and some can't
If you're not with us you're against us type of attitude
Rudeness is ignored in the work place
Lack of cohesiveness within work unit
Lied about Pension Plan

Advice to Senior Management

Get an independent audit that does not result in "wrong" answers leading to termination and fire all the managers whose groups have high turnover... It's not the workers, it's the management! Work on setting a good example for employees and also promoting people based on merit, not how well they kiss butt!

Pros

- Small Company, everyone knows everybody
- Smaller customer base, allows a more personal touch to customer service.
- Small and solid network and equipment.
- Corporate communications company wide on general issues is great

Cons

- No promotion opportunities unless someone retires or is fired.
- No rotating shifts, you are hired on swings, you will be on swings until someone retires or you leave.
- Crosstraining is openly encouraged company wide, but within a department, is looked at as an "intrusion" into another person's skills, you are a threat to their job security.
- You speak up or go over someone's head in trying to get your issues resolved, you risk retaliation.
- Management style not people based, it is mainly authoritarian leadership style with little flexibility.
- Communications within a department is limited and mostly word of mouth. Ongoing projects or events are communicated between few select individuals.

Advice to Senior Management

- An internal review company wide needs to be done and problems addressed without people fearing retaliation. If you end up with a lot of discontent people, sooner or later quality is affected.
- Listen to the surveys, and if people are not filling them out, these are the people that need to be pulled aside away from their managers. There's a good chance they are too scared to speak up and provide valuable input, and they may shed some light on some things you may not be aware of.
- It's not enough just to say to folks "be glad you have a job in this economy". That's an unfortunate way to handle things, and it's very demoralizing.

Pros

Union Representation; Amazing Benefits; Ridiculous amount of leave

Cons

Top Heavy; Selective data usage;

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on Infrastructure

Pros

Benefits, Healthcare, Time off, and in the past earning potential.

Cons

It's a dysfunctional corporate culture where the process drives the company instead of it's customer's and sales. ACS slow to change, and regularly the left hand isn't talking to the right. Unless you are desperate do not work here.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the employees more, we have good ideas on how to improve things.

Pros

Plenty of paid flex time off, decent pay and benefits.

Cons

The corporate culture is depressing; discourages voicing new ideas and breeds contempt among employees toward management. Management style is definitely "Y" style: it is assumed that no employee wants to do a good job, and therefore must be managed into the ground and constantly chided for lack of performance, when often the issue lies within management itself.

Advice to Senior Management

Please reverse your management philosophy to recognize that, on the whole, your employees want to do their jobs well, they just need the freedom to do so. Try encouragement and recognition, rather than constant nagging and fault-finding. No one likes to constantly feel like a child whose nose is in the corner. My whole department feels this way, but no one will take our grievances seriously, even though technically the IBEW is "looking out for us".

Pros

compensation and benefits are very good

Cons

lack of cohesive strategy and executive understanding of internal process

Advice to Senior Management

understand how your decisions impact productivity