Bresnan Reviews

Pros

Pay, pay, pay, 54k in my case.
Work environment
People
Bennefits
The supervisors are good at what they do. Training is great.

Cons

Dealing with crazy mountain people.
Shifts can suck.
Slow times of the year.
Customer care reps fail at doing there job and sales agents often times pick up their slack.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep changes to a minimum. Or at least don't inact changes all at once. You're losing good employees because of this.

Pros

Small family company with a good culture, management seeks feedback from employees, somewhat flexible work schedule, employees are generally satisfied and stay with the company.

Cons

Compensation is lower than larger institutions, somewhat restricted in moving up the corporate ladder due to small size of company.

Advice to Senior Management

The culture and flexibility are what make people stay at Bresnan. If you can compensate lower level employees who don't own shares or receive bonuses with higher salaries, turnover in those positions would be reduced.

Pros

Great benefits, and if the money is there, the opportunities for training are great. Most staff members are friendly and work well together.

Cons

Poor management and inter/intra office communication often leads to frustrating situations for staff and customers alike. The recent death of Bill Bresnan leaves many employees with an unclear picture of where the company is heading

Advice to Senior Management

How about designing a carrier class system to support your customers instead of buying the cheapest switches and routers that you can find, then spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in troubleshooting and down time?
Also, spend a bit more money to keep cities supplied with adequate bandwidth, and you'll stop seeing all the negative reviews on the ISP sites.

Pros

Good career path for installers and techs, lots of training. Will let you go to your first job of the day from home instead of having to go into the office - that saves a lot of time and lets me get coffee at home. Even though theres a set schedule and quota to meet, I really like working independently and I can do that at Bresnan. I get good support from my boss and my team.

Cons

Same as any other outdoor job, you have to deal with Montana's cold winters but the spring and summer time sure make up for it.

Advice to Senior Management

Maybe a little more time spent in the local offices.

Pros

You live in Billings and have no other options. I really can not think of a good reason to work for Bresnan unless you are given a VP position in the NY office because then people MIGHT actually listen to your ideas and allow you to act on them. What normally happens is you have an idea, IF it is actually heard by anyone in management they steal the idea and make it their own. If it turns out the idea/project fails then they make sure that the employee takes the blame.

Cons

Upper management uses employees like pawns in a political battle and is willing to sacrifice an employee to make sure they don't loose face.
They have too much division of responsibility stemming from having too many Vice Presidents and Directors. They are paralyzed because each of those upper level managers are fighting to control their territory instead of working for the good of the company.

Advice to Senior Management

1) Stop talking about communication and start communicating
2) Stop thinking of employees as disposable worthless tools to use when fighting some stupid political battle
3) Break down barriers between internal organizations -- better yet consolidate internal organizations and get rid of some VP overhead.
4) Get down off of your Mount Olympus and open communications with your employees -- LISTEN to what is said -- and act on that information

Pros

Benefits are decent but could be better.

Cons

The salaries are not comparable to other companies in the field and the belief is that since you work in the rural mid-west that you do not need to be compensated like your peers in other locations. There is a very extreme and obvious disconnect between Headquarters in NY and employees in MT, WY, CO, and Utah, the VPs and higher ups simply do not listen. The nepotism/cronyism regardless of skills or experience is profound at this company.

I suggest that if Bresnan is your only option in your area that you only use it as a stepping stone and get out as soon as possible.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees, you hired them to do a job, now let them do it.

Pros

The only reason to work for Bresnan is if you enjoy being crapped on daily and like free cable tv and internet.

Cons

Senior management in this company is a joke. Bill Bresnan chooses to promote his former gardner to a position of prominence within the company. Yet nobody knows HOW to move up within the company. It's a muddled top heavy mess. By far the worst company I've ever worked for.

Advice to Senior Management

Rather than going to trade shows and taking the advice of some idiot salesman, try listening to the engineers you are paying. It would also be nice if Bresnan would stop hiring the cast-offs from other MSOs. Reading a magazine article about a new technology doesn't give you a license to be an expert on said new technology.

Pros

Besides benefits and pay, the work atmosphere is very nice. I wouldn't call it laid back, but if you do your job right the first time, you don't get run into the ground. They are very good about letting you take time off when needed and have a great paid time off policy. Co-workers are also very helpful when you ask for assistance and are always willing to give a hand even if it's not their specific duty.

Cons

I don't think it's really a downside, but the occasional emergency that requires hours of travel time can be rather troublesome; especially when it happens on a weekend or holiday. Raises and bonuses may not be the best in the world but the starting pay is better than other business' in Wyoming. Different groups don't always get along and you have to sometimes go through some bureaucratic nonsense to get your job completed.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't assume everything is perfect just because the machine is working well enough. There are always issues that cause anger, resentment, irritation, etc., at all levels. Most employees will accept and ignore or cover up these issues, but they can linger and get worse. Best to become aware of them by jumping into the fray occasionally to see them yourself. The company as a whole can always do better.