Brickman Reviews

Pros

Benefits, compensation, flexibility, and (most) coworkers. Sometimes, depending on the person in charge, you might find policies being a little more strict at times. Overall, it really is a good place to work whether crew members or in a supervisor position.

Cons

The company is a little behind in the times with their technologies used but they are trying to play catch up. At times, things can be pretty disorganized and quite often it would seem that there can be a lot of busy work for no good reason except to please some fat cat who likes to look at numbers rather than real life situations.

Advice to Senior Management

There is more to a company than just the bottom line and how much money goes in your pocket at the end of the day.

Pros

Great team in branch. Above average benefits for salaried personnel. Some flexibility with hours as salaried employee. Bonus structure for salaried.

Cons

Real lack of strong leadership at the regional and divisional levels. Poor benefits for crew members. Lack of training and promotion within the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Speaking only to the region I am familiar with I feel that corporate level management should take a closer look at what is happening in this region. The NW region has been less than stellar in their performance since being acquired. Overhauls have occurred up to Branch Manager level but this has made little impact. The bottom line is that without strong leadership that is respected performances will only continue to mimic their role models and thus result in continued lackluster and underwhelming performance. Clear and objective expectations must be made and then adherence to those expectations must be enforced without special consideration.

Pros

company vehicle, A paycheck (a small one)

Cons

Management decisions make no sense, a company vehicle but a Ranger for doing landscaping? Really? and its a two wheel drive Ranger! Really? In Colorado? Snow?? They hire supervisors in the door and pay them an hourly wage that works out to be more than what their manager is making. Zero follow through on any "changes". Meetings about making things better but there just meetings, nothing changes. People get promoted or newly hired that don't have a lick of knowledge in the landscape industry.

Pros

This job provides steady work, close to home, in a bad economy. Rain or shine or season, work is always needed.

Cons

Very poor compensation with little to no room for advancement. Middle management making a comeback, but without any benefit to the workers or clients. Less bean counters and more compensation could help.

Advice to Senior Management

You get what you pay for. So instead of looking for a 50-60% profit margin to pay the middle management wastes of oxygen, pay the working class and give them some empowerment. Your employees and clients would be happier. Instead of doing time each day, we'd have the ability and the drive to go above and beyond for the customer. Counting beans benefits no one that truly counts. If you cannot trust that work is being performed at a professional level, get rid of the dead weight and pay people for their performance.

Pros

Ok place, certain people in Leadership positions are great, others need to look in the mirror.

Cons

Very much a "your in or your out" mentality in senior leadership.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to all your employees not just the ones who were granted leadeship spots because of the need or because they were the owner of a business just aquired.

Pros

Good mobility if you work hard. Good compensation if you work hard. The benifits are comprable to other businesses in the same field.

Cons

The long hours are sometimes not compensated and salaries tend to start low compared to other companies in the same field.

Advice to Senior Management

Sometimes so much time is spent on efficiency that it creates an inefficient environment. Otherwise a good company with good values.

Pros

Diversity, Training, and Company Corporate image.

Cons

Lack of Communication from Divisional Management to Branch Managers-serious sense of self interests clearly displayed. Lack of support to get job done effectively..Lack of people skills demostrated in front of Clients-Poor Account Management!! Upper Level Management showed issues with integrity and insecurity based on support and trust..Serious issues!

Advice to Senior Management

Offer support to those asking and deliver..Lack of support and concern will bring unhappy employees and turnover!!

Pros

Networking with other industry professionals, to enable you to find a better job within the industry.

Cons

Little appreciation for a job well done and management is not customer driven, as they would like the customer to believe. They do a bait and switch with all their customers. Ha.. you will get what you paid for with Brickman. This place is a revolving door for employees, and for good reason. I can't rmember the last time I saw so many unhappy people in one place.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees better and STOP cheating your customers. They are out there scooping up accounts by low-balling and then they don't deliver what the contract dictates. Make the employees feel appreciated and respect that they deserve a life after work.

Pros

Great place to work. They give me the tools I need to succeed, always letting me give the highest quality of work. Fun place to work, ongoing jokes, great people. I do have a year round full time career that i love. Doing snow removal is really interesting. I learned a bunch of different machines this past year. If you are serious they will help you advance in your career, but it will not happen overnight. New regional managers promise they will change everything hopefully, personel first.

Cons

Get rid of the kiss-a**es, they don't work very hard but talk like they are the ones to all the work without anybodies help and talk bad about the hard working ones just cuz they think it will get them a OM position. It can get a little "CLICHEY" at times, kinda makes you feel left out when you find out they worked overtime when managers said no overtime. Fire the guys that everybody hates, who don't know what they are doing, who cheat employees out of hours. Supervisors need better access to buy things like rakes and bar oil and locks for trailers, cleaning supplies.

Advice to Senior Management

Top brass meet with local branch supervisors, ask for advice on improving efficiencies, where we can increase quality, how we can develop employees, what can improve moral, get a employee of the month program at every branch, buy us brand name tools that supervisors recommend, throw away old junk that sits in our yard, we need a fertilizer crew to green things up and better treat the weeds in the turf, we need better yearly training, many supervisors wanna go to the progreen expo in denver its a great way to learn about the newest industry standards and tools of the trade. Would like to see Scott Brickman working on that show undercover boss......

Pros

They have a lot of paid holidays.

Cons

but you can't always take off, balance of personal life and work is horrible. Management creates their own problems and always expects others to handle them. The turnover rate is very high with this company and it makes it hard to build customer trust.

Advice to Senior Management

How about becoming a people company that cares about quality instead of a greedy company that has to make 55% gross margin.