Charter Communications Reviews

Pros

The best reason to work at charter is for the pay. The pay for the job at the call center is awesome.

Cons

This job is super stressful and would not recommend to anyone who can not deal with being micromanaged, because "they needle" you constantly.

Pros

Charter is a super laid back place to work. Short of doing something insane or just not coming to work there is like no way to get fired. The dress is casual i.e no dresses, skirts, khakis, ties, dress shirts or heels. They do NOT micromanage you as long as you do your work. If you are being micromanaged its because you are not doing your job. I have worked at Charter for less than 2 years and I have been promoted 4 times!

Cons

Sometimes management is no to date with policy and procedure, but other than that in my experience they all look out for their people.

Pros

Salary, benefit, raise. Overall great company and a lot of effort to keep growing

Cons

Limited growth opportunity for the field I was in.

Pros

Time off is give when asked for.

Cons

No way to get promoted past certain positions

Advice to Senior Management

Pay more money to people already in positions in the company and try harder to retain current people.

Pros

Great benefits, including complimentary service and abundant time off.

Cons

Micromanagement to the extreme.
No room for advancement
Promotions are scarce
Will hire from outside the company before promoting within, this makes employees believe that they are not valued by management. Different divisions are driven by the cable side, even though other divisions can not help acheive corporate goals.
Does not match 401(k) dollar for dollar, it is profit and goal based.

Advice to Senior Management

Use the talent you have to fill open senior positions. Hire outside for entry level jobs

Pros

Charter offered decent benefits, average salary, free cable/internet/discounted phone services, co-workers were generally good to work with (depending on the department). Work location wasn't too bad either so commute to/from home was easy.

At first it was a great place to work (including a great work/life, employee/customer balance) operationally sound (locally at least), there was a good vibe for the first few years that made it worth the time there until the latter years approached. I met some of the best people whom are now close friends.

Personally I had a great run with many awesome experiences, a great addition to my resume for sure. I don't have any real qualms against the company. Yes, getting laid-off was not in my plans at the time and in part questionable despite seeing it coming a year before it happened, but staying there under the conditions I was subjected to at the time was not an option either.

Cons

Every company has problems, but Charter took it to a whole other level after "corporate" started invading local markets' day-to-day operations. Once corporate took hold, the hemorrhaging started. Consolidate this, consolidate that, move this here, move that there. Morale went out the window and landed in front of on-coming traffic. The turn-over rate increased immensely; by voluntary and involuntary means. Operationally, Charter had become disjointed, fractured even, but somehow managed to muddle along despite titles and job responsibilities across the enterprise changing what felt like daily.

In all the "restructuring" that led up to the bankruptcy filing(s), what was always broken was never fixed, and what was not broken was destroyed beyond recognition, including the one thing that really kept Charter a good place to work: the work/life, employee/customer balance.

On a dime, Charter became very much anti-employee in favor of metrics. The ruse they used for the metrics was "the customer experience", but when you annihilate your employees, they don't care about the customer which, in turn, affects the customer regardless of how pretty you primp the numbers to show otherwise.

Charter's pre-bankruptcy obsession with the bottom line also affected their staffing levels and quality. Charter used to attract quality, talented people, but as the roller coaster roared downhill, Charter was more concerned with getting rid of talent in favor of reeling in "lighter-weighted" talent who they paid a marginal wage. You get what you pay for.

I hope now that the balance sheet is somewhat cleaned up post-bankruptcy, Charter gets back to cleaning up the messes called "operations" and "employee morale". If they can, Charter will be a better place to work and more respected in the industry.

Advice to Senior Management

Forget your customers for five minutes and take a hard, honest look at the people who serve your precious customers...the employees.

Customers and employees are vital to any business; can't have one without the other. Happy employees are productive employees and productive employees will go above and beyond for customers who will keep their services or at least not be so quick to downgrade or cancel.

Stop trying to control everything and everyone. Micro-managing never works except against you.

Attract talent, but also give your employees the tools, training, and feedback they need to do their jobs instead of just expecting them to make do with bare minimums. Once you do, trust your employees and trust the work they do; adjust as necessary. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Invest in the current infrastructure and new products; innovate. Be an industry leader, not a bit player or follower.

Finally, let go of the past. The fact that someone has been on the payroll for decades doesn't necessarily make them the best in class. Any policies/procedures that while once worked in the past, are now considered antiquated need to be readjusted, preferably with employee input; not because "statistics show..."

Pros

Cable changes so often that it's easy to advance. Hang around long enough and there is no reason why you can't keep getting better jobs.

Cons

Upper management, directors and VPs don't think, they react. It doesn't feel like the company innovates. Charter was years behind on phone and doesn't invest in infrastructure.

Advice to Senior Management

Lead cable, don't chase Comcast. Don't kowtow to your investors. Video is on the way out. Move content online.

Pros

Charter has really good insurance benefits packages, which is helpful for anyone with a growing family. The company's financial situation is stabilizing (after the recent bankruptcy) which is also allowing for investment in innovative products. My manager is a very supportive, hard-working team member who does everything he can to help us be successful.

Cons

Working for such a large company means there is a lot of red tape to go through if you want to get something improved or changed. Upper management in my department will not hesitate to single out individuals who need improvement in some area of their work. Charter has a history of billing issues, as well as other customer relationship issues. This makes it difficult to sell Charter services to new customers. Generating income by working in direct sales (door to door sales) is very difficult, particularly considering that Charter has burned so many ex-customers because of billing and service quality issues. 99 percent of new customers buy their cable service by calling the 1888 number, and the potential customers that are left for direct sales reps to sell to are typically have past accounts that are unpaid, or they simply cannot afford the services. In a nutshell, is great for anyone who loves a sales challenge, selling services for a company that many prospects don't want to do business with.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve customer experience, eliminate billing issues, and when a customer returns equipment, make sure the returns are processed correctly so the customer is not billed for the equipment.

Pros

Like any large company, Charter Communications has its issues. But, overall, the red tape is loosening and is a good place to work. They do expect you to WORK. If you do not like to do your job, or repetitive poor performance, they will get rid of you. If you like to work, and are willing to make a difference, Charter is the place for you!

Cons

There is still red tape and can policies change constantly. No policy is perfect and they keep changing them to eventually find the right balance to keep employees happy and customers happy.

Pros

The people at Charter are great for the most part. They are very focused on taking care of customers.

Cons

Charter seems to have a major restructuring at least one a year which apprears to be more reactive than proactive.