Pros

Same challenges as most larger organizations. Leadership is focused and empowers its people to be contributors to the company's success

Cons

Same challenges as most larger organizations.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend more time seeking feedback from those working in the trenches. a wealth of knowledge can e obtained, moreso than high dollar contractors brought on to provide the "silver bullet" solution.

Pros

The actual day-to-day work is very enjoyable. Customer interactions provide immediate and honest feedback on your work, good or bad. The technical aspects of installation and troubleshooting internet, video, and telephone are mentally stimulating, and every day offers new challenges. Freedom to make some decisions on the fly promotes independence and improves many important skills.

Cons

There seems to be an increasing amount of "busywork" and redundant paperwork. The technical supervisors are given a mandate to physically grade technicians' work and focus on things they have done wrong. Our local supervisor was praised for doing this where neighboring supervisors were not. The standards of quality for technical work have basic requirements that don't change: customer satisfaction, cable and networking line mounting procedures, cleanliness of work. However, the finer points have Charter-defined standards that are in a constant state of flux, aspects that don't affect safety, product performance, or customer satisfaction. These aspects are what supervisors can point out and rate poorly. These ratings directly affect the technicians' rate of pay.

Advice to Senior Management

The higher management have done well improving the overall image of the company, especially considering the recent Chapter 11 restructuring. However, there seems to be some confusion or poor communication on the part of middle and local management as far as field technicians. The majority of technicians in our office are very dissatisfied with recent changes in policies, and are searching for other jobs. The timekeeping policies and additional paperwork would do well to rethought. A major point of contention is the constant changes in the job quality requirements, as to many it seems the technicians are "doomed to fail".

Pros

We are moving in a positive direction with focus on the right priorities:
1. Customer
2. Employees
3. Shareholders
4. Community

Cons

There are still many remnants of the numerous smaller cable systems that were purchased in the past. The power struggles and the enterprise infrastructure still need work, but the infrastructure part is rapidly being addressed.

Advice to Senior Management

With regards to the power struggles mentioned in the cons section, it would appear that some actual accountability at the 2 levels below EVP would go along way toward solving these issues.

Pros

The compensation is very good, and better than most in the area. Reps start off at $12.00/hr plus commissions, which can range from $25/week if you barely try to $150/week if you put in a lot of effort and are very good. It's especially helpful if you have some sort of sales background. The other benefits are also very good - health/dental/vision, 401k matching, and about 3 weeks of PTO per year.

Cons

The customers are mainly horrible. The work is pretty boring after awhile. Some of the departments have a variety of shifts (4 day work weeks, part-time, second/third shift) and some don't.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer more part-time schedules and lay off the sales.

Pros

Decent pay, at the time had an agreement with comcast for employee rates on services if not in a charter area.

Cons

Working graveyard shift, home of the 4 hour maintenance phone queues. Sure, I'll meet my sales quotas and try to up-sell every call when 99% of them are calling in pissed because, yet again, their area is down for maintenance from 1am to 5am.

Promotion - if you make anywhere near the required numbers on your quality reviews, you're stuck on the phones so you can help your supervisor's team stay out of trouble with the manager. If you suck, you will probably get fired or promoted off the phones. Or maybe you're friends with the management.

Mandatory Overtime! I guess it wouldn't be a bad thing if you didn't already have a long commute and other things to do, but most people don't want to work an extra 10 hours every week for 4 months straight. Ordering unhealthy pizza as reimbursement does not make it ok.

Division of workforce: You hire people to be in sales, support, retention etc: why don't you let them do their jobs? Every call should not be the same, the customers might as well be talking to (another) robot. Tech support personal were hired for their skills in said tech supporty areas, expecting them to make a sale on every call is overreaching.

It seems after the fraud and the stock dropped to sub 1$ amounts, the company lost its mind and kept changing policies to try and wring the customer for every penny, and then when that didn't work it tried to punish its employees for not attempting to rob the customer blind.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to at least be realistic with the expectations of both your employees and the customer. If you're going to use a script like service to sales, and make every person on the phone adhere to it; just pay us all the same and just call us 'call center employees' instead of 'sales staff' or 'tech support'. Those titles become meaningless if there is not difference other than what call queue you log into(not like you don't spread overflow around anyway)

Pros

Its a job in an economy where there really aren't any jobs. Just have to play along with their games to succeed.

Cons

There is a high turn over there. Getting promoted there is really hard to accomplish. It seems that the company will promise promotions and has yet to deliver on it.

Advice to Senior Management

Since they have filed for bankruptcy, the reorganization at Charter is in a positive direction. I feel the company will be around for along time to come.

Pros

Good benefits, but you have to be there 5 years to be fully vested in the 401k. The match isn't that great.

Cons

Bad company rep, long hours

Advice to Senior Management

The management i came across were pretty nice, there were a few who put in very few hours and got paid great.

Pros

The company is large enough to offer protection and small enough to care.

Cons

The economy has hurt sales people and there is no relief. The company is in restructuring.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer relief to sales people who are selling and working hard.

Pros

I am very satisfied with my job at Charter Communications. I have worked here for many years. I would recommend Charter to anyone.

Cons

Our recent bankruptcy has increased stress in the company. We are all concerned about the future of our jobs.

Advice to Senior Management

If there are going to be layoffs associated with the bankruptcy, go ahead and do that now then let us know that there will be no more reorganization. That will ease the minds of most employees.

Pros

One of the best reasons to work at Charter was the pay. It was the only thing that kept me there for as long as it did. The benefit package was also a plus. We were always trained on the new products and the features and benefits of that product. It was a fairly nice facility, it was infact pretty new. It would have been nice to LIVE in an area that charter had service, because I would have got free cable, internet, and phone. . but in Vancouver, it's Comcast. Can't really say anything else good about this place.

Cons

Bad Reasons? I can name a million. First off, the management here does not care one bit about you. They are only looking at you as a number, not a person. It took me 4 months to get FMLA approved for a personal problem. They have MANDATORY overtime, which sure, is extra money, but they will schedule you your overtime, even if it means you have to come in at 5am and work for an hour, and then go home, and come BACK for your normal shift at, lets say 9am. Requesting time off was a pain in the butt. Lots of drama. TONS of it. Felt like highschool all over again.

Advice to Senior Management

Close the outsourced call centers because that was probably one of the top 5 reasons why people would become upset.