BancTec – “Too much change is not so good”

Pros

It was a great stepping stone, since they "hired" me with no field experience, based on demonstrated knowledge and "hands-off" experience. I more or less set my own hours by scheduling my service calls directly with the customers which allowed freedom to take an afternoon off if I desired and call volume allowed (which it usually did). Very little feedback from management worked both ways -- something had to really get screwed up before I got yelled at (which I don't actually remember happening in my two years with the company).

Cons

As far as I could tell, each complete reorganization (twice in the two years I was with the company -- not counting the one between my date of hire and my start date, which resulted in me having to officially reapply) resulted in the company hiring another (or two) $150k+ VP of Something or Other to find out why the company wasn't making enough money, and the answer was inevitably "too much money being spent on the field employees." Every conference call was dreaded as the possible end of your career with the company as front-line positions were eliminated left and right, and if you survived, your pay and benefits would take a hit anyway. Also, my entire training consisted of running two service calls with another technician. Never worked on that machine before? Figure it out quick!

Advice to Senior Management

Without front-line employees such as field technicians, you have no income. No income, no jobs for senior managers either. You can't expect each field technician to pay for three vice-presidents, which was the direction I saw the company going. Lose some of the expensive dead weight and spend the money in the field.