Pros

PB's heath care benefits are awesome.
The tuition reimbursement is 100%.
Starting out with 10 days vacation and 12 paid Holidays.
The team I work with is awesome.
I have been given a pay raise every year since I started.
My manager is not only hands off but also very supportive of my personal life.
My manager encourages us to do what we need to do to make the customer happy.
I think the best part of my job is 99% of my customers are very happy to see me.
The equipment PB sells, for the most part, is of excellent quality.
For what I do, the pay is excellent.
You can buy PB stock at 85% of market value.

Cons

The smugness of most of the sales force. They think that they are the back bone of PB. They don't understand that Sales makes the first sale and Service keeps them coming back. I am the one the customers sees whenever there is a problem. The customer sees their sales rep when the lease is coming due, which is once every 3-5 years. This is very evident when you go to training in Atlanta. Be prepared to be ignored by the Sales team when you give out a friendly Hello or Good Morning when in training.

I drive about 25,000 miles a year for the company. Just this past year they changed the reimbursement rate we get for driving our personal car. No big surprise that we are getting paid less. I am getting about $150 less a month.

You don't get your performance requirements for the year till March. Yet they rate you for Jan and Feb even though you don't know what your rated on. When the performance evaluation is done, its done. Meaning there is no changing it, no negotiation, it is what it is and thats final. Even if there is miss-information on it.

The company is taking on a lot of services outside of its core product line. Most of the training on this equipment is done through CDs and On Line classes. No real hands on training. They are not adjusting man power to cover the dozens of new accounts and 100s of equipment that needs serviced.

Overall, PB is an excellent company to work for. You just have to put up with a bit of BS. (Just like any other company that employs 30,000+ employees!

Advice to Senior Management

Go out in the field. Ride along with a Service Rep. Not just in CT, but out in the West; where the distance between customers is measured in hours not in miles. See what they see. See that the decisions you are making in your board rooms and cush-offices is taking money out of the hands of the people that keep the customers coming back, your 1300 Service Reps.