Groupware International Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Groupware International

Pros – There is the possibility that your outstanding work might be noticed. You get to work on your own and handle the customer interaction all by yourself. so there is a lot of control over that.

Cons – I observed what appeared to be a lot of preferential treatment towards a core few employees, in terms of the assignment of installation jobs done. Especially as work got less and less, the jobs I was given became more and more time consuming for the pay. I seemed to have been given jobs that were abandoned by other technicians and had to be redone - a lot. Specifically, things like 100 foot underground drops down a telephone pole, through trees and roots, across a (gravel) driveway, with an improper grounding needing a 10 foot ground rod hammered in, for 9.00. The job required 45 minutes with the customer, calls to dispatch for clarification, and Bright House before the scope of work was even determined. (It was an unusual installation). That was my very first call given to me when I went out on my own. Many (not all) subsequent installs were as much if not more difficult. Quality control failed everything they could. We were warned about this, as a result I did not take any shortcuts. This also took too much time to be remunerative. I also observed many shortcuts which were taken by previous (failed) techs that I had to redo myself or else get failed myself and not paid for. Things that would take a LOT of time to do properly. This was almost the norm - maybe 40% of jobs? My earnings went from about 700.00 a week (a great start for a rookie) to less than 200.00 a week, for the same amount of work. There were "fails" that I was not told about until my pay became sufficiently high so as to deduct the "fine" without going below minimum wage. For this I was docked 100.00 even though I did not over-bill - just made a mistake on a billing code. One Quality control tech was demoted. He felt he could cut in front of all the other techs waiting in line for their work assignments at 6:30 in the morning. When I (not impolitely) brought up the fact that he might need to wait in line with the other 9 guys in front of him, he got irate and actually told me he would take this outside the shop with me in a fight! This was on camera and in front of 12 or so people. I declined his offer and declined to bring charges against him or the company. I can't be bothered with any of this stuff. It feels good to write it up however.

Advice to Senior Management – I really do not believe there was any "management" or "caring" at all about what was going on with the company. Point in case, the office that I worked for went out of business about a year after I left. My advice would be simply to provide some management, any management at all. Correct the reasons why good management is either discouraged or kicked out altogether. Cable contracting is a tough competitive business, but you do not succeed at it by treating your techs in an arbitrary way, giving preferential treatment, etc.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Groupware International

Pros – hands on experience but you are on your own

Cons – No safety procedures, not equal treatment for all the techs, no personal consideration, lack of respect from supervisors and general manager to the technicians, this is the worst company I have come across. no respect for your hours or squeduled days off, things were so bad, cable techs when on strike three times on the kendall office (miami), last time was so bad more than 30 techs resign to collect unemployment!!. dont let me be the judge for that! unemployment office granted the benefits to all employees.... They sold the business to some other companny

Advice to Senior Management – Have no advice, got what they deserved on the Kendall office, and bussiness was sold to another company. All this was could have been avoided if owners would realized the poor management in that office and fired all the supervisors and the manager.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend