One Communications Reviews in Boston, MA Area

Pros

People, Manager, base salary, benefits, training

Cons

Commission payout and structure impossible to calculate and understand, Company as viewed by customers, not good.

Pros

It's a place to start and learn basics, especailly if you have been uneployed for a while.

Cons

If you are only taking care of yourself the salary is fine, but if you have to take care of a family it is impossible.

Pros

One Comm is a relatively simple company. We do provide hi-tech solutions to mid-sized to larger companyies, so there are plenty of opportunity.

Cons

The company has spent the last 4 years trying to get out of it's own way. There seems to be no passion and/or emotional support! It's a sales company run by engineers

Advice to Senior Management

Start acting with impunity - make the decisions quickly. Trust the legarcy company's employees to make their own decisions. Encourage "happyness" mode.

Pros

The good people you work with and the customers you get close to in a business sense.

Cons

Very poor managers and leadership there.
They had a big lay-off in 2006 and Columbia Ventures allowed middle management to decide who stays and who goes, huge mistake. The ones let go were the performers in favor of drinking buddies.

Advice to Senior Management

Ride that broken horse as long as possible because your skill set doesn't cut it.

Pros

Great compensation for good performers
stable work enviornment if you are a consistent performer
ability to move up in the company if you stay aggressive
good and fair benefits packages
good time off and accrued time off for years of service
Good product suite to offer to competitive industry

Cons

Management, Management, Management
Lack of communication from management
Sales turnover is unreal because of the lack of support new representatives receive
Directors and senior level seem to turn a blind eye to real problems and issues
no internal ability to communicate between departments
order process is constantly changing but never for the better
too many cooks in the kitchen on orders; literally 20 to 30 different people will touch an order and you can never get a straight answer from any of them.
Union mentality has taken over about 90% of the coworkers
Morale is at an all time low in the 8 years i have been here
company is too focused on EBIDTA and has too many false promises
Merged 3 years ago and still operate as 3 or 4 separate companies internally
Manager and Directors are very ineffective in their leadership abilities and their poor performances are showing in the sales numbers and turn over rates yet they continue to stay employed
Lots of hot air from senior level management but nothing ever translates into tangible evident changes

Advice to Senior Management

Take action while it's not too late. You need to stop turning the blind eye to all the internal issues going on and someone needs to step up, own these issues, and put on the overalls and begin the clean up process before it's too late. Understandably EBIDTA is a very important number for our investors but when our company calls just focus primarily on EBIDTA and not on any of the issues that have been ongoing and unaddressed for 3 years, it's very dibiltating and sucking the life out of your employees. You have a good company, a good product but in-effective management levels trying to lead us. We have a value proposition that is about as valuable as toilet paper after a chili-cook off. And last but not least, PLEASE RETURN PHONE CALLS. I have heard so many complaints from coworkers, business partners, team partners, clients, etc about leaving messages for upper managment and never receiving a call back. It's completely irresponsible and sets a horrible example for your employees but also reflects negatively on the company. We are all busy but is it too much to ask to follow up on an issue?? Remember, poop roles down hill and if you're doing things poorly, what do you think your employees are doing???

Pros

Good co-workers and new technologies.
The pay and benefits are fair.
The company seems to be fair in everyday issues.

Cons

Bad Management.
The internal corporate agendas are many and all over the place.
The previous middle and some upper managers were never replaced after exiting from chapter 11.
Big Mistake on the part of the new owner. Probably in it just for the money and quick sale anyhow.

Advice to Senior Management

Most of you are incompetent and seem to be only concerned with your paychecks.
I suggest cleaning house and replacing upper and middle management with a new team slowly.

Pros

Freedom to plan your work day - however this varies from office to office.
Competitively priced products

Cons

Corporate America at it's worst... they don't give a damn about either their employees or especially their customers. Turnover in sales is several 100% per year for many reasons. Company is losing a lot more customers than they will publicly admit due to poor service. Finding happy customers to leverage for a reference is very difficult. Was repeatedly expected to be the face and voice for the company after provisioning and repair had screwed up. Most customers I sold encountered either problems during provisioning or shortly thereafter. One Communications attitude when their customers lose their telephone service for any extended time is frighteningly cavalier. Often I would hear, "Oh, that's just Telecom, the stuff breaks."

Most of the senior sales staff have survived only because they feed off all the new sales blood that pound the street and develop fresh leads but are unable to sell them during their short tenure because the sales cycle is actually a lot longer than what management will tolerate. Experienced reps often do not want to help newer people because they would rather see you fail so they can eventually take over what you started. Many days were wasted canvassing in areas already heavily picked over by other reps but nothing was ever coordinated by sales management to know that in advance. Answers to questions about products and internal procedures varied depending on whom you asked so it was both difficult and frustrating to grow.

The company has no coordinated marketing or modern sales tools (CRM system, email lists, lead services, etc...) and depend too heavily upon the sales force to make cold calls and knock on doors. However, the company is trying to go up the food chain with the type of businesses they sell to but can't adapt to both the changes in technology (voice mail, people don't answer their phones anymore) and the increased sophistication of that buyer.

Morale is horrible. Most who work there don't enjoy their jobs. In sales if you don't meet your monthly number they heavily frown on you from taking the time off which you've accrued, especially anywhere near the end of the month.

Advice to Senior Management

Problems are many but management has blinders on and shield themselves from the Street. Can't continue to survive by refusing to understand that it costs a lot more to find new customers than to keep your existing customers happy. Company is too focused on maintaining EBITIDA % than investing properly in their people or their products and service. Additionally, company is too top heavy in sales management. Many never leave the safety of their office and actually get involved with customers to help boost sales. They are too busy tabulating daily sales numbers up and down the command structure. District level should be eliminated and have sales managers report directly to geographical VP.

Pros

good people/great flexible hours and vacation. In general, the people I worked with were very nice. Moral, however is very low!!

Cons

lack of directions/leadership needs to chance. Managemnet does not really care about their people., I am surprised they still in busienss,

Advice to Senior Management

better leadereship/better training and too many layers of mananagemnt. Need to give employees more of a sense of directions and repsonsibilities overall.

Pros

really laid back work place. taking time off for family issues is real easy. other than that i really can not find a positive reason to work for this company other than it is a paycheck till this economy turns itself around.

Cons

low pay. no matching 401k. no pay raise for 3 yars now. promises bonuses but only people to reach the goal is management..humm kinda fishy.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep your workers happy not just the managers.

Pros

The pros of working for One Communications is that there is none unless you need a paycheck till you find another job.

Cons

No pay raises in three years

Poor manangement skills and lack of skilled employees.

No opportunity for career advancement

No training for new employees

Constantly keeping its employees in the dark on what is going regarding issues with the company.

Numerous complaints from customers regarding poor customer service.

For a telephone company there is a lot of outages for customers and there own employees who can't work due to system issues.

Advice to Senior Management

If the company is to succeed it needs to care about its employees