Protection One Reviews

Pros

Great co-workers, good benefits; Medical, Dental, Optical, 401K, PTO

Cons

Protection One (now called Protection 1) used to be a great place to work, working conditions changed drastically when new owners took over. As a previous reviewer mentioned, morale is very low and pay is down. Doesn't appear senior management really cares about their employees, they put on a big show with lots of Hoopla and Ra Ra, but most employees I have talked to, do not feel the love.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Pay is ok, great techs, and support group (office admin) -

Cons

Management could care less, tech support is poor, knowledge of old "take over" alarms is so poor, they try to manipulate customers to upgrade. Working with this company for a very long time - I've seen it go down hill very fast! Their sub-contractors are sub-poor, thought of as a number, and only care about RMR (re-acuring monthly $$)

Advice to Senior Management

None!

Pros

Some good co workers in office

Cons

Only concerned with bottom line

Advice to Senior Management

Dont always believe the words of you Bramch Managers whos only goal is his bonuu plan

Pros

I worked for Protection One in several positions in the San Francisco Bay Area. At one time the Bay Area was comprised of solid leaders with proven results. While Bay Area management has made some horrible moves over the last couple of years, the rest of the company is pretty solid. P1 works very closely with one of the leading security / life safety manufacturers, so the products are very reliable. I do like that the local GM doesn't believe in stocking the break room with disposable coffee cups, but that doesn't put money in my account. They have some great service technicians who rarely get recognition for all of the work they do. The company was working on going to e-docs/contracts.

Cons

After the former CEO and executive team pulled the company out of near bankruptcy and got us back on an even keel, he flew the coop. This opened the doors for new management with a new vision. I've always admired how these guys could put some good spin on a company. With that in mind, I'm not too impressed with the how Regional VP has been running the Bay Area. I've worked with some of the other western branches over the years and was always very impressed, so maybe the issues I experienced were due to some kind of inherent flaw in the Bay Area. Closing rant: There was no "open door" policy, extremely long hours, sales reps were treated like absolute dirt, managers played favorites with sales leads, managers sometimes stole sales leads/contracts, no-talent telesales reps constantly screwed up sales that a local rep could have slam dunked, there was almost no administrative support and commission errors (resulting in no bonuses) were rampant.

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure that your sales employees don't get cheated out of bonuses and get paid for the work they do. Provide real opportunities for promotions and track the progress of employees who want to grow with the company. Most of this could be solved by having an efficiency expert (Sigma, Lean, someone relatively cognizant) keep an eye on the Bay Area for awhile. The previous GM could run this place in his sleep, mostly because he didn't let other managers dictate how he ran his district. He did have his flaws, but I'm just saying ... I used to think the current GM had the ability to run the place , but I really lost faith in him when he hired some leaders with ... loose ethics and took forever to fire unethical individuals. (The current commercial manager is an exception here.) Eh, no one is perfecut P1 used to have a strong foothold in the Bay Area. Also, I'm not too hot on the new branding but I do like that you stuck with the original colors. Please clean up the commissions process and bring regional & local management in line with your vision.

Pros

It's a company with a lot of growth potential

Cons

Communication from top management is poor

Advice to Senior Management

Connect more with field workers

Pros

This is a great company to their customers. Customer service is great. My time is flexible as I'm out in the field.

Cons

Ever since new buyers have taken over about a year ago the employee morale is extremely low. Publicly everyone puts on a good face, but privately the people I talk to don't like the direction of the senior management. Everything is cookie cutter now. Local management is not empowered to make sound localized selling decisions. Very difficult environment to sell in now and pay has dropped significantly. Most employees can see through the ra-ra cheerleader mentality, knowing that senior management just wants to hold this company for a while and sell.

Advice to Senior Management

drive sales with competitive pricing. Empower local management to make selling decisions

Pros

Some cool people to work with, Pay is average to above average with other companies its size. Willingness to from hire within.

Cons

Poor benefits, cuts fat at the bottom, not from the top. Very poor middle management. Lack of acknowledgement for good work.

Pros

Because you need a job

Cons

There is not a good support system

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on training and brand awareness

Pros

Occasional free lunches
Some flexibility with hours and schedule
Hanging on if you have a bad GM because odds are this person will be gone in a year or two tops

Cons

They have no clue how to hire good leaders. Yeah, let's just hire these cut-throat managers who are only interested in their own agendas and don't care one bit about treating employees fairly across the board, and then wonder why good employees end up leaving and doing great work for their competitors. Duh??

Advice to Senior Management

When hiring GMs and management, you truly need to subscribe to the "No A****** Rule". If you don't know what it means then LOOK IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pros

Public company so you know what is going on. If we had a bad quarter everyone knew about it, if a good quarter same thing. Richard Ginsberg is one of the most hands on CEO's I have ever met. He clearly defined our vision and always deliver news to us good or bad.

Cons

Service and sales expectations are sometimes unreasonable.

Advice to Senior Management

Ease up on the sales goals, otherwise keep doing what you are doing.