Waste Management Reviews

Pros

Easy going and laid back work environment.
Great with employee benefits and reimbursements.
Management allows fair amounts of freedom and independence for employees, very little micromanagement.

Cons

Not very interesting or exciting work, it is a trash and recycling firm after all.
Recent management changes and restructuring has resulted in chaos at previously smooth running offices.

Advice to Senior Management

More bottom to top communications, and top to bottom communications. Big disconnect between what management thinks and what employees do.

Pros

Good pay and hours. The corporate office was nice enough to send WM promotional merchidise to us while I was there.

Cons

Being moved to Setup I was given a lot more responsibility but no promotion or raise. Management liked to say that is because it's not more but different responsibilities, but I still had to take calls and do all the tasks previously just ended up with a lot more multi tasking work and no benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to make your employees feel a lot more appreciated.

Pros

Good pay and benefits. Good company goals and sense of pride for working there. Good opportunity to learn new things.

Cons

Bad management. Little room for promotion, little praise for good work or rewarding for a job well done. Very unorganized

Advice to Senior Management

Eliminate middle management and start from scratch. It is not worth it to give the best drivers a management spot

Pros

Greatly respected by supervisors and felt like an important part of the company

Cons

Lack of direction at times

Pros

Ones in you most likely can stay as long you are not planing to get promoted. If you are someones friend you can last forever

Cons

poor communication; opportunity for advancement and or learning - none.
unfair promotions based on favoritism.
no flexability and all kinds of EEO rulls "bending".

Advice to Senior Management

Comunicate with your team - people want to be knowledgeable and respected. They want to learn and be valued. As a big company you can afford to invest better in your employees.

Pros

Decent health benefits, 40 hour work week, no weekends, fellow employees have been helpful and really great to work with.

Cons

Huge turnover rate for sales personnel. Leads do not seem to be distributed fairly and you are still held responsible for unrealistic goals.
The corporation gives employees 40 hours of sick time which they are encouraged to use for doctor's visits in one hour increments (as stated in the corporate employee manual) or to be used when you are really sick. Beginning in 2012, to take away this corporate benefit, the current management has written an attendance policy that penalizes you for taking any of the 40 hours of sick time. You are given 1 point for each and every time (1 hour or whole day) that you use this time. After 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 points, you are then given a verbal warning. Further points lead to termination. Even though you still have remaining sick time hours.
This new policy is based on a rolling 12 month time period even though each calendar year employees are awarded 40 hours of sick time. If you happen to take three one hour increments for doctors appointments, then say you are sick with the flu for three days, you will be given a verbal warning even though you have only used 27 hours of the 40 hours available to you. Now, if this all happens towards the end of the year, since it is based on a rolling 12 months, and you get sick in January and you have to take sick time, you are on your way to being terminated even though the corportion just gave you 40 hours to use for the new year.
Due to the massive amount of turnover and manipulation of benefits, I would not recommend this as a company to work for in Phoenix.

Advice to Senior Management

Value your employees. Make sure that the local management is communicating the same message as corporate. Walk the talk and make sure that local management is treating employees with respect.

Pros

Good financial stability. Company is forward thinking. Company is not risk adverse.

Cons

Company is lacking in HR sophistication. Promotions and merit raises are mostly based on relationships - not performance based.

Pros

Promotion is based on individual production, The Company helps you succeed, great benefits, 2 weeks vacation and 4 personal days after 1 year of employment, 100% vested in 401k from day one.

Cons

some days can be 12-14 hours, equipment break downs, poor fleet mechanic management and quality control.

Advice to Senior Management

We have a great company, however there is always room for improvement. Vehicle mantenance, in my opinion is probably our weakest area. Also a more simple and streight forward payscale.

Pros

WM offers a competitive salary and benefit package. Good job stability and somewhat recession proof industry.

Cons

As a front line manager you will be put through a meat grinder. Very little upward mobility. Expect for your cell phone to ring at all hours to include waking you at 3am. Maintenance cost per hour drives fleet repairs so expect and plan for a breakdown at least once a day. Holidays consist of having the holiday off and working the next Saturday. Bonus structure changes every year and you do not find out what the new structure is until after the 1st qtr has ended therefore insuring you cannot hit your numbers for that qtr. With the exception of the employees hired from outside the company many managers do not even have adequate computer skills and no financial business knowledge.

Advice to Senior Management

Clean house and reinvigorate your mid level management. My boss was a Sr District Manager and when I was on a conference call with him he did not even know that cash was an asset. He thought only trucks were. Start moving people around, you want new ideas and solutions yet there is no structure whatsoever to move top performers.

Pros

They listened to employees regarding changes we wanted (although the changes requested were already in place at most companies in the area and it took several months of "asking" to get what we requested).

Cons

They can be a bit slow to respond to employees, even after expending $$ toward development.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay close attention to what other companies in the area are doing. Don't take too long to implement employee-retaining practices.