High School Except with Cubicles and Timesheets - Anonymous employee BrightKey Employee Review

Are you the kind of person who thrives on 'yes' buttons and enjoys being a slave to whatever the needs of the client are? Do you like it when telemarketers answer the phone in the exact same tone and inflection, say, 200 times a day? Do you miss the pettiness of high-school cliques and enjoy immature workplace behavior? BrightKey may be the place for you. BrightKey cloaks their unwillingness to pay living wages and their desire to overwork their staff in 'yes' culture and glassy-eyed Orwellian optimism. Their slogans, 'The BrightKey Difference,' are written all over the walls of the office, and all of the management drinks the KoolAid in the hopes of seeming progressive when in reality they are no better than your typical retail chain: "The customer is always right" (as long as they pay). BrightKey also favors female management, which is fine, but it also touts the fact that it was founded by a woman as if this in it of itself is something that requires praise, and if you don't think so, you're probably sexist. It will take some time for an applicant to actually understand what BrightKey does: outsourcing -- pretty much anything you can think of, but mostly communications. The office is basically a call center, and there's a warehouse in the back with all sorts of knick-knacks and promotional items that organizations love to spam their customer base with. BrightKey's favorite program is Excel, and they don't use it particularly well. Most of the company's workload is created from poor planning, but there are so many clients with constant demands that the stress train cannot stop for the optimization of rote tasks. Spreadsheets rarely link to each other when they should because the company hires employees with little experience because they know they will work for less. Micromanagement is also an issue. Almost every employee (even managers) is required to fill out timesheets (and sometimes 'ticksheets') that track how he/she spends his/her 8.5 hours or more (not paid for a lunch break). These hours are broken into 15 minute intervals. This is so management knows exactly how much to bill each of their clients. Although the numbers rarely seem to add up and there's a good amount of budget-jutsu involved. Timesheets are constant hassle; instead of trusting that their employees are doing their work, BrightKey wastes time counting the minutes they are using filling out unnecessary paperwork, and, don't worry, none of these numbers link directly to the invoices – would be far to convenient. Also, don't get sick because BrightKey doesn't deem that to be valid excuse for missing work, and it will count as an 'occurrence' on your permanent record. More than one 'occurrence' is deemed 'excessive.' Maybe if you or an immediate loved one dies, you will get off, but don't cross your fingers. Don't come in a minute late, either. Occurrence. In the first 90 days, you're not supposed to be absent. At 5 p.m. on the dot, most of the office is empty because few want to be there any longer than they have to.