Pros
-The low level folks and the supervisors that I work with have so far been awesome; the people in the school that I'm assigned to even more so.
-You work as many hours as you like (provided they can find a spot with that many hours for you).
- Every year they hold a company picnic with a lot of fun stuff.
- I've been able to take pride in my work, and working conditions have so far been tolerable.
Cons
-The biggest one is the payscale for regular cleaners. I started at $9/hr, and got a 23 cent raise after a year. And that is near the maximum for the highest-performing employees. Management says the norm is 10-25 cents per year based on cost of living increases, but it tends to be well below that.
-The benefits are laughable. The health insurance policy covers very little and is prohibitively expensive with a staggering deductible. The dental insurance is actually more expensive than paying for a dentist visit out of pocket. Employees accrue paid time off extremely slowly with a maximum annual limit. You also forfeit holiday pay if for whatever reason you cannot work a full shift before and after the holiday in question.
-The corporate culture leaves a lot to be desired. There's an obsession with holding down costs to the detriment of the company (that includes pay, but also quality of equipment and rationing chemicals). As a result, similar to Walmart, benefits have been gradually eroded. Furthermore, there is this mentality that the higher-ups can never be wrong, so if a policy fails, it MUST be because the subordinates are incompetent. They also have a difficult time accepting criticism of their policies and decisions.
-Inadequate communication. Most communication between employees and supervisors is over the phone. Oftentimes a link in the chain of communication is broken, causing confusion and misinformation. Half the time I will only find out I was supposed to do something important after the fact.
-As a result of all of the above, the company is critically understaffed. Turnover is extremely high, and it's not unusual for groups of people to quit or walk out on the same day, throwing the cleaning crews into chaos as they scramble to cover the empty shifts.