Best In Class? Where? - Anonymous employee DISH Employee Review

1.0
May 10, 2010
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

As a new hire, they provide you with all of the necessary tools to perform your job. Five weeks of paid on the job and in-classroom training. Two weeks paid vacation. A discounted Dish TV services account. Uniform, safety gear. A fuor-day workweek. Visin and dental plans are decent, and they do provide a discounted healthcare package.

Cons

Too many lies trickle down from Corporate, and it taints everything. This company fools itself into believing anything and everything in order to appease a manchild like Ergen who's "too late" technological strides continue to drive us slowly into the ground. We introduced the New Slingloaded 922 VIP DVR Receiver to no fanfare. We told ourselves that it was the most sophisticated receiver on the market. It's most notable feature? The ability to stream content from your receiver to any computer or Sling-enabled device, anywhere that there is an internet connection. Guess what? They already have that. It's called Hulu. And it's free. Or Netflix, which has low-priced tiered subscriptions. We are our own biggest fan. And we can prove it. We recently just ended a promotion to drive employees to install Dish Network services in their houses, because, as a whole, our employees did not subscribe to our services. Charlie Ergen, our Chairman (who recently stepped down as CEO of Dish Netwrok Services in order to let some other schmuck take the fall if our company suddenly goes belly up), held a televised all team meeting, addressing the fact that a majority of employees did not take advantage of what he called "a free service". He stated that those who did not, in fact, subscribe to Dish service did not have pride in the company. He wanted to chnge that, and "suggested" that people "show some pride" and get our services installed, even if they did not have the ability to do so due to not have landlord permission to install, not having line of site. He said, "I don't care if you don't use it, just get it and throw it in the closet." Our Chairman said this. And that was followed by a corporate wide initiative to get employees installed. One would think this would be easy, given that the service is"free". But the services for employees are not free. Employees receive a monthly credit of 39.99, enough to cover some costs, but it could leave you paying taxes, DVR fees, phone line fees, etc. In my opinion, is something is a credit, it is not free. Dish even built a web forum to address this and other hot button topics, and one employee from Colorado stated that "until we become profitable as a company" , we shouldn't expect to get free programming. During this chaotic, and neurotic drive came another corporate initiative - to become "Best In Class". No one ever mentioned what we'd be best in class at, or who decided, but it spread like the plague as our new corporate mantra. After meeting our goal of signing up enough employees to both placate Ergen and fluff our subscriber base, we proclaimed that we are now "Best In Class"! Where? And who decided? The company derided us with hoopla to get employees as subscribers with such tactics as saying, "Do Pepsi employees drink Coke? Do Chevy employees drive Fords?" and a "You can't be a brand ambassador if you don't have the product" mentality, all the while stating that it was free. That's a lie. The fact is, if this company could get over itself, it wouldn't be so bad. You figure, we work 4 days a week - that's roughly two weeks a month. The FSM's have to perform a Tool audit, a Van audit, a Quality Assurance Inspection (because we're low on QAS's), a safety survey, and aride along, with each tech, twice a month. The IM has do the same, for all techs. The General Manager is also supposed to do this. Five times a month, minimum. How is that productive? And it's all because some coprorate guy visited a jobsite once, and a tech was missing one tool. Suddenly, we need to audit every tech monthly. And techs have to bring in their tools every night, because Corporate is afraid techs might be "freelancing" on thier off days. But we're Best In Class. That's why I think the lies are Dish Network's Biggest fault. We think we're competing, but we're not even on the playing field. We might not even be at the same game. Bottom line, like my science teacher always told me, "K.I.S.S.", which means, "Keep It Simple, Stupid."

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Pros

You can make six figures

Cons

High turnover in employees and management

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DISH Response
6mo
It is excellent to hear that you recognize the significant earning potential and that you find the commission structure to be good. We are committed to providing a compensation structure that highly rewards performance. We acknowledge your observation regarding turnover within both our employee and management ranks. We recognize the importance of stability and are actively investing in programs to enhance employee engagement, development, and retention at all levels of the organization. Thank you for providing your valuable perspective.
3.0
May 15, 2026
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Pros

Good middle management and compensation. Lots of opportunities to learn from plenty of smart people.

Cons

Disclaimer -This is all water cooler hearsay and opinion. During the two years I was there the bill came due on being penny wise and dollar dumb over the years. A great example is Sling. Dish beat basically everyone to market but Netflix with streaming and was the first platform to offer live TV via stream (which YouTube TV still uses as a selling point). What happened? Dish paid the original engineers to build it and then balked at paying them to document and maintain it. Same deal with the cyber security team. After years of expecting security engineers to do exceptional work shorthanded for middling compensation eventually they had none. It was all put on the security manager, who had a heart attack after repeatedly requesting support. He understandably did not return. Not much later one of the core systems was ransomed, and the company fell out of the fortune 500. Despite being in the middle of dealing with the consequences of those decisions leadership was doing it all again with the mobile network build out.

1
avatar
DISH Response
1mo
Hearing that you found value in our middle management and compensation, as well as the chance to learn from the talented individuals on our teams, is encouraging. We appreciate you recognizing those aspects of your time with us. On the other hand, the historical context and concerns you shared regarding executive decision-making, infrastructure maintenance, and resource allocation are deeply concerning. Maintaining a stable, secure, and well-supported environment for our workforce is of the utmost importance, and we take feedback regarding employee well-being and operational decisions seriously. We are continually working to strengthen our operations and better support our teams across all business units. Because this review references a sensitive medical situation alongside organizational challenges, we would welcome the opportunity to hear more about your perspective. Please consider reaching out to our team directly at peopleoperations@dish.com so we can learn more.
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