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Innovative Control Systems (PA)

Is this your company?

Needs a dramatic improvement - Anonymous employee Innovative Control Systems (PA) Employee Review

1.0
Nov 8, 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The health benefits were covered and my coworkers were generally great to work with

Cons

When I first started, the place was a good place to work. The people were respectful, and while some of the humor was crass, it was at least acceptable. Throughout the years, the environment has become much more toxic, with finger pointing and backstabbing rampant. Working there for as long as I had, it became comfortable... until I realized I had been going into the office wondering WHEN, not IF, my day would be ruined by the passive aggressive management style and culture of negative feedback. It should be noted, that within the last 2 months I was there, multiple veteran employees with more than 8 years experience left the company. This should be a red flag in terms of the way they are losing talent. On top of that, over the past few years, the following highly concerning practices have seemingly been put in place to stay: - Feedback - it should be noted that the only feedback you will ever receive is when you've done something wrong. There is no thanks given for positive results, or working late to keep a client happy - Public shaming in weekly meetings in front of the entire department - Gross favoritism to certain individuals, to the point the rest of the staff were told we should all be giving our paychecks to said individual - Requirements are a 5 word item in a MS project task list (I refuse to call it a project plan, because there's no project management being done. All tasks are written down as 0.25 days to complete, regardless of the complexity involved) - Everything is a crisis, and we GOT TO fix the problem immediately - Promises are being made to clients, with target dates set without consulting the engineers who will be implementing the solution - Release schedules are seemingly done by throwing a dart at a calendar, and they GOT TO be done by that release - Any new technology or process introduced to streamline efficiencies and improve the code base is met with extreme opposition by management, and their favorites - QA is often bypassed, rushing releases out the door to meet unrealistic schedules and then management is SHOCKED when something goes wrong - Employees are treated as replaceable car wash employees, with the expectation they can be up and fully productive in minutes. This is regardless if you are an engineer, or a tier 1 support desk technician. - Management often talks over individuals and does not value input from employees, as they believe they know best - Emails are not read, and instead you are asked to reiterate your point that you have carefully laid out in the email, because it was simply too long to read

Explore other reviews about Innovative Control Systems (PA)

5.0
Feb 1, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Quiet and drama free. Office is nice and clean. Onsite gym and cafeteria.

Cons

None. I don't have anything negative to say.

1.0
Dec 20, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

+ It's a job, that's a plus. + If you have a pulse, you will get hired. + Their cafeteria is good. + It makes any other job look awesome after you've worked here. + Their corporate trainer that has worked their for years is one of the best human beings I ever had to experience working with. Thank you for being awesome. You know who I am talking about if you worked here.

Cons

This has to be one of the most toxic places I ever worked in my entire life. I came back to write this review years later because it still haunts me and I am over at greener pastures. -Toxic Leadership Do you want to be treated like a baby by people who never had real career opportunities so they lay all their baggage on you? You've come to the right place! This is perhaps the only job I ever worked where I went above and beyond for a customer to the point they wrote a good review for me on how helpful and understanding I was to only for leadership to call me (I thought I was going to get praised for my good job) for only them to ridicule me saying how I spent too much time for this customer and I shouldn't have helped them out that much. Leadership will treat you like a literal child, even the most intelligent people who've worked here have been talked down by leadership because 9 out of 10 times they don't want to be here and wish they were working somewhere else so they give you attitude for literally everything or every question you will have. They act like they are leagues smarter than you and are very considering yet everyone who leaves will make three times as much money as leadership here. Leave the ego at home, please. Leadership talks behind each other's backs, they play a game of heavy office politics. State and federal government positions have ironically LESS office politics than this job. If you're in on anything, good luck trying to be promoted. -Heavy micromanaging ICS micromanages you into the ground. Don't take a call for 30 seconds? They will question it. Are you 30 seconds late to sitting in your chair because you waited for the elevator? They will question it. Are you currently working on a call? Someone's over your shoulder, breathing down your neck. We're all adults, can you please give us space for us to work? It'll result in more productive employees. -Unscheduled Overtime You know whats a good feeling? You have 30 minutes until your shift is over, for only the floor manager to come in and says "Everyone, we have to do one hour of mandatory overtime!" and this repeats almost every day. You will have to get used to it. Leadership will LITERALLY corner you to force you to do overtime (Not an exaggeration) -Leadership is unhelpful. This is especially for the new employees. If you have a question and are stumped on a call, god forbid you ask for help. Leadership will give you so much attitude, its almost like you ask a toddler to clean up after themselves. Not all leads are like this, but majority of them give me attitude for missing documentation and issues that stumped even tier 2 and 3s. -Shared desks You will be shoulder and shoulder near your coworkers. Personally this wasn't an issue until it became fall/winter where people start getting sick and illnesses spread like wildfire here. In addition, you don't have an assigned seat so this incentivizes illness to spread more. -Unorganized documentation You will have to be a part time archeologist to do good at this job because half the time you will be digging off and dusting documentation that hasn't been updated since the early 2000's, IF you even manage to find it. You will have to piece together clues and information for some machines that have been long updated and then when you ask if there is more recent documentation, leadership will look at you like you have two heads. -No work life balance You WILL be working every other weekend, be forced to do overtime and forced to work holidays. Get used to it. You will find out how much abuse you can take. Try to request off? You have a better chance just applying to another job with no work experience. Then leadership will get mad at you for having a life outside of work. -Benefits that seem good, but scream red flags "If you come work for ICS, you get a one hour lunch and two 15 minute breaks!" Think about that for a second. Why do you need that many breaks? Oh right, because this job will BURN you out to the point where they incorporated these breaks and spin them off like it's a benefit. You get an hour UNPAID lunch. Employees would rather eat and work at the same time so they get to go home sooner! -It says innovative in the company name, they are anything BUT. Have a good idea to optimize your workflow? It'll be shutdown by management. Try to update documentation? Shutdown by management. Why is innovative in the name but working here is anything BUT innovative? -Low starting pay I got paid 21 an hour in 2021. The wage still has not increased 5 years later.

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