Pros
I worked at MB for over 5 years. When I started there, I knew very little of professional IT work and started as an entry level position with corresponding pay. I was able to learn many technical skills, as we were encouraged to figure out problems on our own. The president *seemed* to genuinely care about his employees, their development and their families. Most established techs working there could be relied for support and friendship.
Cons
Where do I begin? When I was hired on at MB full-time, the president told me specifically that if I got my first Microsoft certification within 1 year he would give me an immediate $10k pay increase. Sounded like great motivation! Studied hard and got my first Microsoft certification within 3 months. President refused to increase my pay, saying that he had never promised me such a pay increase. President was only interested in having a certified tech so that the business could be listed as a Microsoft Partner. LONG HOURS with ZERO compensation for overtime. Several techs informed management that this practice was/is illegal, but the president claimed the laws did not apply to computer techs. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen, if it hasn’t already. All techs were expected to work after-hours projects every month. Most projects went from a Friday night (until 2am) to a Sunday afternoon. Techs were NEVER compensated for after-hours projects. Project work was considered "voluntary" (which was actually more mandatory), unless of course you were the tech assigned as project lead and you were REQUIRED to be there. If there weren’t enough techs for a project, extra temporary techs would be hired on an hourly basis, which was icing on the cake for all the employed techs working all weekend for no money. It was common to work long shifts during a normal week as well. Techs were required to perform weekly server maintenance, always after hours, and were never compensated. Even when you had worked a 14hr Thursday until after midnight, you were expected to be back work at 8:30am the next day. And don't think that you'll get to take off early the next day either. If you didn't have at least 8hrs on your time sheet every day, you got in trouble. Never mind that you had already worked 60 hours this week. All techs were also required to be on-call at least once a month. This consisted of carrying a pager or extra phone with you at ALL TIMES to support any client after-hours emergencies. You were expected to be at or near your computer while you were at home, never being more than 10 minutes away from an internet connection. You were expected to wake up at 3am to answer emails. If you didn’t wake up, you got in trouble. Techs were never compensated for being on-call 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. Techs were supplied with sub-standard or outdated technology to perform their jobs. Cell phones and laptops were always 3-4 generations behind current technology. It was common for techs to be scheduled for service calls throughout an entire day with zero time allowed to take a lunch break. After a few years, techs were no longer encouraged to learn to fix problems that were “above their heads”. MB always prided itself on being a different kind of IT company, but they ended up modeling themselves after corporate structure. I was lucky enough to have advanced myself before the system was put in place to pretty much stop techs from moving up the ladder to a higher tier. Yearly pay increases were minimal. Average pay for a seasoned, experienced tech was/is WELL below the industry standard for the STL region. Bonuses were tied to departmental goals. And not just your department. If the sales guys didn’t meet their department goals, or if the managers didn’t meet their manager goals, the techs would not get their bonuses. Even if the techs HAD met all of their tech goals. All of this led to an extremely high turnover rate for techs. Long hours, below average pay and no overtime compensation does not make for a happy IT professional. The job was incredibly stressful, which might have been tolerable if the pay had been fair.
