Spent the first six months learning the job and the next six months learning to hate it
Pros
They do the bare minimum of offering basic benefits.
Cons
The company loves to tell branch coordinators at orientation that it will take them six months to learn the job. This is true. I spent the next six months learning to hate it. The company seems to think employees should be grateful for being provided with the bare minimum. The health insurance is outrageously expensive. The profit sharing plan may as well not exist. There's a strange hero worship culture surrounding the CEO at corporate. During my orientation one of the upper level corporate employees proudly told me that the CEO is "very intelligent and reads many books" without a hint of irony. The current direction at the company seems to be based on whatever book he's reading at the time. They technically have an "open door policy" when it comes to feedback and suggestions for improvement. These are typically addressed at quarterly Town Hall meetings where the CEO tells everyone why the ideas they submitted are bad and no change will occur. The branch coordinator job is high responsibility while being one of the more low paid positions in the company. I was once told that the low salary for the BC position was "the market value." The position has very high turnover and getting a raise is difficult. They'll tell candidates that the job of branch coordinator requires a special kind of person who has to be up to the task. This is just an excuse to get potential employees used to the idea of having more and more responsibility dumped on them with no additional financial compensation. It's also an easy way to explain the high turnover in the position because those previous employees "weren't right for the job." Tasks change depending on the branch but can include anything the company decided wasn't necessary to pay someone full time for and could just be placed on the coordinators. This can include warehouse management which can be anything as small as a box weighing a few pounds to massive displays and equipment that can weigh hundreds of pounds. There was a forklift available at my location but I was never given proper training on it and had to teach myself on the fly. Breaks and lunches are not respected. If I didn't leave the premises and sat in the break room I would be interrupted to unload a truck or take a client call. They have a stringent "no work from home" policy which really only extends to work hours. Working after hours is a rampant and known issue as most employees are given too many responsibilities to handle during the day. It was not uncommon for employees to take PTO and still be working. It's very difficult to take pop up PTO days - like if you wake up sick - in the branch coordinator position as you have to get others to cover your responsibilities. This can take time to set up but you are still expected to take a full day off regardless because you didn't physically come into the office. Claim they are a "female owned business" while all decisions are made by a C-level team composed almost entirely of men.
