Please describe the primary reason(s) you are leaving your current position.
This is the ONLY time Decision one EVER asked the opinion of an employee and it was during an exit interview. And since I know they don't really care thought I would share it here for others to read. Stay away from this place it's a sinking ship.
I am leaving my current position for a multitude of reasons. First being the lack of job security that I feel there is in the company right now, every week I hear about another round of cutbacks due to “Cost Cutting” measures. The second reason, in two and half years despite my work load increasing, my certifications increasing, the demand to have more security clearance and background checks ran for them, I have not received a single raise or even an evaluation for one. However during that time I have received a cut in pay due to losing the first and last half hour of every day I work driving to sites from my home, which is my office since it has my computer that I work from, my tools that I use, my printer that I print D1’s return labels on, etc. But apparently whatever mile marker on the highway I am at, at the thirty minute mark is my “office” and whatever mile marker I am at on my return trip which is thirty minutes from home is also my “office”. Also despite the rise in fuel cost two-hundred and fifty miles of travel that I do for the company is also taken which impacts my cost, and mileage is no longer figured by address to address but zip code to zip code which do not take into account construction detours, or the fact that a zip code covers an area and sometimes the call is in the furthest reaches of that area.
Please rate the following aspects of the job you are vacating. Use the 1 – 5 scale below.
Workload - 2
When I started there were two people we cover a very large area with multiple clients in vastly different support roles, I am now required to cover that area as well as a recently expanded area due to cutbacks by myself. This equates to nearly 1300-1600 miles per week (before the 250mile reduction).
Salary - 1
No raises in over two years, and essentially a “cutback” in salary due to policy changes for “Cost Cutting” measures.
Working conditions - 2
Tools and equipment provided - 3
Training received - 2
There was no training program, there is documentation for every client and some of that is lacking for content and many times documentation and even procedures were update or discontinued without prior knowledge.
Co-workers - 4
In my time at D1 I met only one co-worker xxxxxxxx, he was a huge help and even continued to be after he left the company if I had a question to which no one else had the answer.
Supervision received - 4
When I started my supervisor was xxxxxxxxxx, he was amazing and still is, he was always there to answer the phone and provide whatever help he could and direction he could give when needed. I was then transferred to xxxxxxxx during the first round of “Cost Cutting” measures, and I didn’t have much interaction with him, but what I did have I can say was very good. My current supervisor xxxxxxxxx is an over worked under appreciated dedicated Lead who has taken on the role of a Tech and a manager and yet he always answers the phone or calls back when he is called. He was one of the only reason I had a hard time deciding to leave the company.
Level of input in decisions that affected you - 1
What input? Most of the time especially during the Rooney Era, policies especially those affecting technicians in the field and more importantly the money we spend to do our jobs (phones, gas, tools, travel, etc.) was not discussed but more edicts were issued and demanded to be followed without question and without delay. And should you chose to question or delay those edicts always included a “kind” seek work elsewhere tone.
Recruitment process - 2
I have very little experience with this process; however after over six months of looking for a replacement for Daryl, I was informed by my Lead that due to “Cost Cutting” measures his position would not be filled. So what experience I did have was not very successful.
Training opportunities - 1
Limited, I asked multiple times about becoming Toshiba certified it seems no one that was asked had any idea of the exact procedure to go about it. There were also times when it was asked of my Lead to find someone to get Epson certified, but due to “Cost Cutting” measures and my absurdly large territory there were no bodies to cover the area to send me to class and thus there were no opportunities. Instead most of my training involved taking test on products that I may or may not ever see in the field and getting certifications on them blindly while the real companies need went unfulfilled.
Career development opportunities - 1
While D1 may have been a place to build a career at before it is not that place anymore. People like xxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxx were given the option step down from management and return to the field as a Lead Field Service Engineer or seek work elsewhere. That is not development but instead regression.
Employee morale - 1
From what I can gather from reading angry emails and what I could gather from the few technicians I spoke with and the few people in a “Corporate” position who worked in the office morale couldn’t be lower. For all the above reasons, and I am sure many more. It was one of my key reasons for leaving.
Fair treatment of employees - 1
I won’t write a long paragraph here what I will say is see above.
Recognition for a job well done - 1, This is the rating I give to upper level management - 5, This is the rating I give to my direct supervisors.
I gave two ratings on this one for upper level management who was always quick to send out a “you screwed up message”, and equally slow to send out an “Atta boy”. However my direct supervisors have never had that problem always recognizing my good and bad equally and never focusing on one over the other.
Cooperation within the company - 1
What cooperation? When the “Cost Cutting” measure started we switched from higher quality OEM parts to lesser quality refurbished parts. Those parts broke more frequently or were DOA more often than the OEM ones and thus led to more frequent return visits or visits to the site to resolve the call the first time; however in an email we were told how amazing the “Cost Cutting” measures were doing in the Parts Department. While that sounds great I wonder at the same time how much extra cost was added to Logistics, Labor, and the technicians cost of return visits. But it would seem those didn’t matter at least to parts. How is this cooperation?
Communication between management and employees - 2
This is a two sided issue as management is two sided, the communication between my direct supervisors was always good. However upper management the information always seemed to be one sided we listened they ordered. There was no real productive communication.
The company’s interest and investment in employees - 1
This one is very easy for me in my tenure I have seen or heard of multiple technicians either leaving or being let go due to “Cost Cutting” measure or due morale. The prime example I can give is xxxxxxxx he had 26 years on the job at D1, he was Epson certified, he was Toshiba certified, he had every government clearance that D1 requires. And after all that and all that time, a competing company recruited him for more money with less travel and D1 just said “Are you sure you want to leave?” If that is your employee retention for someone with all the aforementioned qualities I can only imagine how little you care about someone like me.
Commitment to customer service - 1
You claim that all the “Cost Cutting” and restructuring and call management or service event management or whatever name you want to give it, is for customer service and quality. I can tell you from being “on the front lines” my customers are less satisfied and have received less quality of service since the implementation of all these measures than they did before they started. There have been instances where DAYS have gone by because SEM can’t reach a customer due to the nature of the site they work on, things that I am aware of and that I would treat as a “Just Go” site or in some instances I am on the site for another call but have no knowledge of the call that SEM can’t reach the EU on. But because of the changes the customers go in some cases up to a week before they hear or see me, and then I am the bad guy for taking to long. Or when SEM orders a part for the call and it is the wrong part to resolve the call, or the wrong printer or the wrong address, but when you look at the call notes it’s always the same “Verified all information”. Well it is this service, quality, and excellence that have left a bad taste in my mouth and was another reason I ultimately left the company.
Concern with quality and excellence - 1
See Previous Rating and Questions as you cannot have quality and excellence with bad customer service.
What do you consider to be the biggest challenge D1 now faces and needs to overcome?
D1 needs to get back to basics they need to abandon the attempts at reinventing the wheel and they need to focus on their customers and their employees. Because when you have happy customers and happy employees you don’t need to focus on “Cost Cutting” measures as the business will come to you and the cost will cut themselves to do an increase and gross income.
What, if anything, could have been done to prevent you from leaving?
Changes to many but certainly not all of the things I have listed in the very detailed interview would have led to me staying. But namely morale, care for employees, and actual input on decisions that affect me the most.
