Vertical Screen Reviews

I started working for Vertical Screen in August 2011. I had worked retail for a long time and was finally glad to be out. I was looking forward to a steady job where I wouldn't have to talk to customers. I was placed as a Public Records Researcher. It was obvious very quickly how menial the job was. A friend described it as a 'monkey job', which it certainly was. Because of this I didn't mind working overtime. I worked A LOT to save money. For a year I consistently worked 65+ hours a week. What made the hours go by so easily is I would watch movies and TV shows on my iPod; the entire time. I watched 10 seasons of Mythbusters, 7 seasons of The Golden Girls (plus the 1 season of its spin-off The Golden Palace), 9 seasons of Roseanne, 9 seasons of The Drew Carey Show, 11 seasons of Murphy Brown, 4 seasons of ALF, 7 seasons of How I Met Your Mother, 3 seasons of The PJs, all of The Twilight Zone, 8 seasons of Full House, 8 seasons of Who's the Boss?, 6 seasons of Becker, HBO's John Adams and Band of Brothers, 3 seasons of The Ricky Gervais Show, plus dozens of movies and it gave me a chance to catch up on recent shows. (All the while management had no idea. Yes, I was caught one time, but that didn't stop me.) Now, most of what everyone has said in the previous reviews is pretty accurate; especially the stuff about being extremely strict. In the 14 months that I had worked there, I put in endless overtime, actually tried to improve my work, and had never made a mistake before, made ONE error and because of the so called 'zero tolerance policy' at the time, I was immediately let go as soon as the mistake had been brought to the company's attention. Now, at first you might think that I was extremely upset at had just been let go abruptly and most people probably would have been but I just wasn't'. I was actually sort of relieved. I had no idea what I was going to do but I wasn't scared or worried. I walked out, went home as if nothing had happened. I of course immediately applied for unemployment and because of all of the overtime, I had a handsome chunk of change saved up. Vertical Screen tried to deny me my unemployment citing Pennsylvania Unemployment law Section 402(e) stating 'willful misconduct'. Basically claiming I intentionally made the error as an act of malice towards the company. This of course was not the case but I'm sure Vertical Screen would say anything just to save a dollar. I hired an unemployment attorney (best $500 ever spent) and appealed the decision. On the day of the hearing (not a court hearing, just a little conference room with the officer, my former supervisor, and my lawyer. I was not to speak unless spoken to. The lawyer was a really nice guy but, I'll never know the true skill he possesses. A short time into the hearing, my former supervisor was actually asked point blank if he feels that my actions were intentional to which he immediately responded 'no'. At first I thought nothing of it but soon realized that something had either just gone wonderfully wrong or horribly right. The entire basis for denying me unemployment was that I screwed up on purpose and this guy literally handed me 6 months unemployment (at the time 3 months back pay of it due almost immediately). I'll never know if he didn't realized the nature and/or gravity of the question or if he was just being honest and knew exactly what he was does. But because of it, I was given the opportunity for a lifelong dream. I was able to move to Orlando. You see, because I worked so much overtime, I was pulling in about $1400 a paycheck for a good year. Unemployment is based on only a percentage of your former salary but overtime definitely counts towards it! I was getting paid $860 bi-weekly from unemployment! I was making MORE than employees working a steady 40 hours a week! I had a movable income! I could go anywhere and it would follow me! I had called up the Unemployment office and the confirmed that if I had job opportunities in another state I could move. So I was able to move down to Orlando and find a job with an employer that ACTUALLY cares about their employees! I went from micro-managed, totalitarian, nazi regime, dictatorship that looks at employees as expendable to a company that pays handsomely (for the work that it is), iPads every year for Christmas, quarterly bonuses, the potential to earn almost 3 weeks paid time off a year, paid days off for hazardous weather when the office is closed, light and fun working environment (self expression is rarely frowned upon, fun is encouraged, and because of the international nature of the job you meet and befriend people from all over the world), and the creme de la creme: the home office is in Amsterdam so every year the company has an annual party in Amsterdam where it will send any employee (who is eligible) who wishes to go. Everything is paid for by the company: flight, hotel, food, passport. It's pretty much a paid European vacation for a week. And I get to live where it's summer 365 days a year. All of it would never have been possible without Vertical Screen. So yes, Vertical Screen is a horrendous employer and the fact that some people feel like they don't have any other choice is heart breaking. But the truth of the matter is, Vertical Screen was the best thing that ever happened to me. The night is always darkest before the dawn.

Where do I begin? I truly don't think that any amount of desperation would make working here worth it. I worked my way up the corporate ladder here. I worked in 2 different departments, (in multiple positions), and in the department I started in, worked my way up to a supervisor. I'm sure, like many former and current employees, you've read the other reviews. Most are negative and there are definitely common themes in all of those. They're all true. From a low-level researcher prospective, the extent that socializing was discouraged and personal phone usage was completely discouraged was unnecessary, (especially in an adult work environment). Supervisors/higher ups were allowed to do everything that the researchers were not allowed to do, with no consequences, (if they were a favorite of upper management, that is). Gossip was rampant in every department and little to nothing was done to control it. The goals were almost impossible to meet every day and you were constantly bombarded about “getting your numbers up” even when you were working as quickly as you could without jeopardizing work quality. The building was freezing and unnecessarily flashy, in my opinion. I think money spent on making the building look fancy, would have been better spent getting more desks so people didn't need to share. Being a supervisor only opened my eyes to how bad things were throughout the entire company. It was apparent that reason the goals were so high, was because the turnover rate was so high and the company needs to keep pushing more, and more work out while they take on new clients they don't have the manpower to properly handle. (Do you blame people for leaving though?) It was made clear to me that I should motivate my employees to work as hard as possible but to also not reward them, (in the way of treats, small trinkets, etc) because they weren't meeting their numbers and didn't deserve it. I was also not given the resources to offer appropriate bonuses/monetary incentives to work large amounts of overtime or push out large amounts of work during a normal shift. I still am unsure how I was supposed to motivate adults to work harder without giving them more money/food/things. Even making it to a supervisor, I was treated poorly and at times bullied by my peers. A majority of other supervisors/management in my department at the time, (and from what I saw and heard from other departments), are catty gossips, power hungry, and will take any chance they can to isolate someone who doesn't agree with their ideas on what is “the right way to supervise”. (If you're not with them, you're against them.) I personally haven’t seen anyone at any other company I’ve worked at supervise in the same way. I can personally attest to being treated badly enough by some of my co-workers, equals, and superiors to the point where I sought a position in another department to escape. I finally left when I realized how severely working for this company affected my health/physical/mental well-being. I did not feel supported by HR and I did not feel HR did a good job supporting my fellow co-workers/employees under me. If I were a business owner, I would not use their services. There is so much more to say and that I experienced here but I've already written a lot to digest. I'd like to note two things. 1-I'm not just a bitter employee. I wanted to like working here and I worked hard. Leaving here in the end did leave me with mixed emotions because I had gone through so much to get where I was and because a few of my former co-workers had become my friends. 2- I understand that to some extent, catty co-workers, not enough pay, etc, are common with many jobs but the extent to which this happens at this company is astounding. I've worked plenty of other jobs where these issues are nothing like what I saw working here.