There’s an old joke that goes like this:
Two managers are talking and one says to the other, “What if we invest in our employees and they leave?”
To which the other manager responds, “What if we don’t and they stay!”
The joke is amusing unless you’re the butt of it. And at TTC, you often feel like the butt.
The scenario the joke leaves out is one too often seen at TTC; "What if we don't invest in them, and they leave because of that?" While opportunities arise as positions are vacated, once you take on your role, you're locked in without room to grow, so don't count on TTC developing your skills. Just do the work, take on more tasks until you burn out, then move on to the next employer.
Here are some of my personal observations from my years of working for TTC:
Employees in first level management and below are some of the most creative, driven, talented, and hardworking people you’ll ever meet, but the integrity disintegrates the higher up you go on the management chain.
While benefits are still above average, they are being chipped away every year. The benefit package was quite robust upon being hired years ago, but seems to be losing luster every year. Don't get me wrong, HR pumps up the bennies like they're selling you a Jaguar, but you'll actually be getting a Corolla. The benefits are practical and comprehensive, but don't get starry-eyed from HR gushing over them. Many of the benefits are tied to how the company is doing as a whole, and I haven't received a true bonus in years!
Pay can range from good to lean based on where you end up in the company. For example, entry level call center representative pay is higher than average, but being promoted from within the company can put you at a disadvantage as you likely will not receive the same pay level as someone being hired in from outside the company.
While still subject to the elitism of upper management, the CMO is a good enough guy with what seems like a steady plan for the company. However, his background is in flipping companies, which (as a current employee) is unsettling. I worry about what happens when the company sells. Will people will lose their jobs while upper management laughs all the way to the bank? This might seem overly paranoid on my part, but the lack of transparency in upper management only adds to the building anxiety.
Upper management is cold and unapproachable, to speak nothing of the overly obvious lack of diversity. Don’t bother talking to them or offering your ideas because they aren’t listening to you unless you are also upper management. They passively berate their subordinates, but that’s how they know you exist. The average associate level employees don’t even get a “hello” in the hallway from management because they simply do not even register on their importance radar.
Even if you wanted to speak with management, you’re out of luck because they’re probably in a meeting. TTC has more meetings to meet about meeting to discuss meeting for more meetings. The over-indulgence of meetings became so prevalent that TTC brought in a professional to meet with everyone in the company to teach them how to have more effective meetings. Sadly, that was another waste of money for the company, as we are still heavily saturated in muddled, ineffective meetings.
Yearly layoffs have been a viable way to skirt EBITDA shortcomings, though 2016 was especially brutal. This year TTC went right for the salary jugular. And while TTC wiped out some dead weight, a few really good people got caught up in the cut as well. As a small company perpetrating as a large company, TTC is already running lean, so you can only imagine how the workload becomes exponentially more heavy with every person TTC let go. Sadly, those left behind are expected to carry on, but are not compensated for the additional work they have added to their already full workload. Good people aren’t given the help they need and burn out under the circumstances. The current hiring freeze makes getting any relief impossible.
Speaking of workloads, there is a terrifying amount of core jobs within the company that have little to no redundancy. It’s a wonder we’ve carried on as well as we have over the years. Backup plans, emergency plans, and contingency plans are not highly prioritized. As a TTC employee, you quickly learn to always CYA as you will be the person blamed for shortcomings, even if it was due to lack of support or resources.
Speaking of resources, don’t even get me started on the technology. Assembled of spit and duct tape with a work-around for everything, TTC repeatedly goes cheap and pays the price. I realize budgets are a real hindrance, but there is truth in the saying ‘do it nice or do it twice’. TTC often pays for going cheap with additional man hours and having to buy a better version of something because the cheap version doesn’t do what TTC needs it to do. TTC is a company banking on technology, to save its business, but we can’t get enough upfront capitol to keep relevant.
With everything that’s been said, I want to have hope for this company. As I mentioned before, I will always be thankful to this company for the opportunities it has afforded me, but like many employees here, I feel that this is a classic “springboard company”. You come in, you gain your experience, then you hit a wall with your career advancement where you find yourself in a position with no growth potential. With nowhere to go at TTC, you then take all your experience and knowledge gained from TTC and springboard into the next job.
