BLAME BLAME BLAME. I worked this job for under a year and quickly saw the toxic environment.
Pros
Pay is decent for usually a 40 hour work week. Great management experience for resume (yet challenging) Good job for independent person who can manage their own time (nobody is constantly breathing down your shoulder) No exact report location (you can do your work from anywhere throughout the system) The job itself isn't bad but the people make it very VERY challenging. If your moving up the ranks my recommendation would be to become a supervisor and stay in the union. Yes supervisors have union here. If you jump into management it's not worth it unless you plan to prove yourself for a few years to get promoted into a senior manager role. If you are doing it to chase a title you are making a huge mistake!!! Hopefully this helps somebody during a transition..
Cons
Too many rude employees. Poor quality training. Must have an electronic leash (company phone). Must respond to calls and emails while off duty. Get constantly questioned about actions which you must explain (Blame culture). Never really coached just questioned in a negative way. No real back up from above. Disrespect from employees. If your hired from the outside be prepared for disgruntled employees whom you will be managing. Some will blatantly and rudely tell you how they make more than you with overtime. Managers are expected to just know everything without quality training. If things don't go smooth you will be thrown under the bus and blamed. One more thing to point out is that the organization is technologically stuck in the 70's. What makes it worse is that they are transitioning and attempting to update but still balancing both old and new ways of doing business. So this means still a lot of paper pushing as well as inputting data into the systems. So in conclusion in this position you will be expected to work in the field and in the office and balance many tasks. There are many good employees but just way too many bad apples. The organization needs to take bolder steps toward FMLA abuse. Your employees will call off FMLA and sick or use the FMLA/sick excuse when they don't like an assignment so that they can go home. It seems that public tax dollars are being squandered on unnecessary absenteeism costs. Might I also say that the bad apples make the job not worth working.