Concept Services Reviews

Pay: Decent, but not great for the title. Usually between $12-$16 starting out, depending on your work history, negotiating skills, and gender (way more on that later). Additionally, there are bonus and commission opportunities, but your ability to hit those numbers can be based off of far more than your ability/work ethic. Oftentimes quotas are not fair for the projects. For example, some people can meet their quotas in one day, while others consistently work much harder and struggle, or fail, to meet their quota throughout the entire month. Managers are given free reign, meaning that if you have personal issues with a manager, they can change your quota or your criteria (to hit quota) at their own discretion. Benefits: Pretty bad for a full-time job. You will not have a full week of earned vacation until after you have been there for a full two years. Additionally, there are no sick days or personal days. They also offer partial pay health, dental, and vision insurance; however, I knew an employee who was paying over $600.00 dollars a month for their premium for a family of four. I have worked part-time retail jobs with far superior benefits than they offer. Sexism, Nepotism, Unethical Behavior, and General Mismanagement: Where to begin? • When onboarding people, they often classify their employees as “contractors” instead of as employees, presumably to reduce their tax burden. The nature of that relationship directly contradicts the IRS guidelines for what constitutes an employee vs. a contractor. If they are purposely misclassifying employees, it is legally tax fraud. If it is done out of ignorance or misinformation, they would still owe back taxes to the IRS. I make no claims to know if it is purposeful or done out of ignorance. • Office sexism is rampant. o Ever hear the statistic that women make 75 cents on the dollar to men? It can be true at Concept Services as well. I know a woman who was hired around the same time as I was who was making four dollars an hour less than I was, despite the same amount of industry experience. o Additionally, many women reported inappropriate interview questions, as well as rudeness and abrasiveness, from their interview with a member of upper management before hired. I, nor any other male in the office I know, reported the same thing, despite being interviewed by the same person. o They have allowed many sexual indiscretions to occur with little to no consequences. Someone who had been employed for less than a week was heard, although not visually caught, on a phone sex line in a private restroom. They were not fired. o Another, separate employee, told a female employee that she could, “handle his materials, anytime,” in a sexually suggestive manner. Despite witnesses, he was not fired, even though he had been there less than two weeks when this incident occurred. A person in HR referred this employee, which comes with a referral bonus if they are employed after a certain amount of time. Even if punishment was given, there exists a conflict of interest in the resolution. o A female employee was being sexually harassed through notes and other things left at their desk. In my opinion, no genuine effort was ever made to find the culprit, and they never found out who it was. o I have often witnessed male managers acting in a creepy way, doting attention, on young, attractive women in the office. I know of at least one who was made uncomfortable by this, but unwilling to say anything due to their future promotion opportunities being reliant on the praise of these managers. • Nepotism: o It is a family owned business, so family being employed is certainly understandable. However, the employees there no how have no reason to believe they will have a chance for a promotion when friends and “favorites”. For example, all those in the “front offices” are either a part of the Owner’s family, former college friends, or significant others of the family. Additionally, an Manager promoted while I was there, was a golf buddy of some of the management team. Another person promoted was a good friend of another manager. In fact, when promotional opportunities arose I heard, on my lunch break, one manager tell this employee that “he had him” and not to worry about other people being considered (one of which I believe was me). This person was promoted despite having two plum accounts and the fact that they would often leave their phone off of the hook to make it look as if they were busier/worked harder than they were/did. He also mysteriously got the last lead he needed for quota one month while he was on vacation in another country. This was on the account of the manager with whom he was friends, which is extremely unethical and would be a violation of their data integrity policy o This nepotism would not be as bad, but they market themselves to prospective employees, myself included, as a company that one can grow with and have a chance for promotions. This is not really the case. o No real training opportunities are given to anyone besides friends of management or favorites, who more than their hard work or results, are promoted for their abilities as sycophants. This has not come back to hurt them yet, but you can tell that many members of the management team are not that intelligent. They have found a good niche, and they can sell their services very well to prospective clients, but the promotion of below-average intelligence managers will eventually haunt them. That being said some of the managers, including the ones I just disparaged, are generally good people who are helpful. Not all of them are though. o A less serious more, hilarious anecdote: They had a March Madness contest for the employee has the best leads throughout the month of March. A relative of the Owner won the award for this contest, which was clearly decided fairly and impartially. I have heard her multiple times gloat over this and the accompanying trophy. • General Mismanagement o When having an issue with a Manager, a n employee was told by the a member of upper-management that it wasn’t his place to say anything, despite that being exactly his responsibility. o They are very big sticklers against any display of individuality or talking. o Being too cowardly to just punish a relative of the Owner for causing distractions and talking for probably a quarter of the workday with a small group of other employees, a manager and the HR Department gave everyone in that section a verbal warning accompanied by an email to be held on file. This punishment included multiple people whom the managers knew were not responsible. You don’t punish people for others’ actions when you know they are not responsible in any way. This was done because the managers in question did not have the integrity to single out a relative of the Owner. o There is a general state of ultra-competitiveness there that is not healthy. For example, I know of a Manager purposely trying to make an account more difficult for someone on it. In my opinion, he did this because the BDM was outperforming him on his previous account. He was not happy with that so he upped the lead criteria without changing the quota, presumably to make his past performance on the account look better and not be eclipsed. o Additionally, everyone can see everyone else’s numbers, enabling this competitiveness. Snide remarks are sometimes made to people struggling by people with easy accounts. Management doesn’t care, and seemingly encourages this behavior. I witnessed one manager get a lead on an employee’s account that was struggling. He then proceeded to strut up and down that aisle like some sort of deranged peacock, proclaiming loudly, “You can’t teach that, I’ve still got it,” and numerous other infantile reactionary statement. This was both unprofessional and childish. There is no reason to degrade or belittle other employees in this manner, especially in front of twenty other employees. o Discussion of non-work appropriate themes like religion and politics from superiors to employees. There is also considerable pressure to go to a bible study that is sometimes led by the Owner on Friday mornings. There is far more I could say about this employer, but if you aren’t convinced that this isn’t a place you want to work, I doubt you will be swayed. Also, the positive reviews are clearly written from members of the management team. The management team believe themselves both morally and intellectually superior, and to aid their delusion they have focused on hiring and promoting those employees who will not question or point out the ways in which they mismanage accounts/employees and lie to clients. Their arrogance is clear in day-to-day interactions. Their hypocrisy had become something of an intra-office joke by the time I left.