Z Networks Technology Solutions Reviews

A lot to unpack here. As a tech you will be micro-managed on time. If you are not billing clients, you will be talked to. Technicians are expected to create billing hours also which is impossible to understand as the client should be requesting the techs services and not a tech creating work for the clients. Billing for clients is not something that techs are involved with, but a lot of the practices felt very gray in nature. Double and triple billing often happened when multiple techs would be involved in a resolution. Clients often complained to me about billing which I passed up the food chain, only to find out on my next visit that their concerns were not addressed. Clients that are on top of their billing did not stay long with Z Networks. The majority that do either had grandfathered unlimited contracts, didn’t pay attention to monthly bills, or were attached to their local tech. I witnessed salespeople lie in front of clients as well. Overstating how many technicians we had (doubling the amount) and telling potential clients that calls are answered 24/7. After hours is an on-call rotation that is a depressing, miserable experience and you are solely responsible for any service requests that come in (including weekends). On-call staff is limited to senior level techs so they are just worn down after each rotation. Mileage reimbursements are far below industry or federal standards. It was 32 cents per mile when I left with no movement to change. When it was brought up in group discussions, management was always quick to shut down the conversation. HR was never staffed by HR trained employees. Was always an administrative person with little to no knowledge of HR laws. Policies would often change on the whim of the owner as well without any changes to the employee handbook (and often with little to no notice from management). If you work outside of the main office (Marysville), your experience will be completely different. Often remote techs would find out about company get togethers after the fact and morale in remote offices often suffered as a result. As a tech, there is little resources or concern given to expanding your knowledge. You are expected to learn on your own and rarely on company time. Pay was good when I started but has been slashed in last few years for starting techs. That has led to a younger inexperienced staff with a few senior level techs doing all the heavy lifting. As a tech, you will be often thrown into situations with very little experience, but you are told to act like you are an expert in everything to clients. The other techs will help out as much as possible but are often hesitant to take over. It was often not clear who your direct supervisor was, and you could be yelled at by the handful of manager types above you. The management layer was often in long meetings with the owner as well and hard to get a hold of. From my view, management didn’t have much say over their areas and often had to go to the owner to get his direction. There is little to no advancement opportunities unless you can get in tight with the few people in charge.

They are constantly understaffed, causing clients to become frustrated by the time they get a response from the helpdesk. Don't believe the hype on their website, they are much smaller than they seem. Less than 50 employees total between the business, sales, and tech offices. Helpdesk always had a hard time keeping employees. They track employee time logged into support tickets, and the CEO only hired based upon man hours needed for forcasted projects, not the actual workload of the helpdesk. This caused many helpdesk techs to become over worked and stressed out by the load of tickets they had. There is little to no management presence. The general manager was always in the field working as a tech, due to being understaffed, rather than managing and giving direction to the techs. The CEO's presence was only around when things needed major correction, otherwise he was gallivanting around the country working on other business opportunities or on vacation, and not giving time or attention to Z Networks. The training of techs is a joke. There is no formal training process. Little to no room for career advancement. While I was there several people received "promotions" giving them added responsibility with the expectation that they also remained working on helpdesk tickets. There is no HR department, only an administrative assistant, that also did HR's role, but knew little to nothing about benefits, health insurance, etc. The benefits and pay are low as compared to industry standards They are headquartered in Seattle. Working in a remote office was ridiculous. The remote offices are little more than a broom closet, 8x10 room with 2 workstations to take helpdesk calls.