[ChicagoBlue]

Having been around this business for several decades, this doesn't surprise me. They have a good product, but they have a lot of unhappy employees.

#1 worst company in America to work for in 2012

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/08/14/the-11-worst-companies-to-work-for-in-america/

Hopefully Clayton can turn that around.

 

[Shades228]

363 employees voted so it's not like there's a real sample size in any of those. This is just ad revenue driver. HP is the only one I'd really take focus on due to sheer volume of people who did the survey.

 

[tsmacro]

I can tell you as someone who works with Dish network one of the things that seems to be in agreement all around is that no one likes the whole "we don't believe in holidays and you better be available 24/7" attitude that Dish has. It just really wears on you, nothing like trying to figure out which co-workers have to work on Christmas or Thanksgiving to kill morale.

 

[DoyleS]

Very interesting to see that the article was written by AOL Jobs Contributor. Click that link and you find that you can be an AOL Jobs Contributor by sending an email to AOL Jobs. Can't say I put a lot of stock in the article. No real backup of how or where the data came from.

Most of the Dish article was about dropping channels not about employee comments. Didn't seem to be any complaints about pay which was the main complaint on a number of other companies. I have to say the Dish employees I have interacted with have all been very positive from installers to CSRs and DIRT. One of the facts of life is that if you have a company that provides a 24/7 service, you have to have workers to work those hours. I am a little more surprised that companies like Home Depot that works people 6-7 days a week by not giving them full 8 hour days did not make the list. In this economy, most people are happy just to have a job.

 

[356B]

Over the last 5 years I've had 4 different Dish employees on my property and communicated with 2 DIRT members here and elsewhere. All the people I have dealt with are happy just to have a job.....says something about the times we live in? or not.

 

[pmjones]

Over the last 5 years I've had 4 different Dish employees on my property and communicated with 2 DIRT members here and elsewhere. All the people I have dealt with are happy just to have a job.....says something about the times we live in? or not.

Four more years?

The folks I have dealt with on the phone and via chat all seemed pretty nice. I guess if they are good to customers and save the grousing for their coffee breaks, I have no complaints.

 

[Marlin Guy]

363 employees voted so it's not like there's a real sample size in any of those. This is just ad revenue driver. HP is the only one I'd really take focus on due to sheer volume of people who did the survey.

Percentage wise they were nearly the same.
I'd say Dish has some work to do in the employee relations department. HP has scored low for so long that it's a bit of a tradition now.

 

[DoyleS]

I don't buy it. If you look at the other articles on that page, there is one with the 10 most hated companies in the country. ATT, Facebook, Netflix, Bank of America......etc
Interesting that the one missing from the lists is AOL.
Not sure what these guys are trying to do but I don't put any credence in their trash piece.

 

[brett_the_bomb]

I surely dont like dish, but i think its probably fair to say that disgruntle employees speak the loudest. I think a job is what you make of it, good or bad.

 

[Wire Nut]

D.I.S.H.= Did I Sleep Here?

 

[Inkosaurus]

I can tell you as someone who works with Dish network one of the things that seems to be in agreement all around is that no one likes the whole "we don't believe in holidays and you better be available 24/7" attitude that Dish has. It just really wears on you, nothing like trying to figure out which co-workers have to work on Christmas or Thanksgiving to kill morale.

Pretty much this. That and my call center was doing mandatory 6th day (an extra half shift on top of your 40 hours on a random "day off") because not enough people were signing up for over time and the shifts were all ****ed up (more shifts at graveyard less at peak hours).

Aside from the terrible job my center did at scheduling it was a great job. More then enough pay at base even more if you got p4p. Guaranteed 40+ hours a week, flexible time off (aside from holidays). And an easy as heck job what more could you ask for?

 

[Marlin Guy]

They should take the opposite approach and incentivise off-peak and holidays. it's been my experience that there's always one or two in every group who take every bit of x2.5 pay you put in front of them.
That way you send a happy to be there service tech out on calls.

 

[tsmacro]

Pretty much this. That and my call center was doing mandatory 6th day (an extra half shift on top of your 40 hours on a random "day off") because not enough people were signing up for over time and the shifts were all ****ed up (more shifts at graveyard less at peak hours).

Aside from the terrible job my center did at scheduling it was a great job. More then enough pay at base even more if you got p4p. Guaranteed 40+ hours a week, flexible time off (aside from holidays). And an easy as heck job what more could you ask for?

Yeah I like most things about my job as well. However the whole working on holidays thing is a little perplexing. After all what percentage of people are going to call Dish on a major holiday and actually expect a tech to be there that same day? First of all it's pretty rare for same day service to available on any day anyway let alone a holiday and what person is actually going to expect an install on a major holiday? Yet Dish schedules them, I can tell you we lose a fair amount of appts set up on holidays to begin with because when we call to confirm the appts people will say things like "oh I didn't realize that I had scheduled that on Thanksgiving, I need to reschedule." It seems to me you could get away with just having the over-seas call centers that don't celebrate U.S. holidays open on those days and give their employees here in the USA a day off to spend with family and just about everyone would be happier. Seems like an easy way to improve morale and if you have happier employees you're more likely to get improved interactions between them and your customers.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

As I stated in my original post, the rating doesn't surprise me. This industry is littered with former DISH employees that have escaped. It is a terrible place to work. When travelling, you are forced to share a room with another employee, sometimes share a bed. That is not a joke. Never, in all my years have I heard that out of a Fortune 500 company. It has led to more than a few harassment lawsuits. Expected to work on all holidays except Christmas and Thanksgiving, work on Saturdays. Notoriously cheap with programmers and very cheap with employees. Morale is very low and turnover very high. It is a shame, great place to live but they just don't believe in people.

 

[nmetro]

As I stated in my original post, the rating doesn't surprise me. This industry is littered with former DISH employees that have escaped. It is a terrible place to work. When travelling, you are forced to share a room with another employee, sometimes share a bed. That is not a joke. Never, in all my years have I heard that out of a Fortune 500 company. It has led to more than a few harassment lawsuits. Expected to work on all holidays except Christmas and Thanksgiving, work on Saturdays. Notoriously cheap with programmers and very cheap with employees. Morale is very low and turnover very high. It is a shame, great place to live but they just don't believe in people.

Living not far from either the DISH Uplink Center (Cheyenne) and their DISH Corporate Headquarters (Denver Tech Center, Englewood), it is true that DISH is not a pleasant place to work. It is actually, for IT systems support, satellite uplink support and programming support what we call in the IT industry a sweat shop.

I interviewed once, back in 2002, with the Cheyenne Uplink Center. At that time, you got 6 paid holidays per year (New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day), two weeks holiday (3 weeks after 5 years), average medical benefits, dental, sick time is by arrangement with your supervisor, basic life insurance and participation in a 40k(k) plan. In the IT areas noted above, you would be on call 24/7. At home you are equipped with DISH network for free, not because you work for DISH, so you can work at home to deal with technical issues without having to drive into work. Of course, most times, one would end up doing so anyway.

As part of the interview process, even though one was not hired yet, they require a drug screen after the interview is complete. This, in addition to the normal background checks. At any rate, while the interview was no different then typical It interviews. What I did notice was very tired individuals, crowded work areas (people on top of each other) and a feeling that these people were not very happy, but at least dedicated to their work. Yet, it seemed, that asking questions about the company and the benefits was a topic that was best to be avoided.

On my 90 mile trip back to Longmont from Cheyenne, it was one of those experiences where you said to yourself that you hope that you did not get the job. The only positive, I did get from the experience, was a great tour of their data center and satellite uplink facility.

So, it seems, things are not much different then they were 10 years ago.

 

[TBoneit]

Yeah I like most things about my job as well. However the whole working on holidays thing is a little perplexing. After all what percentage of people are going to call Dish on a major holiday and actually expect a tech to be there that same day? First of all it's pretty rare for same day service to available on any day anyway let alone a holiday and what person is actually going to expect an install on a major holiday? Yet Dish schedules them, I can tell you we lose a fair amount of appts set up on holidays to begin with because when we call to confirm the appts people will say things like "oh I didn't realize that I had scheduled that on Thanksgiving, I need to reschedule." It seems to me you could get away with just having the over-seas call centers that don't celebrate U.S. holidays open on those days and give their employees here in the USA a day off to spend with family and just about everyone would be happier. Seems like an easy way to improve morale and if you have happier employees you're more likely to get improved interactions between them and your customers.

Dish has been providing same day service when I call about anything for the parents. I called in the afternoon last year after teh new roof was installed. They were watching TV by 6PM the same day.

Your Satellite TV goes out do you really think anybody is going to say, It's a Holiday. I'll Call tomorrow, No they grab the phone and they expect service

I can tell that where I used to work they had no problem getting more than enough people to work the Holidays.

Union Job. 9 Hour guarantee pay for the holiday. Then Any hours worked were Time and a half. So for the first 9 hours it was 2.5 times base pay (Double time and a half). After 9 Hours it was 1/2 hour subtracted for lunchtime then Time and a half for the rest of the hours.

There were more volunteers than work for them.

I used to do it myself now and then as it was easy. No big bosses around only a supervisor and he was just as likely to be watching OTA sports on his Sony Watchman. Remember those? They had a special shape picture tube.

Easy enough to get volunteers, just pay enough.

 

[tsmacro]

Dish has been providing same day service when I call about anything for the parents. I called in the afternoon last year after teh new roof was installed. They were watching TV by 6PM the same day.

Your Satellite TV goes out do you really think anybody is going to say, It's a Holiday. I'll Call tomorrow, No they grab the phone and they expect service

I can tell that where I used to work they had no problem getting more than enough people to work the Holidays.

Union Job. 9 Hour guarantee pay for the holiday. Then Any hours worked were Time and a half. So for the first 9 hours it was 2.5 times base pay (Double time and a half). After 9 Hours it was 1/2 hour subtracted for lunchtime then Time and a half for the rest of the hours.

There were more volunteers than work for them.

I used to do it myself now and then as it was easy. No big bosses around only a supervisor and he was just as likely to be watching OTA sports on his Sony Watchman. Remember those? They had a special shape picture tube.

Easy enough to get volunteers, just pay enough.

I agree that you need someone to answer the phone for you 24/7 and luckily Dish has overseas call centers that make just such a thing possible. However you don't really need anyone in the USA working on a major holiday, sure if I have to call on a holiday I will expect someone to answer the phone but no way would I expect someone to come that same day, I'd expect most people to be spending time with friends and family and not available for a tech call. I guess you're lucky to live somewhere where they have same day service, as someone who's big part of my job is scheduling techs I can tell you most places I schedule for are on average 2 to 3 days out. Not saying a same day service call never happens but it's not the norm by any means. Sure I suppose if you pay people enough they won't gripe about working holidays, which must mean they don't pay us enough where I work because everyone I work with would rather have the day off than work on the holidays.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

Living not far from either the DISH Uplink Center (Cheyenne) and their DISH Corporate Headquarters (Denver Tech Center, Englewood), it is true that DISH is not a pleasant place to work. It is actually, for IT systems support, satellite uplink support and programming support what we call in the IT industry a sweat shop.

I interviewed once, back in 2002, with the Cheyenne Uplink Center. At that time, you got 6 paid holidays per year (New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day), two weeks holiday (3 weeks after 5 years), average medical benefits, dental, sick time is by arrangement with your supervisor, basic life insurance and participation in a 40k(k) plan. In the IT areas noted above, you would be on call 24/7. At home you are equipped with DISH network for free, not because you work for DISH, so you can work at home to deal with technical issues without having to drive into work. Of course, most times, one would end up doing so anyway.

As part of the interview process, even though one was not hired yet, they require a drug screen after the interview is complete. This, in addition to the normal background checks. At any rate, while the interview was no different then typical It interviews. What I did notice was very tired individuals, crowded work areas (people on top of each other) and a feeling that these people were not very happy, but at least dedicated to their work. Yet, it seemed, that asking questions about the company and the benefits was a topic that was best to be avoided.

On my 90 mile trip back to Longmont from Cheyenne, it was one of those experiences where you said to yourself that you hope that you did not get the job. The only positive, I did get from the experience, was a great tour of their data center and satellite uplink facility.

So, it seems, things are not much different then they were 10 years ago.

Your story is shared by 1000's of former Dish employees

 

[DoyleS]

Seems to me that the last person you want to talk to on New Years Day when you have a house full of football fans is someone in India telling you that it is a US holiday and no one is working in the US. Can't say that Dish's policies look any different from Macy's, Target, Best Buy and a lot of other companies that have people coming into work on the day after holidays at Midnight when their normal work hours are 9-5 or something similar.
Employment is an agreement between an employer and the employee and either can choose to break that agreement if they are unsatisfied. In the current economy I would venture to guess that there are plenty of people that would step up to take vacated jobs at Dish and be thankful for it. Just my opinion.

 

[Zero327]

Seems to me that the last person you want to talk to on New Years Day when you have a house full of football fans is someone in India telling you that it is a US holiday and no one is working in the US. Can't say that Dish's policies look any different from Macy's, Target, Best Buy and a lot of other companies that have people coming into work on the day after holidays at Midnight when their normal work hours are 9-5 or something similar.
Employment is an agreement between an employer and the employee and either can choose to break that agreement if they are unsatisfied. In the current economy I would venture to guess that there are plenty of people that would step up to take vacated jobs at Dish and be thankful for it. Just my opinion.

Only someone who has no implication of what that statement entails would make it...

Yes, someone would step up to a vacated job at DISH. As to whether ANY would be thankful for it a year later...well, that would be interesting to see. Everyone's thankful to be working coming off unemployment. It's what happens next that matters.

As far as the employer/employee relationship and the platitudes there; unless you're willing to put in some time at DISH, stick to the facts. Opinions are not served here unless you've done some time.