How do you work? Are you micro-managed?

[fixthecopier]

The small company I work for is the only place I have ever worked on copiers. A friend of mine, The Otrain, just left and went to work for Sharp. I wanted to know how other companies operate. For example, mine is:
1. Company truck and gas card, NO gps, meter, or other tracker
2. No time clocks or attendance policy
3. Have to provide own tools
4. Have to work on everything called in. If you have never seen it before you have to go online and find info and parts supply.
5. I do not have to refer sales leads, I can sell it myself.
6. I can set my own price for parts and labor.
7. Online training is done on my time
8. Boss throws a kick ass costume party at Halloween and gives a christmas bonus.
9. No 401 k and you have to pay for insurance.
10. I like my company, its a great job.

[Jimbo1]

Just moved to this company in Feb.


1. My car. Flat .35 gas milage which adjusts upward as the price does. Works really well.

2. I get an itenerray in the morning and the callwork is faxed in at the end of the call. Company uses OMD.

3. The expense also includes 50 bucks for cell phone. Not bad.

4. It's a Kyocera dealer and that's what they sell and service along with Brother and Panasonic faxes which I don't have to work on.


I like it. Used to work at a place with ADS which was ok. It was their car and gas card and PikePass but they were more of a pain too.
Not goin' back.

[treloyarakias]

The small company I work for is the only place I have ever worked on copiers. A friend of mine, The Otrain, just left and went to work for Sharp. I wanted to know how other companies operate. For example, mine is:
1. Company truck and gas card, NO gps, meter, or other tracker
2. No time clocks or attendance policy
3. Have to provide own tools
4. Have to work on everything called in. If you have never seen it before you have to go online and find info and parts supply.
5. I do not have to refer sales leads, I can sell it myself.
6. I can set my own price for parts and labor.
7. Online training is done on my time
8. Boss throws a kick ass costume party at Halloween and gives a christmas bonus.
9. No 401 k and you have to pay for insurance.
10. I like my company, its a great job.

What about salary?How do company work in your country?I am very curious about the company's in my country.

[fixthecopier]

I did not bring up money because difference from region to region and country to country would great and doesn't matter. I am sure that most of the techs in this town make more than I do, but for example the biggest company in this town has gps tracking and the techs have to clock out to go to the bank. My boss is really cool. He is the kind of guy who will loan you several hundred dollars if you were in a bind, and let you work it off some time later. If I am out of vacation days and get sick, I still get 40 hours and we can work it out later. For a lot of us who have been there for years it is like family. I could make more money somewhere else but I would not like it. That is what I was asking, what makes your company suck or what do you love about it.

[laserman06]

I really like the company I work for.

1. My car. flat .43 cents a mile, maximum commute to/from first/last call 25 miles. Rate is adjusted quarterly.

2. No time clock, but tracked through our call data.

3. Company Blackberry-- all calls are paged through ADS/OMD. We complete all calls through. Works great.

4. Have a set territory. Responsible for all machines in that territory that you are trained on.

5. Company provides all tools. If we need a special tool, we can purchase and expense.

6. If a sales lead is turned in to a sales rep you are given a bonus based on the machine.

7. All training is provided by company. We are big enough that we have our on in-house trainer. This trainer is certified to train us on any Konica machine. We also sell Kyocera machines but send techs to school.

8. Receive monthly tech comp based on our first call effectiveness. That means that I am finally paid for how well I perform and how many copies that my territory cranks out.

9. For a larger company, the leadership team is very open about all aspects of the company. (ie.. goals, finances, performance, ..). They are committed to seeing a tech become the best that he/she can be. We have an open door policy. It is not uncommon for the owner/president of the company will stop you in the hall and ask you how it is going and is there anything that you need to help you do your job better. And really mean it.

10 We have two sales blitz every year. Talking about a great party. There is a lot of work, but we make it fun.

11. Year end bonus.

12. Great benefits. 401K, profit sharing, health/dental/life insurance.

All this and a very competitive salary. I actually enjoy going to work now.

[blackcat4866]

I've got the same deal as fixthecopier.

I wear all the hats. The few differences are

1) That I can turn away obviously antiquated or abused machines.
2) The parties are not that great.

and after 20 years in the business I like this setup better than anything before. All you Ikon guys know what it's like being under big brothers thumb. I still can't believe I walked away from all that money....

I must have been nuts, or really smart.

=^..^=

[Cipher]

I think your smart blackcat, money definely isn't everything (but it help's).

It's far more important to wake up each morning and want to go to work because you enjoy your job and the people you work with.
I personally hate these large corporations where your treated just like other number on the payroll and there is little flexibility on the account you are human and have a life.
I know people in high paying jobs and a lot of them tell me they can't wait to get out just as soon as they have made enough money (but what's enough money?).

[laserman06]

It's far more important to wake up each morning and want to go to work because you enjoy your job and the people you work with.
I personally hate these large corporations where your treated just like other number on the payroll and there is little flexibility on the account you are human and have a life.

I would agree with you Cipher. My last job was torture. I hated going to work. We had a daily meeting. This meeting was not for anything other than to tell you where you messed up. Talking about a way to start a day.

God has blessed me with the job that I now have. My family has even noticed that I come home with a smile on my face. Does that mean that every day is a great day. No, but after all it is called work! The company I work for is big enough for security and small enough that the owner knows everyone by name.

It took me about 6 months to get this job. I had 4-5 interviews with various people in the company. Was given 2 tests. The neat thing is that once I was hired I was allowed to set up interviews with the leadership team. It allowed me to ask them questions about themselves and the company. You can learn a lot about a company by doing that.

My base salary may be less, but it is made up by tech comp. But, more importantly by the enjoyment that I now get from where I spend almost a third of my life. Making the decision to jump ship from my last company was one of the best decisions I have made.

[lkrsardis]

Ikon sucks

I've got the same deal as fixthecopier.

I wear all the hats. The few differences are

1) That I can turn away obviously antiquated or abused machines.
2) The parties are not that great.

and after 20 years in the business I like this setup better than anything before. All you Ikon guys know what it's like being under big brothers thumb. I still can't believe I walked away from all that money....

I must have been nuts, or really smart.

=^..^=

ditto,ditto,ditto

[Copiersrus]

I would agree with you Cipher. My last job was torture. I hated going to work. We had a daily meeting. This meeting was not for anything other than to tell you where you messed up. Talking about a way to start a day.

God has blessed me with the job that I now have. My family has even noticed that I come home with a smile on my face. Does that mean that every day is a great day. No, but after all it is called work! The company I work for is big enough for security and small enough that the owner knows everyone by name.

It took me about 6 months to get this job. I had 4-5 interviews with various people in the company. Was given 2 tests. The neat thing is that once I was hired I was allowed to set up interviews with the leadership team. It allowed me to ask them questions about themselves and the company. You can learn a lot about a company by doing that.

My base salary may be less, but it is made up by tech comp. But, more importantly by the enjoyment that I now get from where I spend almost a third of my life. Making the decision to jump ship from my last company was one of the best decisions I have made.

I totally agree with you and cipher. I made a transition from a district manager for a vending company to working on copiers. But I also a computer and business degree which the company I'm with know allows me to use both, we just opened a network dept. for me to utilize my knowledge. I pretty much have a 8-5 I can take off when needed. I have missed more days due to my wife being ill in the last two years than the 10 years with the vending business and all my boss says is take care of your family. And he still pays me my full check. I can't and don't complain.