DISH voted the WORST to work for in the U.S. according to 24/7 Wall Street.

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This goes to show you that polls are very subjective and I never pay attention to them. Just recently there was an article on the net about the worst companies to work for and Dish wasn't in the top ten. The number one- Walmart! So take all of these list with a grain of salt because it depends on what questions are being asked by the pollsters.

I've worked for companies big and small. I have worked for worse (a smaller company owned by the founder, allegedly doing ESOP very slowly), and worked for better. I know I am one guy amongst thousands, but from my position, it's nowhere near the worst company to work for.
 
I have no idea whether Dish is a good or bad company for which to work, but all you have to do is briefly read the article cited to see there was no scientific method employed to reach the conclusion stated. In other words the article is a piece of crap and something one expects from hack journalists in this day and age.
 
For people looking for a regular 9 to 5 job, DISH is not the place for them. However if you can understand the DISH culture you would fit in fine.

I know many who went there to work and hated it, because they wanted a simple job, but for those who like working hard and long strange hours they love it.
Didn't Charlie even say this in the "Everything D" video interview that was posted here. He basically said if you are just looking to collect a check or a do nothing job that one might need to look elsewhere.
 
Yep. If all works as designed, at the call center level, phone agents will get constant back-to-back calls for their entire shift. Time not on the phone is wasted time, in the eyes of management. That weighs heavily on most people. The design is to have just enough people working a call type to not cause delays, but not so many people that employees have time between calls. People burn out on that fast.
So what you are saying the work ethic of people today is work as little as possible and demand top rate salaries. I do agree,constant back to back calls would cut into online gaming,online shopping,social networks,etc... How dare an employer demand you actually work when you are on the clock.
Yes I understand some management/employers are over demanding. You as an employee have the final vote,work there or work somewhere else. I have done so many times in my life.
And is it a bad thing today to have a business and be concerned about the business and even micro managing it? I would venture to say that all those who voted in this poll will ever have the ability to build a business of this size and see if they would show concern over how employees perform a job for them.
 
So what you are saying the work ethic of people today is work as little as possible and demand top rate salaries. I do agree,constant back to back calls would cut into online gaming,online shopping,social networks,etc... How dare an employer demand you actually work when you are on the clock.
Yes I understand some management/employers are over demanding. You as an employee have the final vote,work there or work somewhere else. I have done so many times in my life.
And is it a bad thing today to have a business and be concerned about the business and even micro managing it? I would venture to say that all those who voted in this poll will ever have the ability to build a business of this size and see if they would show concern over how employees perform a job for them.

That 2nd sentence was extremely ignorant.
 
If some would bother to take the time to read the article, they would understand how they came up with this. Dish is a very rotten company. They are so rotten that Sprint and Clearwire wanted nothing to do with them. Out of all the horrible companies out there, Dish floated to the top. While it may not be the absolute worst, they beat out cable companies and credit card companies. Says a lot.
 
If some would bother to take the time to read the article, they would understand how they came up with this.
Yep, I understand fully. I'm not defending Dish, but the way the article "tabulated" their results reeks of incompetence at best, collusion to get web hits to the two respective sites (24x7 and Glassdoor) at worst.
 
So what you are saying the work ethic of people today is work as little as possible and demand top rate salaries. I do agree,constant back to back calls would cut into online gaming,online shopping,social networks,etc... How dare an employer demand you actually work when you are on the clock.
Yes I understand some management/employers are over demanding. You as an employee have the final vote,work there or work somewhere else. I have done so many times in my life.
And is it a bad thing today to have a business and be concerned about the business and even micro managing it? I would venture to say that all those who voted in this poll will ever have the ability to build a business of this size and see if they would show concern over how employees perform a job for them.

You're building a strawman argument. No mention of online gaming, social networks, etc. Nobody is saying "Gee, would be nice if I could sit around and chat with friends all day". Tell you what, have you taken non-stop, back-to-back-to-back calls for 8 or 10 hours, with only a couple breaks and a lunch? I've done it, a lot. It's doable, I've done it, but it's not easy to do mentally, it can wear a person out. I have worked quite a few jobs over the years, at many companies, and I am/was mentally exhausted after a shift at Dish, more so than any other job I've had.

I can tell you, the agents feel like they've been treated when there is 45 seconds between calls. That's not time to chat, social network, play games, or anything like that, but it's different than knowing the exact second the line closes on the current call, another call will be on the headset. And will happen for 2 straight hours until a short break.

Nobody is asking for sympathy, I am just explaining why turnover is high, and why people burn out on the call center jobs at Dish. And, in other posts on the thread, I've noted that I don't think Dish is such a bad place to work. I've done worse.
 
For the umteenth time, this wasn't a poll.
Ok,not a poll. Where did they come up with the their supposed facts? I see "numbers" thrown out all the time.You have to dig to find out how they arrive at a "number".

Example US unemployment. Now the government actually admitted how they come up with the monthly unemployment number. They contact 600,000 people in the US and ask them their current employment status. A portion they admitted will not even answer the survey/poll/questionnaire which they said is about 4% will not answer. So they take a minimal sampling and broad brush the entire nation with their monthly unemployment figure. Those who gave up looking, could only get partial employment,etc, they are not included and basically do not exist according to our government. So you see numbers have been and will continue to be used in order to justify whatever they need the public to believe. That includes government,businesses and individuals. Accurate facts seem to be of little use in today's society.
 
Ok,not a poll. Where did they come up with the their supposed facts? I see "numbers" thrown out all the time.You have to dig to find out how they arrive at a "number".
The article clearly explains how they weakly came up with their numbers.
 
You're building a strawman argument. No mention of online gaming, social networks, etc. Nobody is saying "Gee, would be nice if I could sit around and chat with friends all day". Tell you what, have you taken non-stop, back-to-back-to-back calls for 8 or 10 hours, with only a couple breaks and a lunch? I've done it, a lot. It's doable, I've done it, but it's not easy to do mentally, it can wear a person out. I have worked quite a few jobs over the years, at many companies, and I am/was mentally exhausted after a shift at Dish, more so than any other job I've had.


I can tell you, the agents feel like they've been treated when there is 45 seconds between calls. That's not time to chat, social network, play games, or anything like that, but it's different than knowing the exact second the line closes on the current call, another call will be on the headset. And will happen for 2 straight hours until a short break.

Nobody is asking for sympathy, I am just explaining why turnover is high, and why people burn out on the call center jobs at Dish. And, in other posts on the thread, I've noted that I don't think Dish is such a bad place to work. I've done worse.
Not saying that Dish employees are online gaming,shopping ,etc during their shift. From what you indicated they do not have the time to. But it is happening in business throughout the country,its been reported on. I've seen it personally.
Lets flip this being you work there. What can Dish do to reduce burnout? Maybe they could have 10 minute breaks every hour as to allow a person to unwind,my suggestion. We all know they can't ignore incoming calls. Maybe more employees? Maybe a shorter work day might work. I don't know what a "shift" is at Dish,but maybe 2 hours less per shift might help. Does management show any interest in reducing burnout and maintaining the workload equally? And here is a key question to me,does upper management know fully what is happening. I've seen lower management not inform upper management of issues in order to maintain/protect their positions.
Sadly an individuals only option seems to be to put up with it or find other employment.
 
Not saying that Dish employees are online gaming,shopping ,etc during their shift. From what you indicated they do not have the time to. But it is happening in business throughout the country,its been reported on. I've seen it personally.
Lets flip this being you work there. What can Dish do to reduce burnout? Maybe they could have 10 minute breaks every hour as to allow a person to unwind,my suggestion. We all know they can't ignore incoming calls. Maybe more employees? Maybe a shorter work day might work. I don't know what a "shift" is at Dish,but maybe 2 hours less per shift might help. Does management show any interest in reducing burnout and maintaining the workload equally? And here is a key question to me,does upper management know fully what is happening. I've seen lower management not inform upper management of issues in order to maintain/protect their positions.
Sadly an individuals only option seems to be to put up with it or find other employment.

The biggest problem is that any changes would hurt the bottom line in a big way. Probably stating the obvious, though. I would think Dish has accountants and HR experts at HQ that determine the balance between spending money to retain talent versus burnout and hiring new staff. They could install, silicon valley style, coffee bars, rest areas, gaming systems, let employees nap, etc, but that would cost a fortune. I'm sure the decisions made or not made are all based on the dollars and cents of keeping staff versus training new staff.

A typical shift can be either 8 hours or 10 hours. The 8 hour shift is a 5 day week, some have a 10 hour shift with a 4 day week. The 8 hour shift, you log in, load all your tools on your computer, and start taking calls. Fifteen minute break about 2 hours later, then an 1 hr 45 min time on the phone. Then a 30 minute lunch, then 2 hours on the phone, a 15 minute break, then the final 1hr 45 min. The 10 hour shift has a 1 hour lunch and three 15 minute breaks. Depending on location, department, etc, the odds are you will be taking calls back-to-back for most of your shift. Call volume isn't always easy to predict, so if it gets a little low, the phone reps may get a minute between calls. If it gets too far between calls, the call center will offer the option for the agent to leave early, unpaid, if they choose.

Management is very aware of employee burnout. As mentioned, it all comes down to dollars and cents, determining what to do about keeping employees, versus the cost of hiring new ones. It all sounds heartless, but I am sure any company with call centers has to balance this same need...to maximize time on the phone, while keeping the employees from burning out. The cost of call centers is pretty high, not just salaries, but hundreds of computers, phones, mainframe computers, bandwidth to handle all the calls, building costs, etc. When you have around 14 million customers, it takes a lot of resources to take those calls.
 
The biggest problem is that any changes would hurt the bottom line in a big way. Probably stating the obvious, though. I would think Dish has accountants and HR experts at HQ that determine the balance between spending money to retain talent versus burnout and hiring new staff. They could install, silicon valley style, coffee bars, rest areas, gaming systems, let employees nap, etc, but that would cost a fortune. I'm sure the decisions made or not made are all based on the dollars and cents of keeping staff versus training new staff.

A typical shift can be either 8 hours or 10 hours. The 8 hour shift is a 5 day week, some have a 10 hour shift with a 4 day week. The 8 hour shift, you log in, load all your tools on your computer, and start taking calls. Fifteen minute break about 2 hours later, then an 1 hr 45 min time on the phone. Then a 30 minute lunch, then 2 hours on the phone, a 15 minute break, then the final 1hr 45 min. The 10 hour shift has a 1 hour lunch and three 15 minute breaks. Depending on location, department, etc, the odds are you will be taking calls back-to-back for most of your shift. Call volume isn't always easy to predict, so if it gets a little low, the phone reps may get a minute between calls. If it gets too far between calls, the call center will offer the option for the agent to leave early, unpaid, if they choose.

Management is very aware of employee burnout. As mentioned, it all comes down to dollars and cents, determining what to do about keeping employees, versus the cost of hiring new ones. It all sounds heartless, but I am sure any company with call centers has to balance this same need...to maximize time on the phone, while keeping the employees from burning out. The cost of call centers is pretty high, not just salaries, but hundreds of computers, phones, mainframe computers, bandwidth to handle all the calls, building costs, etc. When you have around 14 million customers, it takes a lot of resources to take those calls.
Thank you for explaining this. I do appreciate the time you put into this reply being it does explain a lot of what the issues really are. At least for me it does. This may explain why sometimes I get great people on the phone and sometimes I get rude unconcerned people. All I can do is hope it gets better for you working there.
 
That 2nd sentence was extremely ignorant.
Ignorant....no. Fact.....yes. Its been widely reported in the national press. Right now I play 3 different online games. In chat players say well I'll be right back I got a customer to take care of. Or I'm off work in an hour. This is while they are at work. There were news reports about Black Friday and how much shopping was done online while at work. Same applies for Cyber Monday. Why do you think there are a multitude of apps that with 1 click will change your screen so an employer cannot see what you are doing or anyone else whom you do not want to see what you are doing. Google yearly lost man hours due to people doing what I said while at work.

And from my experience it seems the most vocal critics are the one doing exactly that. Now everything I said in that post may seem harsh, but at 60 yrs old I've seen the work ethic erode tremendously. And I do not mean that everyone has changed. There are many that want to do a good job and be compensated appropriately. But the current trend is over compensate for mediocre performance. And ask a lot of young people today to start at the bottom and learn the business and see the reaction you get.

As for what I just said above,this would not seem to apply to the Dish call centers. A kind poster here just wrote an informative post on what goes on inside of a Dish call center and it seems there is no time to do the things I had mentioned. But it does not dismiss what I posted as not happening in many businesses today.

Here is something to read http://www.examiner.com/article/mar...ours-lost-productivity-the-workplace-expected .
 
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