Abusive Behavior or Not

I recently parted ways with a company named BankOnIT.

It is a MSP that specializes in banks.

I’m going to recount some of my experiences there, in the hope it serves as a warning for anyone that is considering applying at the company.

My plan is to reference this post on GlassDoor and any other review site I write a review on.

For some of these, changes have been made, in terms of how the company functions, so I won’t make the claim all of these are still applicable today.

These stories will be in chronological order, for the most part, there may be an exception here and there.

The company will likely make the claim I’m calling them out out of bitterness due to them letting me go. This would be far from the truth, as I had bitterness towards them, which was more than a contributing factor in my departure.

If this post contributes to just one person declining a job there, I’ll be more than happy to take the good karma, not Reddit karma.

Anyways, now for my experiences at there.

1. I was hired on the same date as a colleague of mine. I started out at $15 /hr salaried while he told me he started at $18 /hr salaried. I had my Comptia A+, Comptia Network+, a Bachelors degree in MIS, and two and a half years of trade school experience for the above mentioned certs, in addition to Windows 7 training, Server 2008R2 training, and some Active Directory training. My colleague had a degree in Art History.

2. The colleague, referenced above, and I started as contractors. Three month contract to hire. He was let out of his contract a month early, and transitioned to full time at the company. I had to work through my whole three months. What’s funny is this guy left because they treated him like garbage. He was assisting with a project, that involved him working 60 hour work weeks. He received an e-mail two hours after his shift ended. He responded the next day, then got a write up for not responding in a timely manner. At this time, we were provided company cell phones, that next to no one took home, unless they were on call. It’s funny because they didn’t learn from this experience, as they pulled a very similar stunt on me, I’ll get to that in the 20s.

3. During one of my first on-sites, I was sent to Kansas. I was to meet up with a colleague to gather some equipment then I was to proceed to another branch for installation. I left the office first thing in the morning, and used my cell phone as my GPS, since the company didn’t provide one at the time. Into the drive, I discovered my phone was nearly dead due to the cigarette lighter not working. The company didn’t maintain this van, and didn’t bother to warn me about the cigarette lighter not working. As a result, I had to pull over, pull out my personal laptop, set it up in the back, then plug my phone into said laptop. This allowed me to limp along until I could reach my first stop. I stopped at the location to get enough of a charge on my phone before heading out. Due to coverage being garbage, I had to find a local WiFi network so I could get GPS set up for my next destination. Had the company invested in GPS units, none of this would have likely been an issue. I ran a few minutes late to my destination, then got a call from my manager threatening to never send me onsite again because I ran late, with the manager’s vague phrasing he made it sound like he was threating to fire me. I had to e-mail him asking if I need to find another job to get him to clarify what he meant. I can understand them being upset I was late, but they made no effort to accept they had a part in it too.

* They didn’t maintain their equipment

* They declined to provide equipment, which they have since rectified since they now provide GPS units

* The failed to warn me their 09 van wasn’t fully functional and could be problematic if one is to rely on the cigarette lighter for charging one’s phone.

During this same on-site, they declined to explain how they handle expenses. Mainly how they handle meals. I ended up paying for all of my meals, on my own debit card, and never got reimbursed.

1. I was sent to west Kansas to handle a bank acquisition and e-mail migration. I can’t remember if I made the drive on Sunday or Monday. At around this time, the company was notorious for sending you out on Sunday, and only giving you 1.6 hours of PTO for a 6 to 12 hour drive. Either way, I easily worked 10 hour days Monday through Wednesday along. It was either late Wednesday or Thursday the Project Manager messaged me. The PM asked if I could go to another bank to grab an external hard drive since I was already in the area. The project manager said I could come in late, since I would have to work late Friday. This was an empty promise since I was behind. On Friday, I left the bank and made it to the location to grab the hard drive. I wasn’t able to leave until 10 P.M. Friday night. Once I had the hard drive, I contacted the PM indicating I was tired and I had concerns regarding my drive back. The proposals provided were that I could pull over and take a quick nap, or I could find a Walmart parking lot to nap in. Needless to say I declined and drove back that night. I ended up reaching Oklahoma City at around 3:00 A.M. and I made it to Tulsa around 5:00 A.M. These hours were not a one time occurrence. I’m certain I made at least two similar drives, for the same PM. The PM made a half-assed attempt to walk back on this, which I didn’t discover until it was too late. The PM e-mailed me, while I was in no position to even see the e-mail. It was against company policy to mess with our phones while driving. On top of that, the carrier was AT&T which doesn’t work very well in that area. Had the PM attempted to call me, I would have stopped for the night to get sleep then drive up the hard drive on Saturday, likely arriving that afternoon. The behavior of this Project Manager shaped how I handled on-sites for years to come.

2. During one of my on-sites, I was driving from various places in Missouri to two locations in Illinois. Again, this was 12 to 13 hour workdays. On one of the days, possibly Tuesday or Wednesday, I was working at a branch in Illinois until they closed. I was then denied the option to stay at a hotel to get reset. I was instructed to get back to Missouri that night, when I was in no physical condition to make said drive safely. It was the same Project Manager I referenced above that denied me the option to stay at a hotel insisting I had to be back that night.

3. During one of my on-sites in Colorado, I worked approximately 12 to 13 hours a day, noticing a trend yet? By the time Friday came, it snowed and I got stuck working at the bank until around noon to one o'clock. At this time I was given the all clear to make a 12 hour drive, by myself. By the time I hit Wakeenee, delirium started to set in. I ended up having to push myself to Tulsa making it back at approximately 12:00 A.M. Saturday morning.

4. This one is unique as it doesn’t involve an out of state on-site. This lead up to my on call week, which was the following week. I went on a few local on-sites, one being a network room cleanup. As a result of the on-sites, I ended up working approximately 12 hours a day. By the time Friday hit, I was suppose to get off at noon to make up for working four hours on Friday. Getting off at noon did not happen. Saturday came . From the moment I woke up Saturday, to the time I went to bed I worked. The same happened Sunday. On Saturday, I worked in the office for a few hours before having to go on an on-site. The backup was suppose to assist. He may have answered one call, if he even did that. Ultimately that day, I woke up at 7:00 A.M. and didn’t leave the office until 11:00 P.M. Sunday, the hours were similar. I got stuck finishing up the project that kept me in the office all day Saturday. I called it quits at 10:00, this is despite them wanting me to work another project on top of what I already worked on. I lucked out and was unable to do it due to factors beyond my control. Even if said factors hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have done the task. I had put in close to 20 hours that weekend, after finishing a 50 hour work week. On Monday I came into the office to wrap up some work since the client wanted something done slightly different. I came in and my Manager said “You got f**ked”. That’s when you know it was bad. On Monday and through Wednesday, I continued to work 12+ hour workdays completing projects assigned to me. Work only slowed down Thursday(?) and Friday, likely because they knew I was getting angry. That or I just lucked out. Knowing the company, and how they lack Good Will, I likely lucked out. To add insult to injury, the previous on call person was allowed off her rotation a few hours or a day early due to not getting half of Friday off. I didn’t get such consideration. To make matters worse, I was stuck in the office because of one Project Manager’s project. Said Project Manager offered no help and posted plenty of photos of her at a tailgating party which just rubbed it in. This was the same Project Manager referenced in 4 and 5.

The sad thing about this is this was the improved on call system. The old system involved you working from 8 to 5, then they would slam you with application updates you weren’t allowed to start on until 7:00 P.M. They would easily load you up with enough work to keep you busy until 12:00 A.M. Why hire people to perform these functions when you can get the free labor. Unless you worked four hours, you got nothing. If you worked four or more hours, you were given 1.6 hours of bonus time off, a whopping 45% of your time returned of -55% of your time returned. The company would throw a fit if you went in for two hours then billed them for eight, but had no problem pulling that if you were the one getting shorted.

1. This is one of my most memorial and favorite. You will notice why in a bit. I got instructed to help a bank move over the weekend. I work 12 hours Saturday, 10 hours Sunday, I believe I worked 8 to 10 hours Monday. I either left on Tuesday or Wednesday. Considering I worked all the previous week Monday-Friday, the weekend, and Monday and Tuesday, I decided to take Wednesday off. So I called in. When I returned Thursday, I got taken to the lunch room and was threatened to be terminated or transferred to the OKC office. The reason for the threats. I took Wednesday off and I had been taking hour long lunches, which our Oklahoma City office had been doing all along. The Tulsa manager was demanding 30 minute lunches. I had been taking hour lunches based on the fact I was working 10 hours a day while others weren’t. Since I was the main person traveling for BankOnIT at the time. I basically had to pucker up and repeatedly apologize for taking my lunches and taking a day off, to keep my job.

2. On a Thursday, I was instructed to drive to OKC to pick up a host, since an on-site host was failing. Infrastructure had been fighting with it for the whole day, and didn’t make the call until the end of the day. This was at 4:00 or 5:00 P.M. before my shift was to end. I was instructed to go home and grab a clean set of clothes. From there, I was to drive to OKC to grab the server. I luckily had clean clothes in my car as driving home then driving to OKC would have added another 2 hour drive to an already 2 hour drive to OKC. From OKC, I picked up the equipment then drove to Western Kansas. A coworker offered to assist with the drive, because I was already tired, and I was expected to experience inclimate weather. It was towards the end of the week and the end of my shift before I started the drive. Management shot that down so I had to dive until 12:00 A.M. At that point, I reached my destination and installed the equipment. I had to make some adjustments Friday then made a 10 hour drive home Friday. The fact they were unwilling to have someone assist with the night driving, in potentially inclement weather still makes me angry to this day. Their excuse was they couldn’t afford to send the additional person on-site, who was also salaried. This was the Help Desk Manager that made the excuse. If this had happened on a Monday, I would have been well rested enough to make the drive. Unfortunately this stunt was pulled towards the end of the week, and my work hours were starting to catch up with me.

3. My last on-site. I get assigned to go on-site, to what could easily be a two person job. I worked 12 to 13 hours, without lunch breaks both Monday and Tuesday. I was suppose to leave Tuesday night, but didn’t due to my task taking longer than expected. I had been at the company for 7 years, so I knew how to do my job. This should give you a good indication this was easily a two person assignment. Ion top of doing my assignment, I was stuck reverse engineering what a project tech had previously done, to troubleshoot issues that was encountering. These were issues resolved by another technician that didn’t get relayed to me.. end up staying one last day at the hotel, leaving Wednesday morning. By this time I had already put in at least 24 hours, and I only completed two days. I started to make my drive to my next on-site, lost control of my vehicle in the snow and went off the road. I got stranded for at least an hour and had it was just pure luck I was someone had driven by so I could borrow his phone to call the office. I ended up sitting stranded for a few hours until a tow truck got me out and my supervisor arrived to escort me to the highway. I cleared debris from the exhaust pipe, or at least what I could see. During the drive I started experiencing a headache so I had concerns of carbon monoxide poisoning, due to the pipe being potentially blocked. The concern and headache was persistent enough for me to purchase a carbon monoxide detector to be safe. Fortunately the monitor never went off, but the concern was still there. Management didn’t take this as a sign to let up. They ended up doubling my hours. Not only were my hours doubled, I was stuck using the same van for the remainder of the week. We had one extra van, at the time, but I was unable to get the keys to make use of it. So I effectively got stuck using a potentially compromised van. I got home and was sent to Lawton to perform a 12 hour task both Thursday and Friday. I was stuck there on Saturday until noon when I was to drive sensitive equipment back to OKC, In more in climate weather. They had promised help on this last leg, but that fell through. This was the last on-site I went on before leaving the team.