field service technician

CBE, Inc

day 1 Showed up to site with another technician the other technician had never been to the site before nor did he know how to do half of the required job. He constantly complained and made working that first job a nightmare. During the middle of day 2 I took over and never stopped leading nearly every job from that point forward. Rarely did I find an employee that had a decent clue to any of the required tasks at hand, let alone an understanding of installation codes of equipment. They constantly over book you for one shift and if you cannot keep up the pace they use it against you during reviews. Most of the time you will work over 60 hours a week and if you cannot keep up your regular schedule or whatever they decide to throw on you mid day then that counts against you as well. I personally only was written up once in 3 years and that was the day they let me go. I filled 3 technicians places and worked an average of 75 hours a week for nearly 3 years. They let me go cause I had to get my teeth worked on and I took four dental appointments in one month scheduled in advance.  Then they decided to fire me and then challenge my unemployment and I never got a penny and nearly lost everything. Thanks CBE for the worst experience as an employee... I hope your company learns to treat employees as assets and not disposable trash...

This used to be a decent place to work. Upper management changed about 3 years ago and has been on a steady decline ever since, as you can see from the graph. 

On call, you are basically chained to the phone with a 6 hour resolution time at many after hour "emergency" calls. The call can be upgraded to a priority 1 by the customer, even if it is not an emergency. 

There is little room for growth in this company unless you are buddy buddy with someone. It is very much a good old boys network. 

It seems like the more you know, the more you have to do. It is perpetually short handed- You're the only tech available. Even if you are personally unavailable. In their eyes, they MUST come first. 

There is no work/life balance. CBE wants every waking moment you have, and then some. You will try to make plans, even when not on call, but still get sent far afield at the end of the day which can turn into several hours. Plus your trip home.

Field technicians are treated as sub human. It matters very little what you think, even if you're the only reason the job gets done. You are micro managed too. Dash cams with speed controls. Issuing a driving score. 

I'm actually sorry that I referred someone to this company. The area manager and regional managers have your back, but upper management is garbage. 

You will most likely get the job. 
This company is on a downward spiral especially in the southern regions. 

There is no work life balance. You WILL have to work on-call for a week or more, there is no incentive to this even though you are in limbo the entire time for a random call in the middle of the night or weekend, that drive can be anywhere from 10 mins to 4 hours depending on availability on other techs. 

You are expected to give your life in exchange for “easy money”. Don’t expect much of a raise, depending on who you know and how “buddy buddy” you are with the higher ups you might get a 10$ raise, if not then be lucky to get a dollar and some change for the year. 

During the week you receive work orders and are expected to run on them immediately, drive times are long most days.

You will learn A good amount about register,  alarm, and camera tech. 

Managment is great in some areas and bad in others 

The workplace is like any other

The hardest part of the job is trying to have a work life balance while the company is short staffed. 

The most enjoyable part of being here is the occasional projects where they send you off to different states all expenses paid to install services for stores. 


Normal working hours are M-F 8:00 to 5:00. As a Field Service Tech at times these hours can vary, depending on customer needs. On call rotation 24/7 365 with other technicians in the area my be stressful at times but, it's part of the job. I have been given the opportunity to learn additional skills working here. Travel to be part of projects. CBE does a lot of custom integration for its customers. In the last two years the Area Managers have been more focused on the Field Service Technicians job duties and work performance. Support and training is strong and the staff is knowledgeable. The hardest part of the job is that you must be flexible at times. Customers may request what you think is unreasonable however, they are the customer. Most enjoyable about the work he is seeing different things, resolving customer issues and advancement opportunities. CBE promotes from within.

1) No matter your role (besides upper management, of course), you are being tightly monitored everywhere you go (cameras, microphones, GPS, reports, etc.) and micromanaged, even on the pettiest offenses. 
2) Hardly any praise, but plenty of criticism. 
3) There is a lot of politics, finger-pointing, gaslighting, and scapegoating due to how quickly upper management and the company owner are to dispose of employees. 
4) Office employees are treated like children in junior high with little signs in the bathrooms and arbitrary cell phone rules. 
5) Lastly, every penny is being pinched wherever they can get away with it; no sick leave, no bereavement pay, paid days off are fewer each year, Christmas bonuses have gradually become a joke (they used to pay out $100 or reimburse a purchase up to that amount. Now they only provide you with a few articles of uniform clothing every year.) 

As the company is growing, it's baffling as to why these issues only seem to get worse and worse. 

There is no "opportunity for advancement" with this company unless someone quits or you are buddy buddy with the hirer ups. The micro managing here is atrocious, it is quite literally like office space where you get 5 different emails about the same thing from your direct supervisor and the people above him. They will under pay you for the amount a certifications you are required to have as well as expect you to answer your phone even on your vacation time. The benefits are over priced and not that good, if you put your family on it you will basically being working just to pay the insurance. Everything is the technicians fault here, even when the warehouse doesn't ship you parts. All and all if you have a family or value having a home life stay away from this place. If you do get a job here immediately start becoming buddies with the higher ups sp you can actually get a decent wage 

Another review wrote ' too many chiefs '. This is true. if you're a tech, you are at the bottom of the hill and all rolls down. Everyone can boss you around and you have no say in it. The on call demands are stressful. Your day doesn't end off the clock. They'll still send and expect answers on emails in your off time. The hands on training almost doesnt exist. It's a throw you to the wolves attitude. " Just call somebody." But nobody answers their phone. I've seen guys stuck at calls for 18- 24 hours. There is no advancement. You are a grunt. Period. The techs are not a team. They are so disgruntled , it's a every guy for himself attitude.
The pay is great, the benefits like 401k are good. You dont get upgraded vacation time til your 6th year. But unless you are single and can travel.. dont work here. You will miss your kids growing up and you wont have a social life.


Toxic work environment. You're expected to be available no matter what. HR strongly condemns this, but management from the field to Corp trainers ignores that completely. 14 hour days are common. Overtime is expected, if not mandatory. Even if you have no work to do, youre expected to start your day at 8 am, even if that means washing your vehicle three times a week.
Service vans are equipped with GPS and cameras pointed at YOU. Management's policies are focused on "gotcha" management - failure is foisted on the lowest person on the pole.
Social media accounts are monitored. Official company policy. 
Micromanagement is an understatement.


The first thing that gives you a clue is that the turnover rate for employees is very high. That should pretty much tell you all you need to know about thinking the job is a career.  It isn’t.  It’s a place to land while you find something better. You only get 40 paid hrs a year for vac, sick, personal time, ect.  Yes!  Only 40 hrs!  You also work Labor Day.  Management doesnt really exist. There seems to be no logic in what they do and how they do it.  Per diem is also done in the most stupid manner so never go out of town. You will lose money. 

It was an interesting experience to be able to service the convenience store industry.  Theres a lot that is to be learned from being a part of the technical side.  However with metrics barreling over your shoulder, a favoritism between mgmt and the techs they like more, a dispatching system that can be random OR assigned depending of favoritism, being on call well into the night for a week potentially having to drive hours away in the middle of the night, a vehicle camera system playing "big brother" and a awkward work/life time balance, working at this company isnt for the feint of heart.  Its a great opportunity but they should pay more, get more people friendly mgmt and listen to their employees that spend the hours in the field getting things done so you can make money.

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