investigator

siu investigator

surveillance investigator

marketing associate entry level

field investigator

Ethos-Risk-Services

What is the best part of working at the company?
They manage to get cases, albeit with little details

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Having to do more research and digging as many of the "pre-surveillance research done by their in-house DFI dept, does low effort and even provides worng information and worse, outdated information that a even a basic cursory search will provide. Your hands are tied and have to follow instructions from someopne not in your region or even the next state over who does not know the demographics and finer details about the neighborhoods. Then they assign a Field Agent in Charge, who again does not know the area and demographics and the vast majority follow a script without any input from the local investigator. Often times the FAC has less experience and treats you like a brainless child. You give an update and assessment, and then are asked questions you answered in your update. Forget using investigative technique, skills and tools as they will ask unimportant and irrellevant questions. If you can work autonomously, you will thrive, but if you follow the constraints, you will get little to no results for the ones that matter most, the actual client. There are so many middlemen that getting accurate info is limited. You can also be certain, YOUR name will not be in the report and they will take all credit for your succesful investigation. They will surely give you blame for poor results from their instructions. Fortunately, for me, I work with certain Ops Managers who allow me to work my investigative magic. and so I get the satisfaction, if not the credit with the actual Client. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
They tout being the best with all their marketing and shiny buzzwords to the client. Like most companies, you are only as good as your last investigation and as good as the people in the field. You work independent and care about your result more than their billing for the sake pf billing as they treat it as solely a business and not about truly being the best getting the results. I do make far more working for clients directly as they appreciate my hard works and investigative magic. I simply enjoy what I do. When it get slow locally, go slumming and take a few cases, because I loving being an investigator. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
When I do work a case, I have to spend hours digging and get information, the client may have already had and prepare for a successful investigation. So typical days are researching basic info and intel.

Where to begin. The management is awful, most of the time you can’t get in contact with them even though you’re required to update them on your cases. More often than not the information they give you is inaccurate, such as addresses, current vehicles, so it becomes difficult to conduct successful surveillance, oh and those cases still count against your metrics. You could be scheduled for 8 hours, but get cut off at 4 due to no activity. You get no incentives for discovering helpful information. You can’t trust anything that other investigators put in their reports because they leave out helpful details. You only make 30 cents a mile for driving. You’re responsible for all the wear and tear on your vehicle.

I’ve found myself getting less and less cases while I can see that they’re contracting to non-ethos employees, which is odd because I had one pay period with 80 hours when I first started, but since then I averaged about 50, thank goodness my bills aren’t super expensive.

There’s a handful of decent OMs and FACs but most of them either know nothing about investigations, or think they are too good to bothered with people they view as beneath them. 

I had FAC’s warn me about OM’s seeking retribution for complaints. The companies culture is that the higher ups throw the small fish under the bus in order to cover their inadequacies. So, run as far from this company as you can. It’s not worth the stress, wear on your vehicle, or your time. 


If you’re looking for work-life balance, this is not the job. The company consistently claims to value fairness and respect, yet scheduling is inconsistent and not applied equally among employees. Some investigators receive regular days off, while others are assigned continuously with no consideration for workload or personal time. Mileage reimbursement is only $0.30 per mile, which does not come close to covering fuel, maintenance, or the actual cost of using your personal vehicle especially considering the frequent long-distance assignments. It is not uncommon to be sent several hours away from your home, and travel time is not compensated until after the third hour of driving, which effectively means you are working for free during part of your commute. Reports must be completed at minimum wage, and management often discourages investigators from taking more than one hour to complete reports, regardless of case complexity. Hours are inconsistent: some days may be four hours, others eight, and expectations vary depending on which manager assigns your case. There is little standardization or leadership across the company. Overall, the work culture prioritizes revenue over employee well-being. Investigators are treated as replaceable, and communication from management lacks consistency, support, and respect.

This company is good for those starting out. However for a seasoned investigator please be beware that some of the case managers can be condescending and a little disrespectful. If you’re a full time employee you have zero control of your schedule and they will “make” you go on cases sometimes with no days off. You get your cases on a weekly basis so you really can’t plan anything around it. If you’re part-time you do have the benefit of control of your schedule but beware if you bump heads with the FAC, they’ll quickly throw you under the bus. Even when THEY are in the wrong. You have to give updates but the FACs don’t ever answer their phones or reply so you might as well talk directly to the case managers, if they answer their phone. They play favorites and you aren’t talking to one person case manager for a region. They obviously don’t communicate in office because you get 3 and 4 calls from different people about cases in The same area. Don’t even think about asking for a raise. That definitely won’t happen. You don’t get paid travel until you’ve driven 3 hrs combined both ways. If you drive 1.5 hours one way and back you don’t get paid. Your mileage is capped at 150 miles and they only calculate the drive there and back. You have to get approval if actually do mobile surveillance and/or have to do spot checks. This isn’t a company I would stay with for very long.

This is a good company if you are just starting off in P.I. work, but not long term.  Once you are past a year its time to move on and start looking.  Part time or full time, it is hard to get any cases or hours from them.  There were times I worked a case every day for a month, and then got nothing for 4 months.  Then worked a week, and didn't hear from them for 3 months.  The organization is confusing, too many managers, case managers, leads, field leads, field agents in charge.  Not enough help or support when you need it.  You have to supply everything, and they require you to purchase certain software.  It seems more like a 1099 rather than a statutory employee.  Watch out if they want you to work SIU cases.  These will drain you personally and financially.  I had a single piece of paper to have someone sign.  They would only pay for 1 trip to the person's hour, 2 hours away.  But wanted me to go back 6 more times, ON MY OWN DIME AND TIME.  They refused to pay me for the time or mileage.
As I said, good to start and get your feet wet, but not long term.  There are much better PI agencies out there.

They constantly increase production requirements and expand what is needed on every case.  They then take away some insignificant portion of the process and stand on it like they are doing you a huge favor.   They then use that to again increase production requirements. 

Essentially, you get auto and property claims and do fraud investigations.  If there is no fraud, you get dinged.  If your claim value reduction isn't high enough, you get dinged.  If you get sick or want to take a vacation, you get dinged (because your inflow of new claims never stops).  Your support is only to tell you to work faster. 

Yeah it is a remote position, but it isn't a great place to be.  They make you sign overly restrictive non-compete agreements covering jobs that aren't even related, basically preventing you for 2 years from doing anything in the same field after leaving. 

I easily could have reported all my managers. They would make inappropriate and unsettling jokes. Managers were never on the same page. Sometimes I would work without a break, while on other shifts I was forced to take a break, but remain vigilant of a claimant. Forget about restroom breaks, good luck in the summer, they do not care if you die in your heart of heat stroke. They accuse their investigators of leaving the job despite having footage. Labeled full-time time but hours are incredibly inconsistent, sometimes only having 20 hours a week, but driving 80% of the time. No warning when your schedule is changed. Will call you on your days off and expect you to answer. Overall do not care about the well-being of their workers. No room for growth and say goodbye to your personal life because with the time you are driving there and back, then getting home to complete a report or two. Your entire day is gone. 

The blatant favoritism displayed within the company creates a toxic work environment where promotion and opportunities are unfairly granted based on personal connection rather than merit! This not only breeds resentment among employees but also undermines morale and motivation. Furthermore, the presence of unethical practices raises serious concerns about the company's integrity and values. Employees are left feeling conflicted and pressured to compromise their own ethical standards in order to meet unrealistic expectations. Adding insult to injury, the compensation if you stay more than a year, is shocking low, considering the demanding nature of the job! BEWARE OF COMPANY LIKE THIS!

The job itself I thought was pretty cool at first. If you’re full time they literally will have you driving between Philly, NJ and NY  everyday it’s very very rare you have a set area they just throw random cases at you. You have to use your own vehicle and your own gas. They reimburse you for gas but not until your next check. A gas card should at least be provided or a company vehicle.  I asked them for a hotel one time because the driving will catch up to you and they gave me the bare minimum 1 star motel that had all the issues with it. After your done surveillance you have to go all the way back home and do even more work after a long day of driving. They train you on how to do the job but don’t really “TRAIN” you on how to be success on the job. The job itself is not worth it unless you like putting wear & tear on your own car. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The HR Department was helpful from the start 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The poor training.  The equipment was sent with no directions , No traning was given on the camera ,video equipment was unable to download files to they IVE system.  There in house software was not working with thier training site. You would belittled for issues out of your control.  A student was call a lire based on information told to him .The instructor needs diversify training. He claims he been teaching six months.Needs to go before some files a companion for harassment.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Lack of communication. No IT support.  No training support till it was to late in the program

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Investigator 546 salaries reported	$32.60 per hour
Siu investigator 42 salaries reported	$27.38 per hour
Surveillance investigator 6 salaries reported	$25.42 per hour
Marketing associate entry level 4 salaries reported	$21.00 per hour
Field investigator 8 salaries reported	$18.94 per hour

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