laborer

sales representative

rv technician

receptionist

administrative assistant

General RV Center

What is the best part of working at the company?
The hours, especially for a sales job

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The manager's, working with them is extremely difficult at times especially their excuses. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Most of the time it is really good, the team is really tight knit and it is like a family up there. Other times not so much. Management needs to learn to keep their emotions out of business and practice what they preach. They tell their employees to check their emotions at the door and shake off what's going on in their personal life but will not do the same themselves. They do not pay attention to scheduling well either, they will allow salespeople to take off for rv shows, vacations,training etc. And then not shift everyone else's schedule around for appropriate coverage and get mad about it when they find out, it's their own fault!! Be prepared not to eat if the store is ever that busy either. I was threatened to be fired once because I was eating which is funny because that's against their company policy and the law, not to mention its just unethical some people have blood sugar problems and can actually die if they aren't maintained but these people don't care and then will expect you to go and face the outside elements. All the while you will watch your "leaders" laid back stuffing face having a grand old time relaxing inside a controlled temperature. In fact, there was a Saturday I worked and there was only 6 sales people customers coming in to the store were put in the waiting room and put on a wait. One customer even complained and was confused as to why they had to wait for a salesperson when they were witnessing 5 managers sitting at the salesdesk looking like a coffee club. I've NEVER worked anywhere else where the management team wouldn't step in to help their team, better yet in this case THE CUSTOMER. I've seen owners of car dealerships get out and assist customers. They will ask the team if there is anything they can do to help or if you need anything let them know then they will just come up with every excuse in the book or turn it right back around on you so don't bother, just deal with the chaos. Just as they will do if they read this feedback. Instead of use feedback to better themselves and better the culture of the store they will act like these aren't areas for improvement or make excuses as to why they can't fix them. The store is number 1 in the state, yet could crush bigger metrics and has so much more room for potential if management would realize they're not the greatest thing since bottled water and make room to improve. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Summer days are generally pretty busy and go by quickly. You will come in and attend a daily sales meeting a half hour before they open then you will probably make some follow up calls and help fresh customers. Winter days are painfully slow.

A typical day at work starts off with a meeting every day, taking multiple fresh customers from the door, grabbing sales phone calls, follow up with previous visitors, and trying hard to get your deliveries over the curb. You may get calls daily with customers, who have already took ownership, having issues.

I was selling big ticket items, so I learned a lot about that sales cycle, which can take a little time but can be very rewarding. I was selling a constantly evolving, technical product. I was passionate about the product so a lot of it soaked in fairly easily. 

There are quite a few managers in the building for different departments. I mostly dealt with my sales managers. A few new ones come and go but there are a few around with years of experience in the industry. A couple were stand out and really helped my career! Most could easily be overwhelmed with corporate demands at any time though. The head store manager seemed to mostly work against the sales department. Each and every deal was so unique, and most times there was a special request involved in a close. It can be like a second job coordinating the extracurricular things that were promised to get the deal in the first place. This is because you're relying on several other teammates or departments who sometimes were not making any money off the deal. They are not too inclined to help in those situations. 

This leads me to workplace culture. It is definitely a for-profit atmosphere. It is set up so all the departments are competing for a chunk of the pie when sales writes a deal. You can imagine the animosity this can create at times. In a place where you are relying on several other departments to get a deal over the curb, some people may not be working as hard if they're not making money on that deal. The customer can sense that right away, and it can definitely cause numerous issues. The owners and corporate place big emphasis on family values as our core. However, many times you felt under appreciated. 

The hardest part with sales here is everybody loves you if it's a great deal with no issues. The system there is set up to put all accountability on the sales staff. It doesn't matter where a critical issue may begin along the cycle, there is always an out to pin the blame back to sales, meaning you. You may have to lace up and handle many things that really are supposed to be a different department's responsibility. Too often you end up faced with that option, give up gross, or lose the deal if you don't act.   

Special Order Parts Former employee here: The job itself was fine, I enjoyed what I did, and I worked hard, close proximity to home, good work schedule and benefits. I only received training for 1/3 of what I actually needed to do. This clearly upset coworkers who thought I wasn't being a "team player", but I was so busy being the only person ordering parts there was no time to learn the other aspects (Shipping & Receiving & RGA Process)  or be helpful to others. Coworkers gave silent treatment, and would throw you under the bus for anything. A few employees were constantly angry and yelling and swearing. It's hard to be friendly and nice in that kind of environment. Poor management, managers that don't care. I attempted to talk to several managers about the issues as it was causing me a lot of emotional strain and stress, and absolutely nothing was done to fix the situation. They clearly thought I was the problem and needed to just deal with it. The lack of training was an epidemic, each department had poorly trained people that did not know what they were doing. Classic case of the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing, this is why we aren't functioning properly. Nobody would follow a process and were constantly "one offing" things to get their things done quicker. Poor communication between service writers and parts department. Zero retention of managers, no manager on site whatsoever for my department. My direct manager did everything to avoid conflict, including not being around to manage his employees. Constantly understaffed, people quitting left and right. General RV only cares about RV sales and getting checks from the warranty company for repairs that the RV's probably didn't even need. A position for warranty administrator opened up (You guessed it, another person walked out) that I am ABSOLUTELY qualified for with education and work experience, I interviewed for the position and was ignored, never told anything about the position if they wanted to move me or someone else. The position is still open and all of their warranty claims are behind. It's a shame they pass up good internal candidates for advancement, and likely a reason people leave. I very much am certain that my coworkers did everything in their power to get me fed up enough to quit, well, they won. My mental health comes first. I could no longer function with toxic coworkers who live by double standards.

Lack of organization, lack of training (expected to just know policies and procedures when there is no formal initial training on them), lack of communication, lack of consistency, lack of fairness, lack of support from upper management, lack of cohesiveness and teamwork amongst stores current management and more. Employees and fellow Managers are talked down to, and on many occasions it's what I would consider a hostile work environment. Operating very much with a good ol' boys mentality and management style. Originally I thought this extended just on my particular's store level, but when feedback and concerns were brought to positions at higher level  outside of our store, there was still nothing done to resolve or even address the issues. There are multiple people in positions of authority and power that should not be and are bringing down the overall culture and reputation of company as a whole. There are some great employees there, but the toxic ones not being held accountable are what will continue to make this a negative environment to work in. To top matters off, the benefits offered as a whole are poor. Your given two weeks paid vacation (until you reach 7 year mark I believe where you're granted more) and one of your weeks is already pre-designated to the week the company is shut down between Christmas and New Years. It's a mandatory company shut down so you do not have the option to work it even if you wanted to. Once this new year hits (01/01/2020), all vacation time is pre-loaded so they will then have 1 of their two weeks already designated for Christmas shut down. I've never heard of a company shutting down for a week and forcing you to use your own vacation time to be paid for it. You already do not get much paid time off as it is. Anyone with a family and/or small children at home, good luck only having 5 paid days to work with for an entire year (outside of Christmas shut down). Oh, and the 1 personal day you are given yearly outside of that. General RV is portrayed as a very family oriented company, but sadly (and very disappointingly so) that was not at all my impression nor experience from being employed there. Felt very much as if it's all about who you know and who you have dirt on that keeps a lot of people employed there (that do wrong and should not be); goes all the way up to the top.

Great job to learn a different side of the automotive field. Used previous knowledge of home repairs and automotive repair and combined them into one. Learned and got certifications while on the job at companies cost.

Management is horrible. Too much favoritism. They put people in foreman's positions with no certifications. Foreman's have refused to do QC's because it was not their side of the shop or take a long time, which wastes tech time waiting around.
The Store manager is a good guy and will stick up for techs but so far. When I approached him about a problem or an issue with termination, they did nothing but relied on shop manager.
The new assistant manager does nothing to help the shop while it crumbles.
They don't understand how the state vehicle inspection program works and tries to force the inspectors to do things that are not within regulations and could cost their licenses. When I informed them how the VSI program works and company police does not align, the foreman will lie and have me, the inspector. fired.

Great learning experience, Loved the job of working on multiple different RV's, getting multiple certifications to advance in career. Learning how to trouble shoot appliances and install different things from washer/dryer, hitches, inverters, etc.
the job was great. The shop crew worked well together. The management, parts department and half of the foreman's made the job miserable. Long hours on most days. Required to work every other Saturday regardless of what you have planned.
Great job, extremely poor management

I was a tech in Ashland, VA. I'll cut to the chase and explain the structure of this shop.

Like many shop's they pay flat rate. The books on these things are all over the place- some manufacturer's pay good time (i.e. tiffin) other's aren't so good (for example, winnebago pay's straight time UP TO a limit. so you can't come out ahead on any warrantee job for them)

most tech's start by doing prep. they pay around 4 hours for a prep depending on what kind of unit it is. you cant bill more hours unless you make a major repair.

if you are a service tech you hardly get any time for diag. The workload is high and the time constraint is high. 

another person (not me) was "promoted" from being a detailer to technician, promised more money after training. They completed otj training and became a registered tech with RVIA. more work, more responsibility, no raise.

and this brings me to the most important issues with this company.
the book time's are so bad that only about 10-15% of the technicians even bill as much time as they are present. 80% billed time against premise is considered good in this shop. 45 hours a week premise time is MANDATORY and they DO NOT pay time and a half for overtime. I think it is outright disrespectful for them to demand overtime without being willing to pay for it. this means that the person previously mentioned worked more hours on a more difficult job for less money. That's the kind of people they are.

The management was mostly incompetent. The service writer's were friendly but didn't understand the job fully. The quality of the work being put out by most of the tech's is sub-par.

I have worked in several shop's in my career, I would NEVER suggest this company to anyone unless it's a stepping stone.

What is the best part of working at the company?
One of the best parts was the people I worked with on the main floor. Most of us positive and willing to help each other. A lot of people willing to go the extra mile for a fellow employee and customer.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Working at the Wixom, corp store, the biggest problem is upper management and corp leaders with their micro management style from the 60's and 70's. They know there are problems. They have a track record of the same revolving changes they make that do not address the needs of the employee or customer. Upper management and corp leaders have zero interest in employee feedback or input. Upper management makes decisions based on spread sheets, reports and tracking software or a customer complaint. When a problem happens, they are not interested in the cause of the issue, only appointing blame upon you, justified or not, and told you just cost the company money. Expect to be thrown under the bus. Corp leaders isolate themselves from the front line workers. They do not want to know the chaos and problems they create and the self induced stress they put on the floor personnel. When you offer management any type of suggestion, you are told in so many words you do not know what you are talking about and looked down upon. They say you will be treated like family. They left out the word Dysfunctional. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Not satisfying. Unappreciated.  

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Rudderless, stressful.

I worked with General RV in Wixom Michigan. They pride themselves on being the only family owned RV dealership. However they hired in a company to run their company and it has turned out to be the same corporate B.S. as you would get anywhere else. There are so many managers that they have no management. When I was hired I had to continue to ask for training,, It was 3 months before I was to get the said "training" They sent me to another General RV center. I was ready for a week of learning. The Monday I showed up for my training, NOBODY KNEW I WAS EVEN COMING. They were shocked that I was even there since it was their slow period. They had no training material or trainers. I do not believe they care for their people one bit. The owners had an employee appreciation day. They made huge signs and put them all over the building. You ask what happened for appreciation day? They ordered some pizza;s which only fed 1/4 of the employees. They spent more money on the signs to pretend they were grateful rather than just being grateful.Actions speak louder than words. Its all about the numbers, make more and more money for them while the technicians are on food stamps. The only thing nice to say about General RV? They have some great employees which they are loosing faster then they can hire. The owners of the company need to re- focus on what is really important. and what FAMILY even means.

Where to start...This is by far one of the most stressful, greed & money driven companies I've ever seen. Employees are nothing more but a number that can be easily replaced in days. During the busy months, you will have no life outside of this job, none. Management will have set hours for when we open/close but still allow customers to come in well past closing time which keeps employees there all night because God forbid they don't make that one sale. Raises are non-existent and moving up in this company isn't possible. It's honestly sad how much this company values money over the happiness and well being of their employees. The wages are incredibly low for the amount of responsibilities they give you. Sales managers tell you one thing then tell the customers another. You have a operations manager who is obsessed with running a RV like it's a Walmart since he came from there and overall, it's a mentally draining job. You will be stressed, you will become bitter, angry and disgusted. Just stay away and find something better like so many of us have done. Salesmen, technicians and others who have been with the company for years walked out on the spot due to the greed and ignorance. It's sad 

If you don't mind constantly trying to find equipment that works then this is the job for you.  To be fair, they are in the middle of expanding the facility but management often times puts the cart before the horse.  Management also has a habit of looking the other way on rules, for instance the policy for summer attire is no shorts however the GM has ok'd shorts but there's a strict criteria on the kind that's allowed but some people there do what the want and no one says anything about it.  Managers have been known to completely go berserk on an employee for something they did; belittling them in the process instead of remaining calm and being a professional.  They stress professionalism but don't mirror it.  I think that's called being a hypocrite. All in all, it's no more than a stepping stone until you can find something better unless you want to sell RV's which is pretty cut throat there.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Laborer 2 salaries reported	$31,000 per year
Sales representative 1 salary reported	$105,000 per year
Rv technician 1 salary reported	$55,000 per year
Receptionist 1 salary reported	$16.50 per hour
Administrative assistant 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour

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