technical support

helpdesk technician

helpdesk agent

technical support agent

customer service representative

NRTC

The burnout is real with this job as others have pointed out, where the management takes on new affiliates/members without either hiring ahead of time to plan for the influx of calls or proper training. Training for new members is a 30 minute read aloud by a trainer and at the end just says message me with questions but when you end up taking a call you can never get the same trainer and have to ask 3-4 supervisors in hopes one knows how to answer it. They will task you with taking back to back calls for 8 hours and expect you to take less than 2 minutes between each call which then drives you to burnout. When you ask if they are hiring more techs they give you the same answer "We have techs in training but they won't be ready for two weeks". In the end 4-5 techs make it through the training out of a class of 20 or more because the majority realize how bad this job is and get out. 

There is no satisfaction in this job no acquired skills and if you do end up making it to Level 3 tech or above you are asked to just keep taking on more and more members with out compensation. They have rolled out a QA system that is not complete where it looks for phrases on calls which aren't in the script and only after having a supervisor pull you for a meeting do they provide a list of said phrases that never make sense but are required to say. You can't be too quick or long on a call, but they expect you to take 4 plus calls an hour. The QA system mentioned above is now how you earn bonuses, they did away with tenured bonuses and now everything is wrapped into a system that they do not have finished and which after deploying it THIS MONTH, require people to hit a QA of 75% which seeing as most techs are around 50-60% QA scores require the supervisors to just have techs throwing the phrases into the calls as soon as you get the customer info in order to get around and boost the scores. Last but surely not least is clarity, you will not find a list of responsibilities, job roles, or requirement any where in the handbook or on their websites. You ask for simple things like how you get calls over other techs or how you get skilled for one member but other techs aren't and all they give you is a blanket statement of its by need or availability. When for 75% of the members are all the same with a difference of one tool here or there. The only time I got answers was when I had to complain for months to my supervisor which she conveyed to the head of the help desk finally get a meeting only to get "trained" for my QA scores and asking all the questions then. 

I know that was a lot but this is coming from someone who took this job thinking it was a help desk position to get a foothold into the IT workplace when in reality it is a glorified customer service position with slight technology knowledge. If you have a degree in IT and any sort of certifications I highly recommend not even applying as it is a waste of time.   

When I started with NeoNova (September of 2014), it was a company with a lot of upsides: they were growing, gaining new affiliates at a decent pace, and they had a great company culture. They cared about their employees and tried to take care of them.

By the time I left (April of 2016), all of that had vanished. Except the growing: sales was signing on new clients at a rapid clip, and promising them things without consulting with the help desk as to whether we could perform the services contracted. They were signing businesses faster than they were hiring to compensate for, and losing employees at the rate of about 1-2 per week due to the decline of the company's culture and morale. They stopped caring about employees and starting caring about chasing one more dollar: employees were required to spend their break time to go to the bathroom, expected to work through lunch on short notice, thrown into new affiliate systems with little to no training. Call times increased exponentially, which made management start pressuring employees to push through calls faster, customer service be damned. This caused affiliates to get upset, because employees were missing steps or making mistakes in their attempt to get through calls quickly to get to the next ringing phone (at its peak, the phone system at NeoNova had upwards of 100 calls waiting, and approximately 25 people working at that time).

Company culture tanked as well: the rest of the company was invited to join in company outreach/charity programs like Habitat for Humanity and working at Kramden (building computers for lower-income families) but the help desk was forbidden to join because they had to man the phones. If you worked for the help desk, you were a third-class employee and it showed.

Micromanaged from beginning of shift to end. Management seems to just sit back and literally wait for your after call work to hit 120 seconds (Two Min) and will immediately message you asking what is taking so long, it's unreal.

Unbelievable amount of work load and they will not compensate. More and more work will be added to your daily tasks until you burn out. Training consists of 10-30 min once over and you will be expected to preform as if you had the most in depth training possible. 

If the call queue slows down, and over five minutes pass, they take that opportunity to "Train" you on a new client and add another member to your call queue. Within a month we went from sort of knowing what to do to not knowing what we were doing. 

You will be encouraged to reach out to superiors for moments that you are lost and need help, only to be ghosted and ignored. At times, I was even belittled for asking for help and treated awful. 

Call queue was absolutely hectic, literally leaving you with no time to breathe for 9-10 hours straight. You will be graded on your tone, empathy, and a lot of other things by AI. Those results will then be sent to management who will then post results multiple times a day for everyone to see. 

Honestly has been the most negative experience I have ever had at a job. Emphasis on the micromanaging and unbelievable work load. They will promise tons of things during onboarding, including advancement, or becoming permanent if hired via temp agency. None of it is true. 

Be very careful with this company. Do your research on other forums and you will be able to see the truth behind them.

Pay is really really low.

Turn over is incredibly high.

Highly doubt that any other reviews posted above a star or two are from content workers, rather higher ups trying to make the place look good.

I could go on and on, just avoid this place. 

NRTC prides itself on paper about being a member driven cooperative and providing excellence to all their members. This would be great if they actually ran their company this way instead of looking at the bottom line and making sure the senior leadership teams get their bonuses. They also preach culture and work/life balance to all new employees but it does not take long to realize that the culture is one that fosters backstabbing and finger pointing. As far as work/life balance, non existent as they ask most of their employees to work excessive hours and the pay is below industry standards. During my almost 4 year tenure at NRTC I had to fight and beg for four promotions and beg even more for equal pay. Times are getting tough and so to meet financial goals they are cutting people from broadband for trivial reasons, some of which have no prior discipline issues. My final review centers around their inability to truly foster diversity in the work place. I had raised a red flag about one of our members being uncomfortable once they learned I was gay, instead of pull me off the project like requested, they kept me in background with impossible expectations! Roles and responsibilities are never clearly defined and the company has went through at least 2 reorgs in last 4 years but none of the leadership really changed. HMMMMM wonder were the problem is?

I hate to feel like I'm leaving a bad review on NRTC, because it has so much potential to be a great job. Unfortunately, the level of burnout and lack of care for the way this effects their employees prevents that. Most of the supervisors are great, but there are some who laugh you off. God forbid you actually care about the customer experience, right? If they're not happy with the outcome they basically expect you to hangup without trying to preserve a positive experience. This consistently bothered me, but it was really only 1 supervisor. Most of them are really nice. They pay is very decent starting pay, and they do offer decent benefits. The problem is that the only way to prevent burnout is to go part time, and part time pay isn't enough to live on. When they queue is backed up, your breaks are cut in half to 30 minutes. Since they continuously take on affiliates that they do not have the capacity to take on, the queue is nearly always red. The burnout from this job is just really really rough and it happens fast, and not a lot is done to aid it. Whether or not your accomplishments are acknowledged lies solely on whether or not you are on their favorite list. Tech's who consistently meet quotas and have great call times and great survey reviews often don't get as much recognition as other techs, who's quota's aren't met by even a fraction. It has so much potential, but it just doesn't contribute to a healthy life outside of work.

This company low balls ISP providers so they get contracts to provide tech support for them, which means they pay you horribly.  The company will constantly tell you how "cool and down to earth" the management people are because they get to come to your desk and talk with you like a normal person (i'm not even joking).  Management treats you like a child in a concentration camp, pays you $12/hr, and calls you a "professional."  The training was horrible, and they throw you into the fire expecting to figure out the stupidest caller issues.  Also, you have to get permission to escalate a ticket because there isn't a Tier 2 support.  You are the tier 1 and 2 support, which makes no sense since tier 2 was a job listing.  There are people that listen to all of your calls and berate you for not giving small talk while you're trying to figure out the issue.  I am a grown adult, and I won't be treated like a child by the management and the angry customers.  There are impossible metrics they want you to meet.  You're wasting your time and hurting your mental health working here because they will just fire you for not meeting metrics (you can be let go for no reason). 

The company does 3rd party ISP for over 400 companies across the USA. You have separate tools and is paid little to nothing for knowing about each affiliate you’re working for. You have to blackmail or befriend the right person to advance or progress. They make empty promises by conning you into working more but don’t give anything in return after promising they would. HR is beyond rude. Sales and OPS will express how they don’t care for you if you’re working on the help desk because you’re “bottom feeders”? Although the culture is diverse , they often use terrible words to describe the atmosphere and people that work there. Sales always lie to clients just to get contracts knowing help desk isn’t able to fulfill the needs the affiliates is looking for because help desk isn’t qualified to do so...but they don’t care. They control your lunch based on the call volume daily. Shifts change every1-3 months. They create positions to take care of certain people. Management targets people they don’t like. It reminds me of high school. No incentives or prizes. No recognition. No nothing...

Absolutely horrendous workplace. Management was even worse than that. They “encourage” employees to “take initiative”, and “speak up if you have something to say”. They mean the exact opposite: “do what you’re told - nothing more” and “keep your mouth shut and your head down”. Constant shifting goalposts, total lack of transparency, and despite receiving the tech of the month award and receiving 4 customer “kudos” during my first month. I was told by 2 managers that if I had been doing my job correctly, I would not have received those customer “kudos”. This is because they prioritize the speed at which you can get a person off the phone over providing actual customer service. In the end, I was fired for speaking up about management’s unrealistic expectations and total lack of accountability, integrity and respect for the people we were supposed to serve. 

Work-life balance
This is a great company that is growing fast.  However they take on large projects and struggle because they fail to properly staff them.  The large projects are severely understaffed.  As a result, the management and inspection teams on those projects are overloaded with too much work. There is also no training in place for new members of the management team on various projects.  There is also no diversity in this company.

Pay & benefits
The pay is great but the medical benefits are horrible.

Job security and advancement
There's lots of room for advancement.  NRTC promotes from within.

Management
Upper management doesn't spend enough time in the training and development of new OSP managers. They need to get OSP manager certifications to help in their development since there is no training offered.

Culture
The culture is not diverse at all.

Overall
NRTC is a good company that is growing but needs to implement training for its management teams and as a company they need create a more diverse culture and workforce.

Poor middle level management. This company couldn't care less about you. They're hired by your internet provider via contract. Thats right, the people you speak to at your internet/phone/TV provider dont even work for whoever you receive your services from. It's embarrassing how much they talk about customer experience, everything they say has the motive of high numbers on a spreadsheet to this company in order to make more money and unfortunately screw more people like yourself by becoming "customer service" for whatever company has the unpleasant demise of hiring NRTC. If you live in the deemed "Southern United States" ask flat out if they used NRTC as a contractor for customer service. If they do, dont bother. You will be speaking with someone who has less than one month of experience and is reading straight off a script and unable to TRULY be honest with you.

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