Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup

This position will be sorely misrepresented in your interview. They don't lie to you, they just don't give you the full picture. 
If You don't mind taking on their very specific extremely overpriced commercial insurance coverage ($600/month for Roto vs average of $250/$300 per month literally anywhere else). And that's not considering if you have a poor driving history, which I don't.
The people in management are not bad people at all. Maybe even pretty cool, but they arent from the trade so they have little to no understanding of your plight and provide next to no support as a matter or course. All but one of their master plumbers has quit so you get little to no support from a professional in the field. Currently no journeymen. Plumber's know to stay far away from this place.
You're wholly responsible for making sure you get paid. You have to chase behind management to ensure your referral bonuses are added to your check. 
If a customer decides they are not going to pay you for your work, even if you've fixed the issue, management does not back you up or compensate you. Dispatch is not local and rarely knows your area. They also know nothing or next to nothing about the trade, so oftentimes you are penalized for callbacks that were never called backs. They will take what you earned and pay the next guy with it if they go to your "callback".
There are too many factors outside of your own skill set that would prevent you from getting paid or making better money, such as customer knowing they haave broken pipes and refusing to have them replaced and then you being sent to clean those pipes to no avail. The company does not advertise smartly and depend solely on their name and word of mouth to drum up business instead of utilizing social media or billboards or television commercials to compete with the many many local competitors who do advertise on billboards, TV and social media. This results in you being on standby more often than you would prefer which means no paid job at that time. They also choose favorites and do not train very well so for example you may not be allowed to install hot water tanks because the company has decided that only a select few people are allowed to do them which could make or break your week. The company's policy is if you don't solve the issue, the customer does not have to pay. If you have a van payment, there are going to be weeks where you literally lose money going to work. The trainers and other guys in the field are all awesome and will do what they can to help you when first starting out. The corporate structure is set up in a way to benefit the company and not the employee. Their prices are almost double that of the competition because the company is not responsible for paying you a liveable wage so you depend solely on your commission for which the customer is responsible for paying. Long and short is if you are just looking to work 40 hours and make enough money to pay your bills and spend time with your family, this is the wrong place for you. That being said, I did learn a bunch of stuff I never knew but I had to figure it out on the job. The training can only expose you to so much and the "plumbing school" they provide is not much help and not very consistent. Unless you are fortunate enough to not have a van payment, I'd suggest just going elsewhere if possible.

As a former Recruiter Coordinator at Roto-Rooter, based in the Corporate Vista Office, I have mixed feelings about my experience with the company. While I thoroughly enjoyed my job responsibilities and developed positive relationships with my coworkers and hiring managers, the overall management culture left much to be desired. It is with a heavy heart that I must express my concerns regarding the toxic work environment and the absence of a functional HR department.

One of the most glaring issues at Roto-Rooter is the lack of a functioning HR department. This absence makes it incredibly difficult for employees to seek proper guidance and support, especially when it comes to payroll matters. I witnessed the Payroll manager having to constantly call PayChex for guidance, which reflects a lack of organization and clear protocols within the company.

Perhaps the most disheartening aspect of working at Roto-Rooter is the management's response to employees who dare to voice concerns about the negative work environment or their relationship with a supervisor. Instead of offering mediation or intervention to resolve conflicts, individuals are often fired. This punitive approach not only discourages open communication but also perpetuates a culture of fear and retaliation.

The turnover rate at Roto-Rooter is alarmingly high, with 9 new hires in just 12 months during my time there. This aggressive turnover is a clear indicator of deep-rooted issues within the company. Roto-Rooter heavily relies on its brand name to sustain its business, and without it, the company would likely struggle to survive. However, relying solely on brand recognition without addressing internal problems is a short-sighted strategy that can have detrimental effects on long-term success.

The executive department's approach to problem-solving is concerning, as they often resort to offering severance agreements or terminating employees rather than addressing the underlying issues. This not only creates a culture of fear and insecurity but also fails to address the root causes of discontent within the organization.

It is important to note that Roto-Rooter has the potential to be an amazing and successful company, providing a great place for career growth. However, the current culture and work environment severely hamper the prospects of success and professional development. Addressing the toxic management culture and investing in a robust HR department with proper protocols would be essential steps towards fostering a healthier and more productive workplace.

Overall, my experience as a Recruiter Coordinator at Roto-Rooter was marked by a disheartening management culture, lack of HR support, and high turnover rates. While the company's brand name provides some stability, it is essential for Roto-Rooter to address these internal issues if it wants to truly thrive and become a place where employees can grow and succeed.

Started in 2006 as a drain tech till 2011. Went to work at another job opportunity thinking the grass was greener on the other side, spent every day thinking how Roto Rooter was better. Came back to work at Roto Rooter in 2015 as a drain tech and was quickly allowed to do plumbing after going to paid plumbing school, which Roto has in Denver, even received mileage reimbursement for the drive.
 
Since then I have been in; excavation, have a water certification, confined space certification, am a certified field trainer, field supervisor, jetting and hold a team leader position. 
 Was able to ask upper management for a career path and got the support needed to achieve my goals, with plenty of managers each specialized in one or two areas of the company, it was not hard to get the help needed.
 
 Being a team leader I help other techs in anyway they need, get answers for them regarding issues that arise as well as helping them make more money and give them opportunities to do so. 
 The work environment is that of family but if your a lone duck you will enjoy the freedom of being in your van all day without directly dealing with co workers, listening to the radio or stopping at the store in between jobs to get what you need, if you do deside to talk someone is always on the phone or hanging at the shop.

 If working a 40 hr week is what a person wants or like me work extra hrs every week, the option is there when busy. There are days when we are slower and days we extremely busy, you do have to roll with it and not fight it. Sometimes I play video games at home, clean out my van, hang out with my family or hang out with guys at the shop till another job comes in. On busy days there is one job after another.

The are competitions with incentives just for pushing a button on your phone and healthy competition among techs. Which I feed off of really well, it helps keep work fun and helps me to a higher level of performance. Also incentives for other every day things we do at work, rewarding those at the end of the year with recognition and a award, I have five in 3 years.

Will never leave Roto Rooter, it has made me the man I am today, helping families and businesses with their sanitary issues, making the world a better place. People are really happy when we can make their sewer and plumbing troubles go down the drain. Thank you Roto Rooter for being an awesome place to work and provide for my family.

They give you some tools (drain snakes, Propress, and part stock.) however, you have to buy every other tool yourself and they give you a checklist of tools you have to buy that you have to follow or you don’t go on the road on your own. Then, you have a 12 week training program and you ride along with trainers. Depending on who you ride with, you’ll either learn something or you’ll just be their monkey to get tools. Also, some of the trainers will tell you to call them if you ever have a problem on your own and when you do call, they make you feel like you’re just bothering them so you end up just not calling anymore. 
They tell you you’ll get a raise after the training program but fail to tell you that you only get the raise once you buy or finance a (white) van that has to have a partition. 
If you don’t have one by the end of the training program and you want to do service, too bad. You’ll be out the door. They don’t have vans to rent out to anyone struggling. 

The dispatch team fails to correspond and understand anything as well. For example, if you’re on one end of Pittsburgh and another tech is on the other end, instead of sending the person who is closest to the job, they’ll just send whoever the heck they want to. So, a lot of the times you’ll be passing another tech going the opposite way. 
The pay was pitiful as it’s commission only plus they’ll pay you for mileage but you need to keep track of that stuff because the cell phones and GPS they put in your van barely work. Their prices are so high (they give you a price guide) that you’ll be lucky to make any money because if the customer says no, you make nothing but mileage. Also, with the prices being so high when the customer tells you no, they expect you to now be a salesman and close the deal. So, if something in the book says $500, you can go down as low as you want but remember that you’ll make a low percentage as it is so it’s not worth your time. They’ll also “coach” you if you’re not closing on your sales. It’s intimidating and annoying. 

Also, they use your van as advertising. Even though you bought your own van, they HAVE to put their logo absolutely everywhere and when you quit, they won’t let the van that YOU purchased to leave the premises until YOU take off all of the decals that they put on. If you want to be a plumber, go elsewhere and learn the trade and have another master plumber sign off to send you to school. Unless you can afford the thousands upon thousands of dollars to start then go somewhere else. 

•	Performs as Team Leader and provides direct oversight of 86 customer service technicians for the New York, and Boston Roto-Rooter Branches.  Exceeded Branches monthly efficiency rate during 31 months of employment.
•	Identifies and reviews service orders taken by Customer Service Representatives and recommends appropriate actions to minimize deficiencies and maximize customer satisfaction and Branch efficiency.
•	Utilizes corporate protocol in decision making, when pairing the appropriate skilled service technician and job requirements. Informs service technicians of the type of work required and critical information to perform the service flawlessly. 
•	Communicates with customers to ensure appointment times are met or exceeded and eliminate avoidable delays in executing service calls.
•	Facilitates customer service training to Branches technicians /personnel.
•	Manages overflow customer service calls and ensures accurate information is entered into the AS400 computer system, driving accurately priced service orders. Oversees and maintains all records of services performed and audit job tickets (to review for deficiencies and opportunities for Branch improvements).  
•	Identifies and implements dispatching and sales opportunities to increase efficiency and customer service.  Developed a formula that increased branch revenue resulting in corporate gains of 1.4Million annually. 
•	Maintains a working efficiency rate of 6000% fostering positive working relationships with the Coordinators, Dispatch Managers, Branch Managers, and General Managers.  Handpicked to identify opportunities to improve dispatching, and sales for the branch.
•	Spear heads initiatives to execute proper allocation of personnel to maximize customer service and minimize corporate costs while overseeing Teams customer service calls.
•	Supervises Customer Service team and ensures all service calls are properly coded out before the end of each shift, reducing errors, increasing customer satisfaction, and minimizing delays in service calls.
•	Provides technical expertise to Branch and General Managers, resulting in achieving weekly sales goals of 1.54 Million.

Great place to work, with the right management. What do I mean? When I first started my employment with this company it was great to work for with support from management (Being for the workers and not the money). BE AWARE, this company is a revolving door for every position even for management. The money is great if you are willing to learn the trade and their system (The ways of earning has its pros and cons). Yes, you can earn well over 6 figures a year, but everything comes with a price. And the price you have to pay to earn that  is working 60 and sometimes 80++ hours a week, driving thousand+ of miles to customers house every week, and working physically/mentally non stop 5 days a week (Did I say 5? I meant 7 days, but those 2 other days you are "off"). You have to put this position into another perspective. It's your business, you just wear the name. The company's system is setup like a 1099 contractor position, but you are a W-2 employee. There are many many Pros to this company, but there are many many Cons. As with any other company. When I left, management was completely different. Even the General Manager (Number 13-14 GM in 20 years). This new  era   of management was about the money and what went into their pockets unfortunately. Gaslight it all you want as they will do to you, but sign up today and find out! Downfalls - Buying own van/fuel to fit the position. No fuel reimbursement after your last job (Could be 100 miles away from home with no pay). No home life. Even though I said you work a lot of hours, they do have slow downs and sometime you are lucky to get 2 jobs a week (you are commissioned and paid per job) this can lead to a $100 or less pay check. Just make sure you are financially secured for these weeks. When the wrong management comes in to chase their bonuses, you are retrained and forced to become a salesman and not a plumber. Just imagine a Burger King manager taking over and telling a full skilled trade/licensed plumber how to do his or her job. The list goes on about this company on its down falls. The good outweigh the bad and this is the reason I gave 5 stars. I don't think the company's name deserves less than 5 stars because if upper cooperate discovered some of their practices "loop holes", there would be a whole new management system for this branch the next day. 

typical day started with going in in the morning and tidying up the office, then being assigned to a plumber to assist with for the day or at least a portion of it. What you end doing in the field varied from simply auguring an easily excessible waterline, to jack hammering through asphalt to replace a few feet of piping, to replacing and installing rooftop air conditioners, or just doing a minor fix on a sink or toilet. However as a helper you're probably only doing physical labor or just kind of there while your more experienced partner does technical work like fixing fixtures or installing new fixture. For the most part a learned a small portion of technical plumbing and how to use some machinery like a small backhoe and augur. Management for the most part was pretty distant from any of my work so I don't really have much of an opinion about it. The co-workers were for the most part fine however there is a certain malaise and sense of apathy to a lot of them which made me realize that most of them probably didn't want to be doing this job, but whatever choices they had made had simply lead them here, I found it made the job feel kind of depressing and sad to be honest. Hardest part is the physical labor which although not constant every once in awhile can be a real nightmare, as mentioned before one job consisted of jack hammering through concrete, then shoveling through a layer of dirt and gravel until the 3 or 4 foot deep pipe was clearly exposed then once properly replaced filling the hole back up and loading the leftover chunks of asphalt into a trailer, so they could be properly discarded at a dump the next day. This process started at around 7 or 8 in the morning and was done around 6 or 7 in the evening. Although most weren't like this, this and a few more situations made the job very difficult to see worth keeping having only gotten paid minimum wage. Most enjoyable part was easily lunches which provided much need breaks in between the days that were heavy with physical labor.

I don't know where to start.

As a collections representative we have the hardest job and no one will listen to us. If you are a female, watch out, as the men are favored and will never be at fault for being behind on their work.

Sales reps consistently tell customers their job is covered and then the customer has water limits, policy caps, or full denials from no coverage and we are expected to get payment to hit our goal. it takes one account to not hit your goal. We have to deal with angry customers who were told incorrectly and then send them to collections no matter their age or reason. Some Gm's will give discounts for their branches and others won't so negotiating is slim to none when handling accounts to collect from the customer. The company doesn't care about the customers and only want profit. Infact they recently are changing stuff on the Xactimate to make certain items cost more, and this is against IIRC standards , and insurance companies are requesting breakdowns for these new line items and we are denying them that. If insurance doesn't pay we collect any balance leftover from the customer. What a scam!

Bonuses: They changed every year where we made less and less to this past year where i will be surprised if anyone hits the new matrix given to the employees.  You have to maintain less than 1% bad debt compared to sales that come in for the year and your money is based on a percentage of what you collect only if you hit. 1% is no errors, or a very low account that you couldn't collect on. 

Management: Very micromanaged. They say you can do your own thing but it is constant emails asking about accounts, weekly updates and meetings about why you didn't do this or that, and write-ups if you aren't touching your accounts fast enough, however, you are good if you are a guy and will rarely get in trouble for being behind. 

Covid-19 Impact: They refuse to keep a clean environment(in fact they cut the cleaning crew because of budget cuts), they don't provide correct sized masks, and they allow people with symptoms to come in to work.  

I've worked here since 2018, This job requires you to have you buy your van and the tools required to start out,keep in mind you have to get a cargo van that is less than 10 years old and they are around $10,000 and you have to buy around $2,000-$4,000 that is just basic tools and even then there are specialty tools that are $500 by themselves. If you are good at sales and can fix problems at a decent pace you can easily make the money to pay it back within the year but starting with it you only get 13  weeks at ~$14 to train and your out on the road,It can be very daunting and it is a sink or swim. When the work is there it's good but if your start during slow periods you are basically done for. The way this company is set up it is for established plumbers but if you are willing to risk it,it is rewarding. I have learned a lot from my wonderful coworker since everyone tries to help one another since everyone has started like that. The thing the would make me quit is the problems of not getting money from leads on excavations that I gave the cameramen and the current GM from atlanta we have and the dispatch that gives us our job. He is trying to crack down on extra compensation when it comes to excavation work that we have to deal with that is out of our control even when it is not in the bid,some salesman don't want to increase the price of excavation jobs when we uncover more problems and taking away stuff that our previous GM provided like plumbing, maintenance, and cleaning supplies.I can sell and I have made it back quickly but I will not be doing excavation work they have me do if I'm not properly compensated. I would be much happier if the gm would provide us with the equipment and supplies the previous gm did and he did not try maximize earnings through reducing our money flow. I like the company and my coworkers but the way the gm is running this I might transfer to another branch or work for another company.

If you are mentally inclined  and really good with people this would be a great job to start from. Now I absolutely love my job and really would not want to leave  but there's only a few things that would make me want to leave.  Roto-Rooter has great benefits as far as 401(k) health insurance, and almost every other insurance you can think of. Now The few things I disagree on our raises, referrals and,l The few things I disagree on our raises, referrals, and lack of care for the workers.  Now all the managers are very nice to you and make it seem like they would do anything for you, but then again I haven't seen anything that they have done for the workers.  You start off at 20% commission and you can only top out at 26%. If you could top out at about 30 it may be a different story because then I would love to stay.  I feel like one of the managers at Roto Rooter is trying to take more money away from the actual techs and put in Roto Rooter's  pocket,  such as the referrals. You were able to get $100 for any excavation that sold now you only get 3% of the excavation.  I feel like if Roto Rooter would pay their techs better  and pay them what they are worth they would have good employees that do good work and bring good revenue.  Also the new people that they bring in need to be trained properly and do not need to go out on the road until the trainer feels comfortable with it. Putting these people that do not know what they are doing on the road  creates more callbacks and sales lost.  Now there are only a select few of techs  that were sent out three months after training that do very well and do very good work but unfortunately some people cannot grasp that plumbing knowledge to know what they're doing and they are still sent out on the road.  Roto Rooter should  do some calculation on percentages. Pay an  apprentice  20% commission, pay journeyman 25% commission, and pay master plumbers 30% commission maybe we could get some good hard-working people to work for us that bring really good revenue and weed out the bad techs. I do not see a reason why we cannot raise the percentages that way if everyone is meeting quota.

Working at ROTO ROOTER PLUMBING & WATER CLEANUP: Company Overview and Reviews

ROTO ROOTER PLUMBING & WATER CLEANUP

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