custodian

technician

customer service representative

floor technician

day porter

SBM Management Services

The management at the Genentech site was the worst management I have ever worked with. 
One thing I didn't like was how they were disorganized and very uncommunicative.
Another thing that really upset me was that they said they had healthcare and dental but it TAKES SO LONG to get those benefits that it isn't worth it and I got screwed. Originally before I was hired as a temp (you usually have to start as a temp for a long time and even after you are hired on you have to wait a long time to be eligible for benefits) I was told it would be something like 8 months before I would qualify, but it ended up taking over a year to get any healthcare or dental care. After my temp period and I was hired with the company, I never got any information about benefits at all. I kept trying to get hold of people to get some basic information and find out when and where to sign up but I couldn't even get a response from the management (there was no supervisor on my shift for me to talk to and when I asked some coworkers they said they didn't know). Every other full-time job I've had gave me a packet or a website with all the health and dental information I could need on the first day I started, and eligibility benefits started after 30 days. So despite working full-time for this company, I couldn't access some health and dental services that I needed, and spent almost a year living in pain from a dental problem.
There were two days that I worked I didn't get paid fort. They also never reimbursed me for over $50 for work boots I had to buy. 
I didn't often ask for time off, when twice when I did my request was denied, including the time I asked for my birthday off and I gave them plenty of notice, and I think they just lost the paperwork.
I don't think that there was very much opportunity for growth or advancement for a lot of people, but personally I didn't mind that because I wasn't interested in advancement, I was just looking for an easy job with steady hours while I focused on school and family.
Overall, a lot of the people (not everybody but a number of people), both leads and coworkers, were extremely unfriendly. From the very first week, when I was new and supposed to be training with people, most of the people I worked with literally did not speak to me and it was just awkward and weird. There were some people I met there who I really enjoyed working with and were very kind and helpful but there were also some other people who were just really mean. Having to deal with some very mean people made me very anxious and depressed and that affected my ability to do the job well. There was one lead who kept yelling at me when I was new about having an assigned training that was marked as overdue, when I told him repeatedly that I had checked my training online and I had completed all the readings and the only thing left was an in-person "classroom training" that wasn't going to be held for a couple of weeks and I even showed him on the computer before I left one day and he just said okay and when I arrived to start my next shift he yelled at me and asked if I'd done the training.
I was also on numerous occasions told to clean the lockers, which was by far the worst job, right before break time (which was only at the very end of the shift) so I didn't get any break time while my coworkers did. If it happened only once I wouldn't complain, but it happened repeatedly and it made me very uncomfortable.
I got the impression that there was a considerable amount of turnover with employees and when I started I got the impression that they didn't even want to bother training me and they just assumed that somebody like me wouldn't want to stay at that job. 
Overall, I did not mind the work itself because it was mostly just mopping. I thought the job itself was a good fit for me but some of the leads and the managers were so bad that I was feeling really depressed and felt that I had to quit and that was a difficult decision because the work itself and the schedule were good for me and I was okay with the low pay, but it was just a very toxic environment that I was forced to quit but I'm much happier working for a different company at a different pharmaceutical plant. The job was good but I felt like horrible as an employee there. 
Honestly, SBM was the worst company and environment I have ever worked for. 

I’ve never written a negative job review before, but I feel obligated to in this case to try to help my fellow job applicants. DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT get a job here. (especially as an MIT). The company culture that they endorse is that you should give up your life for the company, even if you don’t get a pay raise or promotion. You can tell the MIT program targets recent college grads with little to no work experience, and SBM purposefully makes this job enticing to 1) gain work experience 2) give extensive “training” to people without experience and 3) have a seemingly high/competitive pay.  However, do not fall for it because it will end up being a waste of your time where you could have spent getting experience elsewhere in a legitimate company. 

First, the starting salary is high because they do not give pay raises when you’re promoted from an MIT to a site manager. They may increase it to offset the cost of living if you are moved to an expensive area, but not a true pay raise is given. I’ve never heard of or experienced a company that would not give you a pay raise with a promotion and an increase in work. 

They hire a lot of MITs, so they’re quick to fire you for any reason. Be prepared to have NO job security while working here. 

Also, they will lie to you during the hiring process. I think this is because the company as a whole has poor communication across their departments, so the recruiters never know the realities/expectations of the job you’re hiring into. For example, during interviewing multiple MITs and myself were told that  travel is not required especially if you’re in a situation where you have a family, mortgage, or you’re in school. We were also told that if you are relocated, they will work with you to relocate you to an area that works with you. However, this is not true. They require EXTENSIVE travel (and for people to travel at a moments notice), even if you have a family/ kids/school/house in your home state that prevent you from moving AND they will hold it against you (fire you) if you cannot travel. They also do NOT work with you on where you are permanently relocated to. In addition to this, I was also told by multiple employees at the company that if you have a family and you value your family time over working and traveling, then you won’t go far in the company. And from my experiences/observations, this is true. 

The company as a whole is also very disjointed and this leads to people on the operations side of things having unrealistic demands placed on them by senior leadership / upper management who do not understand the realities of operations. It’s also very hard to feel or get any support as the company is quick to place blame on mid-level employees when things go wrong and fire them instead of actually looking into what caused these failures to happen. 

The MIT program also does not do anything to prepare you for your role. The MIT program is run by people who never went through the program themselves for site management, or even work in operations. Therefore, they  tend to give you information that isn’t even applicable to how a site really runs.

Another thing that this company does is  place unrealistic expectations (with no additional support given) on people to be able to perform jobs that they are not qualified to perform. And when their employees inevitably do not do well, SBM will blame them for these failures and fire them. 

I was also told that SBM works with people to move them into other roles within the company that may interest them and that “MITs go on to hold top level positions in the company”. However, this is not true. Multiple MITs were fired from the MIT program because they expressed interest (like we were told we could do) in moving to other departments besides operations.

I have to stress that you will have NO job security here when working in management and you will be hard pressed to get an increase in pay (even if you’re given more responsibilities and a job title promotion).  

I worked in SBM management for nearly a year, and it's a frustrating place to work. They are a contractor for janitorial and maintenance services, and mostly focus on large industrial companies. In Wichita, that is aerospace. Being a contractor in these situations is rough, as both sides (customer and internally) have their hands in your business and try to control your management, leaving you vulnerable and without clear direction. The customer usually also has a poor image for your work, looking down on the "cleaning service", sadly just being part of the industry. People think of cleaning and maintenance services as very low class and un-respectable. Their average management turnover is high nationwide, and my site had seen 5 different managers in 2 years. They pay well (also provide a good cell phone, tablet, and laptop to management), especially for if you don't have much experience, but it's for a reason. They get as much as they can out of you, and move on to the next candidate. Much of SBM's practices are more of a handicap or hindrance than a supportive tool, and they also focus too much on data tracking through their SBM Insite tool. They expect you to manage more than 10 people per manager, and track EVERYTHING you do through their data tool (which the customer doesn't really care about). It's a good learning experience, enforces micromanagement and technology as a business resource, but is taken too far. And when everything they ask you to do takes you away the actual customer's work, they have no support and throw you under the bus (saw at multiple sites). Many of the people I worked with were enjoyable, humble, hard working people. But it's janitorial, so many speak poor if any English or have minimal education (may sound bad, but it's the truth). The hours can be flexible, but being a salaried member means you stay until the job gets done. Also, weekends are often worked, because if there is a water leak or maintenance issue over the weekend, managers HAVE to respond and go to the site. I brought some issues to our regional management, about many things just not being sustainable, and what we can do to realistically improve, and was turned down. This lead to a completely unannounced write-up, and quick termination for "performance issues", even though our site standards had improved since my arrival and our site had met quarterly bonus standards every time. There is a lot of management politics, and politics with the customer, which becomes exhausting. Too many people try to play games with your business, and acting as the mortar between the bricks (SBM and the customer), site management takes the pressure and blame from both (hence the high turnover). Some sites are better than others, but many of these issues I know to be universal across the company. Many managers have their personal lives and marriages stressed under this job, which accounts for as many resignations as SBM will fire. Overall, it is possible to be a good learning experience, and resume builder, but not a very sustainable career. Merely a stepping stool to another job, and with overall management and employee turnover, apparently SBM sees it that way as well.

At first, I felt okay about the job; I had a good first day, the manager, assistant manager, and facility manager were great to have in terms of support and professionalism.
Then on day two and three, I was placed with co-workers that had little training experience to the extent it was difficult to learn very well. On the second day of the little to no experience trainer was training  me , I began to sense this almost antagonistic approach to me, as though they viewed me as a threat instead of a team member. Mind you this is a janitor job. Not a surgeon position. Anyways Any time I would ask any questions, some of them showed an obvious nature of annoyance, and the feeling in the air became short and uncomfortable. I felt so uncomfortable. I ended up quitting  on the third day , but after talking to the manger she agreed to arrange some things so I can feel more comfortable in the setting. Because as she said that company doesn’t condone negativity. I agreed to return and it was going good. Then quickly it felt their gossip has spread. I didn’t care at first. One policy in particular contributed to this culture: the reporting program. Employees were encouraged to report even small mistakes made by coworkers for example, leaving keys on the counter in exchange for a financial reward of around $150. Instead of promoting accountability, this program fostered mistrust, encouraged employees to watch each other for errors, and created an unhealthy, competitive atmosphere. Seems to be they rather have working robots who are perfectionist, and stuff like that only creates a toxic environment. Because beware a human make a mistake. I just laughed about it because of how did that cringy program even came to mind.  Anyways 
While I do believe the management team was respectful and professional, the upset mostly came from the facility lead. The facility lead constantly engaged in chatting gossip and social talking about co-workers.  On my first day she was gossiping to me about the new coworker that started two days before me.People like that create such a toxic environment. In fact,
But, it was clear to me that the culture was missing professionalism and confidentiality. Once, I called out for a family emergency, and came back to just find the facility lead telling many co-workers my personal business. Like why is y and z asking about my grandma ! 
I had enough, and after three weeks. I know my worth, and I have managed to find a better paying job in which I feel appreciated.


I believe the facility would have greatly benefitted from better leadership at the lead level, meaning an individual who showed professionalism, did not participate in gossip, and treated all employees equally rather than having favorites. When that type of leader is available, the facility would be healthy as a business, and I more than likely would have remained employed. The SBM manager, assistant manager, and facility manager were all very good leaders with very supportive, positive, and hard-working intentions. When a facility lead can act unprofessional, it undermines their accomplishments and efforts to have a positive or healthy work environment.


Both in my position as area manager and my previous experiences as a multiple building facilities manager, I have extensive expertise in operational responsibilities. I have been particularly effective in increasing profitability, growing revenues and managing costs. My experience is diverse; I have worked with Fortune 500 companies, as well as, small businesses. My strengths include general administration, vendor management, strategic planning, service development and its implementation. I have demonstrated expertise in building management teams that value cross-functional working relationships. 

From the day to day line level or upper management concerns to the larger scale disasters I am well versed in handling multiple problems thrown at me at the same time. On a larger scale example, my primary client in 2010 was faced with a large building flood. Unlike other floods in the building this placed an estimated 4’ of water in the lower level of the building. The storm came during the evening and the severity of the storm put most of the buildings management, engineering, custodial and security teams off site and unable to reach the building. All members of management coordinated to dispatch closer staffing to report to the building to secure the area and start clean up. Once the storm started to pass all staffing reported on site and coordinated a massive effort to bring the building back to a usable and stable level well before the start of business the following morning. 

The biggest challenge I was faced with going into my previous position was twofold. I had never worked in an environment where I would have staffing in a union. I spent the better part of the first year negotiating and struggling to build a relationship with the local union house and staff. Once the local house and staffing understood and accepted my business plan and knew that I was a highly ethical and fair business person there was never a single grievance placed at any of my sites for the remainder of my term. The second struggle was EHS I had a background in EHS as a facilities manager but not to the level which was required for my new role. I not only took the initiative to educate and train myself but also to build an on-site safety program to the level where I was invited by corporate EHS to join their team to assist my area on a regional and divisional level. 

The core of my experience and training is in facilities management and facilities related services. I would prefer to remain in this area as I find it very rewarding personally and professionally.

This was by far the worst company I have ever worked for.

I was hired as a Custodial Supervisor but quickly found myself performing the duties of a Site Manager without the title, compensation, training, or support. I routinely worked both shifts, covered weekends for months at a time, handled employee relations issues, managed customer concerns, coordinated operations, and served as the primary point of contact for the client.

Despite repeatedly stepping up to support the business, leadership consistently failed to provide adequate training, staffing, or work-life balance. Management acknowledged that I had not been properly trained and discussed opportunities such as the Manager in Training program and future advancement, yet none of those opportunities ever materialized.

Communication from leadership was poor and often inconsistent. Employee concerns, safety concerns, and operational issues were frequently pushed aside. Decisions seemed to change without explanation, and transparency was virtually nonexistent.

I also witnessed significant inconsistency in how employees and managers were treated. Some individuals were reassigned, transferred, or given additional opportunities when problems arose, while others were not afforded the same consideration.

The workload was excessive, expectations were unrealistic, and support from upper management was minimal. It often felt as though the success of the operation depended on frontline supervisors carrying responsibilities well beyond their roles without the resources necessary to succeed.

What ultimately stood out most was the lack of communication, accountability, and respect shown to employees. After dedicating significant time and effort to the operation, I was left with the impression that employees were viewed as expendable rather than valued contributors.

The only positive aspect of the job was the relationships I built with many of the employees and customers. They made an otherwise difficult experience bearable.

I would not recommend this company to anyone seeking a supportive work environment, meaningful career development, consistent leadership, or a healthy work-life balance.

The good parts of the job were free food, Wi-Fi, good coworkers, decent benefits, and allowed earbuds, so you could watch shows and listen to music during the shift as long as you did your work. The work was also pretty simple. I had a very good manager toward the end who provided us with plenty of materials and communicated with us very well. Also plenty of I.T. workers and maintenance contractors to network with if you're interested in leaving the company for another field.

That's the end of the positives. The work was TOO simple; no fulfilling training of more serious janitorial equipment or procedures like waxing/stripping like you should know as a custodian. Just basic wiping, sweeping, mopping, and demoralizing simple training videos.

The facility management that contracts SBM will micro-manage SBM employees into the ground, and is a big reason people left. There were some that made you feel beneath them and reported every single infraction rather than just correct you themselves.

The pay was not fair or considerate for it being such a well-off site. Years ago the building owner's obligated every contract company to pay $15/hr minimum to all their employees. SBM stayed at $15 for years without raises while all the companies around us renegotiated contracts, even though SBM was forced to come in during days even the guards and office workers had off.

While the office workers got to work from home for over a year, SBM and the guards were still forced to attend an empty building. SBM employees were micro-managed for cleaning an empty building that you could actually only dust. It was very demotivating, especially when we were restricted from leaving to get lunch, and restricted from using services that Google allowed all contractors to use, like laundry and the gym. (Yes it's a Google site).

For a while we had a district manager managing our building manager, her sister, as if that wasn't a conflict of interest. So any disputes with the lower level manager didn't usually go anywhere or were always favored on their side.

The last thing you would want to do is take anything that happens to you as a manager with SBM personally. It is like riding 2 horses, pulling in opposite directions, at the same time. 

The projects are under-bid, meaning you can easily become a scapegoat for either the client or SBM (most likely both). You will not have the resources to get the job done, and your time will not be respected. Long days are a fact of life for managers in 2015, but why does this mean a late night can't be started by a later start the next day? Why can't you know in advance when it's not an emergency?

Ok, I guess it's a start in facility management for those who are really interested.  There are also large, prestigious accounts, but taking this job in an effort to eventually work for the client will result in disappointment, once the client understands how SBM operates.

Training is sorely lacking. You have 1 shot to learn everything, and you probably will not realize it at the time.  HR support is not much better for any situation you might encounter in service industry management. There are a few isolated nice people at corporate, and it really catches you off guard when you encounter one of them.

Expect 1980's style screaming and yelling from regional management and above, without anything constructive to help you solve issues. Managing 25 people is like managing 125, trying to give custodians 5 different routes per week, to compensate for understaffing.

Especially watch out if you are not bilingual. You may be hired to produce the fairly sophisticated reports and for client relations, but directing those who don't speak English is VERY hard for most people.  Yes, a few have succeeded, but the odds are highly unfavorable, especially if you are in a union environment.

Only other thing I'd add is that this is evidently a really difficult industry.  I checked a few competitors, and found plenty of similar miserable experiences at all levels.

The biggest issue with SBM is the horrendously horrible management. Their great plan was to cut the workforce in half and double the work, and then complain the work wasn't getting done and they didn't care about any reasoning behind it, they assumed it was excuses and you weren't working. Then they cut the workforce in half again and still questioned why work wasn't getting done. Within 9 months they were already on their 3rd site manager. On top of that, there would be managers from other areas that would come in and micromanage the job. The worst part was that there was absolutely no communication between any of them. Not to mention the constant barrage of insults about if they spend 2 minutes walking through a 150,000 square foot building and they don't see you, they begin to yell at you for not working. The managers have the rule of thumb to take credit for everything good and blame all the bad on everyone else. The amount of times I heard, "it's out of our control." or "it's  not coming from us." is ridiculous.
The orientation is filled with lies, they claim that they care about the employees and will tell you about all these benefits and perks to working for the company and then when you try to follow up on the perks they say that they are optional based on if the manager thinks you deserve it. Spoiler, you never do. The company does not care about any of the employees, they will fire you for any reason they can find. Then they require you to pick up the slack and help at other buildings and then get yelled at for not getting your work done because you were working to help others.
I think the worse part was when I got manager approval to take a week vacation and two days in I get called asking if I'm coming back to work or if I quit. I had to show a screenshot of the text where I got manager approval and even then the manager seemed not happy. When I got back, I found out that the manager had no one cover for me and I got yelled at for not cleaning while I was on vacation.
Basically if you like to be constantly on edge on whether your gonna have a job tomorrow and enjoy being treated poorly, then this is the company for you.

After accepting a position as an assistant operations manager, I was told how much opportunity there would be to relocate to desirable areas and in a field in line with my passions and strengths.
The assistant ops. manager position was another name for training program and a fluffier title which meant recent college graduate. The alleged 4-month training program had virtually no formalized direction and I was either cleaning cubilces with entry level custodians or sitting in an office w/out any instruction and nothing to do.

After expressing my desire to take on more responsibility, I was blind sided with a visit to another site and offered a job on the spot in middle management. I expressed my desire for the job if the increase in responsibility corresponded to the salary adjustment and after countless promises that it would without any metrics to prove my worth, I was given the run-around between who to reconcile the matter with. Management's philosophy does not take kind to those who are assertive, question their peers and think outside the box. New hires are typically left in the dark and only learn through trial and error.

The coworkers are a pleasure to work with and management has some bright, competent employees but there is no work life balance and the salaries are substantially lower than the average rate of pay for a job in the building maintenance industry.

The job isn't very hard as long as you manage your time well, are organized, and strive at building relationships. What I've learned is to stand up for what you believe in, regardless of what management thinks. Additionally, know that anything said publicly will eventually make it's way to everyone else.

The most enjoyable part of the job is working with the customers because SBM does partner w/ several fortune 100 and 500 companies.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Custodian 4797 salaries reported	$17.01 per hour
Technician 839 salaries reported	$18.03 per hour
Customer service representative 755 salaries reported	$17.51 per hour
Floor technician 607 salaries reported	$17.98 per hour
Day porter 158 salaries reported	$17.11 per hour

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