outside sales representative

customer service representative

manager in training

inside sales representative

inside sales

Spec-Building-Materials

I have called SPEC Building Materials home for many years now. While I have many, many things to say the most important are a declining culture, a poor sales structure and the work itself. 

Prior to this past year, I recommended employment at SPEC to any and all who might ask. However, recently corporate has allowed the safety officer in Kansas City to destroy any mutual trust that previously existed within the company. Driver’s every move is now monitored with an artificial intelligence dash camera. This decision, made to save on insurance costs, will prove a poor one in the long run. Losing quality drivers will in turn result in a loss of accounts; while it is the office’s job to acquire an account, it ultimately falls upon the driver to keep an account by proving SPEC’s superiority to competitors. Competitors who already hold majority share of the market. Turning your drivers into submissive steering wheel holders is antithetical to the qualities a driver needs to accomplish this. To say the least, this decision was a slap in the face to the drivers who have operated safely, efficiently, and (last but not least) made you money for years. 

The sales structure of SPEC is poor in two ways primarily. SPEC’s sales structure does not encourage cooperation between SPEC branches. So much so, that one branch will drive 100 miles to do a single delivery in another branch’s backyard. 
Secondly, the structure of how customer accounts remain allocated to salesmen is broken. If no or little material has been sold to an account in the past year(s), the account should be fair game. A salesman should not be able to have a monopoly on accounts when nothing is being done to secure the customer’s business. This single policy is inhibiting growth and is detrimental to the company’s future. 

Lastly, the work itself. The work is hard, labor intensive, downright terrible sometimes. I’ve always said, it’s kind of like getting paid to workout. Despite this, I loved it. My coworkers and I were always able to find camaraderie in just how bad it could suck at times. The redeeming quality of employment at SPEC has always been the lack of micromanagement and the freedom that came with being on the road. However, I can no longer say this. It’s truly a shame. 

Typical day:
Clock in. Pretrip truck. Strap down truck while helpers stand around drinking coffee instead of strapping down while you're doing the pretrip. Head to the job site; if it's new construction hope you recognize the location or the dispatcher actually included the intersection, because you use Google Maps and new construction will frequently not be in there and it'll send you to entirely different neighborhoods or towns because the dispatcher doesnt doublecheck anything. Get yelled at for taking too long putting materials on roofs that are dangeous to walk on and not taking a lunch break to try and be done to go home at a decent time. Get yelled at for not fueling up on the way back, right after getting yelled at for taking too long. Be prepared to do all the work if you want it done right and someties still get in trouble for your crew doing stuff you can't see because you're on the ground instead of the roof.

Honestly, general manager is generally a great person but uninvolved with crews except when dispatcher is gone. Dispatcher is primary issue.  Working here mostly wouldn't be an issue if someone else had that job. Considers self top dog despite being equal to us, will give the worst loads to people for months on end because of personal dislike for things like political views. 80+% of company is leaving or is trying to leave to get away from the dispatcher.

Very unprofessional work environment with  little team building skills. The manager doesn’t do a good job on keeping his team happy or work environment friendly.  Would rather say “ we don’t come to work to make friends “ very toxic work environment. This company needs management help. If you’re applying for a class A job you will be driving a class B vehicle and the whole Commerce City, Co fleet of trucks are all defective and unsatisfactory to operate the trucks are always overweight and you always run that risk of getting a ticket for being overweight or driving a defective vehicle everyday. Ultimately this company doesn’t really care about their employees there’s little to none opportunity’s that can help you advance your career. There’s no bonuses or incentives that will make you want to keep doing your job. Unlike other companies this is definitely  by far the worst company I’ve ever worked for in my 10 years of my roofing career.

Cons:

Job is really hard, summer is 10x worse. 
High dehydration risk.
Bad payment for the kind of job.
Truck driver get paid $22/hour
Helper get paid $18/hour
Annual raise is less than 0.50 cents.
If you ask for a raise, get ready for a "NO".
Work environment is horrible. 
Gossip culture.
Employees are always unsatisfied. 
Employees are always arguing and gossiping. 
Health insurance is bad.
Trucks are without maintenance. 
They pressure you to drive trucks that would never pass a inspection if you get pulled over.
Company doesn't give you boots to walk on the roof, if you wanna feel a little bit more safe doing this job, you have to buy your own cougar paw boots which costs around $350.
If you get hurt at work, they're gonna encourage you not to use work compensation.
It takes some time to start receiving some benefits as insurances and 401k. 
Paid time off after 1 year working they give you 40 hours.

Pros:

Boss doesn't bother you unless you do something wrong. 
Overtime every day.







The lack of teamwork in this company is astounding. It took corporate six months to offer me the job and I never met anyone in the branch prior to accepting the position. Soon after beginning, I learned that the people in the branch never wanted anyone in my position in the first place - straight from the branch managers mouth. They will talk a good game about a collaborative “family” like atmosphere. Don’t be fooled. Corporate is entirely disconnected from the happenings in the branches and interactions between team members are frequently hostile. I can genuinely say that working at SPEC was the biggest mistake and waste of time in my career. I can’t discourage anyone from working here more strongly. 

Finally, to be as fair as possible, the owner (Mel Stevenson) did seem to be a genuinely good guy and there were a few different people in corporate that were the rare bright spot of working here.

Worked at round rock location in Texas 
This location has basically all brand new equipment and guaranteed you 50-52 hour a week downside though was the wages didn’t necessarily match with the amount of labor you have to do especially for a cdl driver ! And the bi weekly pay doesn’t help the cause , management at this location was easy to work with but the roof loads were to much ….. I’m talking 5 houses a day ! By the third house your arms are completely gone 
You also don’t really have a clear path to a raise either which ended up being the reason why I left 
If your looking for a solid paycheck monday- Friday cool this works but if you , but you’ll quickly realize the hard labor for the pay isn’t necessarily worth it longer than 6 months to a year 
Hope this helps future drivers in the future !

Everything is closely micromanaged to the point of insanity. Equipment is expected to NEVER break down. Not if but when the equipment breaks down it's always the fault of the driver. They have absolutely no appreciation of any employee in the entire company. The only one that ever gets any kind of "Good job" or anything at all said in a positive manner is the branch manager. They have NO kind of bonus or anything like that to promote something positive and motivate the employees. The ones who sweat are the ones that are disrespected the most. The only one who gets any kind of appreciation is of course the branch manager. Imagine that huh. The management makes it very clear that you are very replaceable at any moment.

They were good in the beginning and the pay was OK could’ve been better. Promise overtime but barely hit 40.managers are just terrible people. Hypocrites they act like they care, but in the end, they really don’t I was sick and had to take a couple days off and they took away my earned PTO and vacation time. I was left broke. because the manager wanted to get into his feelings, what a shame for a man of military background. Everyone else I worked with. It was cool except the managers complained to corporate office and they were on the manager side and did not care. I warn anybody who is applying here do it temporarily if you need to get out because they’ll do the worse to you… their hearts are cold

Depending on what Orlando branch you work at management is okay but for the most mart laid back and hands off. Your dispatcher may send you to some houses not suitable to load using the truck they send but you get told to do it anyways. Pay is okay with a starting of $18 but raises suck. It is physically demanding, you have to lift roofing material weighing  on average ~70lbs, up to a few hundred times a day. If you have bad knees or back this job is not for you. Very diverse workplace culture but everyone gets along with each other. You can get ~55hrs a week with OT being payed at 1.5x, as long as you keep busy in the warehouse after your runs are done

Once you are finally hired at Spec Building Materials... ( which takes entirely too long than any job should) 
You are stuck in that position...There is No opportunity for growth and career advancement. 
Ideas are basically overlooked and or ignored by management. 
This is a company that refuses to close for an inventory count, and they expect their employees to work a full 10.5 hr day and stay as long as it takes to count.
Spec Building Materials also only pays 8 hrs for holidays when evey average day is 10.5 hrs.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Outside sales representative 37 salaries reported	$72,635 per year
Customer service representative 8 salaries reported	$65,000 per year
Manager in training 23 salaries reported	$70,978 per year
Inside sales representative 7 salaries reported	$64,286 per year
Inside sales 22 salaries reported	$65,227 per year

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