Working at Sis — Reviews by Employees

It is interesting to see the emotions several techs have taken to the comments of a disgrutled ex-employee. As one of the newer additions to the staff I would like to say :

As a tech having basic qualifications is one thing, but in order to be on top of your trade and the rapid changes that occur in post education, you need to keep updating both your taught skills and your teaching and communication skills with the client. Staying on top of new techniques and thinking in your trade means not just taking courses where needed, but also reading up and staying in touch with others in your field (the Internet can help a lot with this!).

If one is serious about being a tech then you really need to take it as being your key focus; Especially take great care to stay on top of key areas. These resultsdo require extra work on a tech on there own time.

I have worked in the industry for over a decade and this company is a solid company, as are most I have worked for. An individual who speaks of others (co-workers and the like) in such a disrespectful nature does not deserve our attention. Even with my response I am feeding his needed for attention, however my present co-workers deserve the respect of qualified professionals.

seems we have a bit of a comment thread going here. I figure I should address some of the BS I have been reading.

First off, i was never given any oppertunity to "shape up" as one poster commented. The only performance issue i was advised of was "some people find you hard to work with". Doesn't surprise me as I was dealing with a project that had floundered for YEARS before I came along. Decisions had to be made or the work wouldn't have gotten done. Dispite my repeated requests, no details or examples were EVER given and when I talked to my clients, they were unaware that there was even an issue at all!. As for your accusations of drug use, not ever was i even accused of such things. Not once, not ever. If that was the reason I was let go, congrats! you just gave me grounds to sue!

As for the accusation of "cronic lateness", unfortunatly the person writing the comment wasn't present when we did all the hard work to build the network in the first place. He has no real idea how many hours went into the project. The network engineer and I worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for over 6 months. Work we were never paid for, I might add. It is also hard to be "late" for work when you set your own hours. Considering that, on average you only work 6.5 hours a day (8:30 - 4:00 with an hour lunch) and I worked at least 8 every day, he is obviously talking out his neither regions and needs a slap upside the head.

very defensive posts, none of which address the issues i raised... interesting. As for the sis tech...don't make me laugh. Always nice to hear that the computer expert has to "figure out" ie learn, how to do their job on the client's dime!

I'm not really writing about the company as much as talking about a review posting. Another coworker told me to read this and nothing has pissed me off more than to read a review posted by an old coworking. His complaint with the company is nothing that I have experienced so I can not or will not comment. But what he wrote about the other techs in the company is just wrong! He is making the rest of us sound like monkey's with popsicle sticks. We were not wondering around looking for rewards when or if we did something right and hoping for the training to teach us something. We work hard to learn and do are job, we might not always know every solution but we will damn well figure it out. We were not taking his training like ducks to water (his words); He wouldn't know how to mentor if it kicked him in the ass. He was a self absorbed, attention deficite, marginal tech at best. We work independently at SIS but this guy needs his ego stroked and no one would stroke an ego here, if we wanted to work with kids we would have been pre school teachers. Work enviroments are shaped by your coworkers and in this case clients, both will continue to change, move on when you can no longer work with others or are no longer getting anything out of your job, life is to short to be such an ass. We all travel to our sites and this guy traveled from his apartment to a desk in the westend, he had no touch on reality, it pisses me off to read he even got a car allowance.

The guy that wrote the review below was the reason for his own failure. I'm working at the place that he was contracted to. They (not SIS) wanted him gone in the worst way. The guy was chronically late for work, missed appointments, and a pain to deal with. The clients hated him and said that wanted someone else. I know he will blame everyone else, but I was told that he was given opportunites to shape up, but he was too concerned with making helicopters rather than working. The final straw came when it was known that he was a habitual pot smoker and the CEO found out. The CEO wanted him out, not SIS.

The partners at this company have a serious problem with honesty. I should have known that there would be an issue when one of the concerns that was brought up when I was hired was their worry about my insistence on purchasing software and my lack of tolerance to pirated software in enterprise environments.

When I was brought in, SIS was about to loose the Health Canada contract completely. Techs were responding to 3 or 4 "Emergency" call-outs to the reserves a month, generating enormous fees as SIS sent techs out to the wilds to change mice at $1,500 a shot. Of course keeping the contract meant getting paid for actual work done and not BS calls, which was why I was "let go". I refuse to play fast and loose with the government's money.

When I came there was no tech at SIS who was competent to run even a SBS server. They had no one able to confidently setup a domain or even do the most basic of administrative tasks. Tech skills were limited to deskside type troubleshooting. That didn't stop the partners from repeatedly requesting advanced solutions well beyond their skill levels at the time. As you can imagine, moral was very bad when I arrived. Their ONLY person with even a modicum of skill lived in Kelowna and was fully occupied in "running" their basically non-functional ISP (which the partners made almost impossible to run due to stupid purchasing decisions). I am not even getting into their selling the Bands Refurbished machines as "new" at inflated prices.

That, thank god, has changed. I brought in a lead network engineer and purchaser, who both had extensive experience in the industry (certainly knew how NOT to loose $200,000 of stock from the back in a single year!). We also started mentoring the techs, who took to it like ducks to water. SIS now has some extremely talented techs, who deserve better treatment!

So those are some comments, lets go through the list:

Pay:

At first it was good, but then my responsibilities increased dramatically, when asked for a reasonable raise, I was told it was approved, but then was strung along for over 8 months before being let go. I worked 12 hours a day for 6 months setting up the health Canada network and was paid absolutely NO overtime, even though I was promised that this would be taken care of as a "Bonus". No bonus was ever given. I have records of this work.

Respect:

When I was hired, I was instructed to do everything I could to undermine the person running the ISP. Most of the senior techs at the company have received the same instruction. The partners will make you feel like they respect you, but then stab you in the back as soon as convenient. If they treat one of their oldest employees that way, then how do you think they feel about you?

Job Security:

I was told I was laid off, then two weeks later they gave me my ROE and said I was fired. No explanation or even a reason was given. It was done only to make getting EI more difficult. Petty and immature would be the most polite things one could say. No there isn't any job security unless you make it so that systems CAN NOT run without you being their to fix them. One of the partner's main techs specializes in this kind of setup. I pity those who have to fix things he built.

Work/Life Balance:

Worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for over 6 months. Gave everything I had to the company, worked with my heart and soul, WASN'T PAID!

Career Potential:

I have great references from my clients, I have made awesome friends. Have to say, this is the one thing that was good. SIS made me more marketable.

Co-Worker Competence:

When I got there I couldn't believe that SIS was a technical services company with only deskside techs. The moral of the techs was extremely low. They were asked to do jobs that were not only beyond their skill level, but in time frames that weren't actually possible in the first place. They had no leadership from the partners and there was no one to teach them. Today it is a complete turn-around. There are great techs at SIS. You guys know who I am talking about =). AWESOME work guys! You have no idea how proud I am of you all! The guys working on contract at TSAG are also extremely talented and professional from the get go.

Work Environment:

very cramped tech room.. driving 6 hours just to get to where you are supposed to work, then having to drive back (and not be paid for it)... The office is a bit of a dive with no space for anyone new. Not great.

Partners:

There are two partners who are best friends. One is a salesman who has next to no technical knowledge. The kind of sales guy who will promise the world to a client, before checking with his technical department to insure that his pitch is even possible, let alone possible in the time frame given. If he gives you a "Quick two hour job", you can be assured that it will take a week to do properly.

The second partner really comes off as a nice guy. Don't let this fool you. He lied to my face for months and months. There has been some serious ethics questions regarding his behaviour. One of the managers at Health Canada was even removed from his position after funding irregularities came to light. Nothing to prove anything, but SIS is roundly hated at Health Canada. The current management at Health Canada would like nothing better than to get SIS completely out of the picture.

Conclusion

SIS is a company made of people. Almost all of those people I am proud to say I worked with; however, the partners are some of the most dishonest people I have ever worked with in my life. I was asked to do things that are well and truly unethical. In the end SIS will get caught for the irregularities, when it is I am going to sit back and laugh!

They are a pretty decent company. I have been with them for over 7 years. There are 5 guys that have been with the company for over 5 years which kind of speaks volumes about them. Tech guys don't stay at a company in Alberta if the work environment sucks. They can pretty much go wherever they want if it's as bad as some have said here. The owners expect a lot, but they also work as hard as the employees. Most of the crappy techs are gone within a year and there a lot of crappy techs. Its a decent job and yes there are bonuses to the guys that actually work for them.

Wow. It is amazing that these guys have been able continue ripping off the native reserves for this long. The wife of the one owner is a complete and utter cunt with no idea how long anything takes or what is invoolved and she's in charge of scheduling...
The vehicle expense is a complete joke and doesn't come anywhere near what is required to put 3,000km+ on your vehicle in ONE WEEK.
Bonuses, what bonus!? Only one person I know of received their bonus this year, which is hilarious as Treaty 6 basically told SIS to never come back and ONE employee got them back in. That employee was then lied to continuously by both owners until they got around to laying him off and replacing him, which is entirely illegal by the way.
The one guy who basically built all the services for the Health Canada network was laid off in May and everything has been falling apart slowly since then...
It's amazing how clueless some of the staff are, mainly the administrative staff.
These guys are wolves, stay away.

I guess different people are going to have different opinions about this company, but that is only due to which position or location they worked in. Sadly, I was one of the poor suckers that got sent up to the Fox Lake native reserve. Here are my experiences in point form of what happened for the month I was there before I ran for my life:

Living and working experiences on the reserve:

1. The living quarters were left in bad shape by the previous employee. I spent nearly a week cleaning out the place when it should have been cleaned out prior by public works.

2. Getting a photo-copier fixed for the school administration staff was next to impossible. The photo-copier tech refused to go into the location for fear of being charged an arm and a leg for the barge fee. Calling the Head Office staff did nothing to enforce the copier technicians' responsibility to fix the equipment.

3. Some of the residences deserved to be marked as condemned. Bed bug infestation was atrocious in some of the homes and there was no way that I would service the owners' Internet without wearing protective clothing.

4. Local food prices were insane, but all the food and electronics had to be flown in. This was expected, but you would spend 3x more than you would outside the reserve. Beware of this if you do intend to work and live up there.


Habitants VS Internet and Information Technology Support:

There was always a constant battle between the Cree Nation and SIS. The Cree would constantly complain that they were not receiving adequate tech support, while SIS would say that the Cree Nation were not paying their bills. This always left the onsite tech in a bad situation as he or she would be the target of the frustration. This would sometimes lead to damage of personal property and bodily harm. I had a new car at the time of me being there and I was not going to let it be vandalized.

The key reminder here is that if you are on their land, you are on the bottom of the totem pole in their eyes. You are no better than the poorest family on the reserve and the respect is literally equal to that. They will try to take advantage of you and when that doesn't work, they will go the chief so that you could be kicked off the reserve.

Inter-office Politics:

Let me just say that the wife of one the co-owners has absolutely no respect for the employee and any personal problems that may arise. Before I was hired, my car was involved in an accident, so I had to move everything that I had with a rental vehicle. Two weeks later, I had to go back to Edmonton and return the rental so I could get my car. She absolutely flipped when I tried to explain my situation and literally gave me a warning of "re-evaluation" after doing so. I had no choice in the matter as I did not have the money to pay extra for the rental and I have every right to obtain my personal property. She had no clue of how bad the situation was between the Nation and the previous techs after having multiple calls and emails exchanged back and forth. The damage was already done and I was never going to be able to fix the reputation of the company.

As for approaching the owners with any problems that arose, it was nearly impossible to get a hold of them and they would not return the calls. They be all nice and friendly with me once I was in Edmonton, but once I was in the reserve, you were cannon fodder to them and the office adminstration. Now I have been around native reserves for the majority of my life as I am formally from northern-central B.C., but I was this was much worse when it came to Nation/White-Person relations. From the way I see it, SIS was not fitting the bill for these people.

After reading this, I hope this will open up the eyes of the other reviewers and future candidates and make them think twice about working for this showboat of an outfit. Think twice before you invest a lot of your earnings for this job.

I have been with SIS for a few years now and I have never been happier at a job. There are ups and downs as there are at any company but overall SIS is a great place to work!! The owners are very approachable and if you have any issues and let them know about them they are taken care of quickly. The techs that work here know their stuff, and the clients we work for are very grateful for the work that we do for them. Everybody in the organization is very willing to help out and if they see that somebody is struggling with something they will usually step in and lend a helping hand or give you advice. Office staff is friendly and outgoing and as long as technicians follow proper procedures (ie. check in on time, and hand in proper paperwork, etc.) you usually don't hear from them much. SIS is a team environment so if somebody comes in thinking they are better than the team and don't work well with the staff they usually don't fit in, so if you are not a team player you should probably learn to work with us or in the long run it may come back to bite you!! I don't know what else to really say about the company but if you are knowledgeable about computers, like to travel, work well with clients and other staff, like a casual work environment then SIS is the company for you!

I have worked with this company for years. Of all the organizations I have worked with, these partners are always approachable and prepared to listen, they may not act, but they will always hear you out on project concerns to customers ect. If you are self directed this is the company for you. There is little hand holding and if you are give a job you are expected to finish it and deal with it from that time onwards. It is a hands on company. There is alot of travel involved with the job but that is explained from day one and that is also why we are paid well and given car allowances. When you show up at a customer site and you say you are an SIS tech you are very well received which shows alot for all staff who have worked with the customer. The company is getting bigger and there are some new techs that think they run the show and do not want to listen to us old guys but they usually don't last because they are never as good as they think and this shows right away in this type of work environment. For the most part the coworkers are good to be with and are a source to help sort out projects problems. The office staff are good and will help out as best they can but like all enviroments don't always understand the demands of our job. This is the company for you if you know the industy, like travel, and want to work with the customer with out any supervision. If you need your hand held goes elsewhere and they usually do.