Always too little, too late - Anonymous employee Phacil, Inc. Employee Review

Great training program and the onboarding process is the only slight downside to getting employed. However, when I was processed via onboarding there were roughly 30-50 of us, so it took at least four hours. I would certainly believe that whoever job seekers go through now would entail a maybe one or two hour onboarding. Please bear in mind that there will be an investigation into your life and this is a federal position. So if you have any black marks, either get rid of them before contacting Phacil or don't even bother to apply. I am not going to sugarcoat what they expect of you. I'd advise sticking to being at least middle of the pack in regards to handling calls. If you are getting "burned out" or stressed, I'd advise going for the outage group. You will still have duties to learn and perform, but they are far less stressful than service desk. If you want to transfer over to Network Operations, I would highly recommend passing the CCNA test at minimum. I tried but failed, which ultimately led to my dismissal. To be of merit and have a pretty good career, I recommend learning Enterasys switching and passing that certification as well. And if you happen to be a go-getter or just super awesome, then you'll likely get promoted to supervisor.

If you are not a super go-getter like I was in the first few years of employment, expect performance improvement plans. The company does allow newcomers to start as long as they have a good background in IT. Also, if your notes or level of teamwork is below average, again you better expect a performance improvement plan. Don't get in the habit of being late, or just going through the motions.

Decent benefits, peer teams work well together, occasional pizza for lunch, some flexibility with schedules, casual dress Wednesday through Friday. Weekends off for most. End users are often friendly and grateful for assistance.

Numbers matter, you don't. Very little room for advancement within the Service Desk, many leave for better opportunities, staff levels are often low. New hires don't generally even cover those who have moved on to other opportunities let alone those who are let go. They have recently hired quite a few to fill the gap and maybe to boost numbers, it just seems to little to late. After receiving a bonus for several years at the holidays, last year we didn't get one, we didn't matter enough for it from what we were told much later than we should have gotten it. We waited for it, and it meant a lot to some people, like the difference between Christmas for their young children and nothing. Management doesn't listen, or rather they all "listen" and say your needs matter but very little is done to affect actual change. New responsibilities are heaped on the Service Desk and the contract takes them on even when they are already (numbers wise) under water. When new responsibilities are given to us, we are not given enough training.