Pros
Overall, I would say that Verizon Wireless is a good company to work for considering the phenomenal benefits. They have many programs that are unheard of by other companies like backup child care, tuition assistance (NOT rembursement which requires you to pay up front and you don't have to stay with the company afterwards!), and even adoption assistance just to name a few. The pay is much better than what some outsiders would assume, the best in the industry in fact, but not as good as it used to be since they've changed the commission structure due to the economy change - but what company hasn't?!
Cons
1. Company sets IMPOSSIBLE goals for their employees. If you work in a high volume store like I do, then you'll quickly learn that the better your store does, the worst your paychecks will be. They repay your hard work and earning upper management HUGE bonuses by raising the sales goals so high that it is impossible to earn the larger sized checks you expect - unless you hop around to slower stores where you get a bigger paycheck for less work (Ridiculous!) 2. The Washington/Baltimore/Virginia region is extremely shady at times. This region works by its own more restrictive rules and if you don't know your rights, you will get screwed. The employee handbook should be your bible and dont be afraid to go to the main headquarters in NJ to get backup if necessary! Also, since there is no union, Verizon Wireless takes full advantage and have gotten away with doing illegal things like changing the attendance policy without notifying their employees as a means of power managing people out of positions. It's only a matter of time before a class action suit will be filed against them I'm sorry to say. 3. Promotions are based on who is friends with who and not necessarily who has earned it. Some people are managers who know absolutely NOTHING about the jobs of the people they manage. This makes it extremely frustrating when you rely on upper management for assistance and they are far less knowledgeable than you. Also, you will find that certain employees seem to get away with bloody murder and get special treatment or privileges just because they're chummy with upper management. This even filters down to decisions about who gets "power managed" out of the company. 4. Verizon made some bad decisions last year and its come back to bite them on the butt. While their compeitors were PROACTIVE to the economy (reducing price plans), Verizon chose to be REACTIVE, only restructuring unlimited and pre paid pricing after their revenue took a nose dive. So how do they REACT to slumping numbers? Not by going back to the drawing board to correct THEIR mistakes, but by giving their LOYAL employees the axe. Not only that, they go about it in a shady way (refer to #3). They even went as far as giving the unlucky few negative evaluations based on information that they cannot backup with any paperwork. For example, claiming that a customer service rep is not producing solid sales numbers when A) customer service reps were not responsibile for any type quota until they suddenly changed our job title & responsibilities without any notification prior to the evaluation B) there is no paperwork or documentation that can support this claim since customer service reps use one major house account to perform all transactions and not on an individual basis like a sales rep, and C) MANAGERS give undesireable transactions to customer service reps to avoid hurting sales reps numbers, thus damaging the house account numbers on which the evaluation was based. Good employees are now working twice as hard as their counterparts to save a job that is virtually impossible to save, not based on actual performance, but on who is friends with who so Verizon can save money on severance pay. In the meantime, we are expected to work our butts off for a company that will eventually tell us to bend over and take it (for a lack of a better expression).