Tucows Reviews

Pros

Love the work culture. One of the best I have worked in , I have previously worked in 2 of the top 5 IT companies worldwide. But Tucows definitely outshines the previous companies. Values the employees and has a great work life balance.

Cons

None that I can think of.

Pros

Amazing team that doesn’t judge your experience. Helpful, Fun, and challenging work.

Cons

None come to mind at the moment.

Pros

Excellent benefits package (I guess if you're a call centre, you have to entice people to work there somehow), and fun coworkers. You get the opportunity to work with people with different backgrounds and skillsets. My manager was also quite empathetic.

Cons

Misleading job duties role. When I applied, I understood that this would be an email support position, yet they only wanted people to take phone calls. Only once they deemed agents were "comfortable enough" on the phones, would they move around to other areas of support. I've been in understaffed positions long enough for this to mean, "this is all you'll be doing." What I found baffling is that my manager admitted that we needed a lot more staff, and yet my training group was only a handful of people. Senior representatives (supervisors) refuse to take escalations, leaving you to deal with irate callers.

Pros

Benefit's package (although that has also become less enticing than it once was)

Cons

Culture Poor Management No Room to Grow Lack of Transparency Once upon a time this company was amazing. They cared a deep amount for those they hired and put a lot of effort into training and keeping agent's happy. They knew happy agent's meant happy customer's. As the years moved on the company has lost sight of that and become just like every other call center. You will be told you are an adult yet micromanaged at every turn. You will quickly notice that same micromanaging isn't there if you are struggling, you will not get the help you need and instead you will be told to "figure it out". Alternatively, you will be sent to a senior for guidance, but with an already heavy plate there's only so much they can do. Supervisor's are already spread thin and no time to assist or educate agent's when they are struggling. QA falls on their shoulder's when it should be the job of the manager's of each agent. The training period is no longer taught by educated training professionals, instead they let those individual's go, and that role also fall's upon the supervisor's shoulders. Those of which, depending on the office you work in, would be best of not teaching new hires as they themselves are not caught up on all relevant information. Not only that, training has been cut time and time again, leaving new hire's with large gaps in knowledge and no help from management to bridge those gaps. Be warned, if you want to move up anywhere in the company you must work in the Toronto office. The difference in the treatment of those in Toronto and those in St. Catharines is very noticeable. You're better off working in Toronto as they get a larger starting wage than those in St. Catharines despite doing the same job. There is a constant need for new agent's but instead management keeps letting people go without hiring any one to replace them. Manager's seem to do nothing.. I honestly don't know what the manager's do besides listen to employee complaint's yet do not fix the issues. Everything you'd expect a manager to do is taken up by the supervisor's. At the end of the day, the job pays well for the area. But do not believe these positive reviews. Under the new management there have been many occasion's where us agents are asked to fill out positive reviews just before people are let go to keep scores up. If you are okay with a job just being a paycheck and do not wish it to be anything more you will do well, but take note that you should trust no one. Everyone is out for themselves and constantly worried about their job security here, so people will not hesitate to throw you under a bus. The company seems to live through past glories, leaving much to be desired when it comes to positive employee morale.

Pros

Benefits galore. Free meals by the volunteer committee.

Cons

Avoid this company at all costs. I worked at Tucows for just over two years. I had an impeccable attendance record and had great customer service feedback. I gave critical feedback in a positive light to help improve the working environment. Merit is simply not a factor at Tucows. You have to be a manager's pet to get somewhere. The huge efforts are largely ignored. Management only gives worthless mass emails to congratulate the group on a whole. Empty and meaningless.

Pros

- Pay is decent, especially considering the lack of jobs currently available paying more than minimum wage. - Benefits are amazing. - A few great fellow staff members who will go out of their way to help you when the people who should help you don't. - Flexibility to work from home if you last past the 6 month probationary period. - Most of the customers are great and easy to work with. - Relaxed dress code.

Cons

- The company loves to claim they aren't like other call centres and other big companies but they are quickly headed in that direction (which I get, but stop proclaiming you're different when you are exactly the same). - Definite preference given to Toronto office (not that what's happening in Toronto should change, but Niagara should receive more/similar). - SO MANY double standards within the company. - Managers don't really know what it is Advisors do so whenever they try to help or guide or criticize, they can vaguely only say 'do better' (which is entirely unhelpful, then you are considered the problem when you don't do better because they told you to do better). - Help can be difficult to receive, especially in a timely manner, even when you are expected to ask for help (whether no one responds, someone responds but doesn't answer any of your questions, or five people respond all giving you very different answers when there should only be one option). - Customer service is considered the top priority (and it clearly was for such a long time) but there is becoming a much stronger focus on numbers (which I get) that often means that customer service is becoming more and more an after thought (though Ting's customer service is still strong, it is definitely headed downwards in priorities). - It can be exceedingly isolating when everyone else seems to have time to chat but your every breath is monitored and criticized so you don't have time to talk to anyone around you, let alone get to know them. - Training is so short for the amount of information to learn and completely insufficient that new hires are basically set up to fail (and from what I've seen, almost no one hired in the past year has lasted past their probationary period). - There is basically no training (since there's not enough time for it) for how to be successful in the role (i.e. they say that they don't want any templates for emails but in order to get your emails done quick enough you need your own templates and macros). - In fact, very little is shared on how the Advisor will be evaluated and what is expected of the Advisor and their work. - Basically no role in the company seems to know exactly what the other roles do, so communication is limited and actual empathy (not just empathetic words) is practically nonexistent (e.g. I have no idea what it is the managers do most of the time but it seems like they get paid to spend their time doing arts and crafts, making pancakes, chat with other managers about their personal lives, taking many personal calls, and monitor Advisors closely without having the faintest clue whether the Advisors are actually doing things correctly, since they don't know the job or any of the knowledge). - New hires are monitored quite closely (as they should be for training purposes) but if the new hire is at all considered insufficient then that monitoring quickly changes from for training purposes to hindering (it is difficult to work properly when someone is watching your every gd breath) and babysitting (despite a company mantra of 'You are an adult so we treat you like an adult,' your every second is recorded and watched like a hawk and which is beyond stressful and can greatly impair work and any improvements). - Little also seems to be done when an employee is harassed by another employee (and then management wonders why so many people work from home and hate coming into the office). - Superiors within the company (especially at the top of the customer service end) genuinely have no idea what it is like to work as an Advisor and what the role is actually like, so when they make and change the rules for the role and how the role is evaluated, it is rather detached from the role itself. - If you struggle in the role (which everyone I spoke to who was hired within the past year has been majorly struggling in the role and most have quit) and try to be open with superiors within the company about how you are struggling then you are immediately shut down and greeted with "don't make excuses." Honestly, I could continue but I am exhausted just from thinking about everything I have listed so far.