Pros
I loved working at Ritter because of my co-workers and their ability to handle tense work situations. Everything could be resolved; regardless of if it was work-related or an issue between co-workers. I miss working with them and having the rapport we built with each other. They were a great team to work with. Everyone was very helpful and knowledgeable. It made work fun. I felt that I could learn things from my co-workers and improve with them. There were opportunities to move around in the company. It is pretty hard to do but if you put your mind to it, you can. You have to be persistent and constantly put in applications with HR, but you might eventually get the position you want and are qualified for. That being said the hiring process takes forever, but if you're patient and in a decent spot already, it's worth the wait. Pay is good. At least for the NEA area. It is above industry standard (speaking from Help Desk only) as most Help Desk positions in NEA range from $12 - $14, while Ritter started out at about $15.00 with ample opportunities to improve upon that when you are certified in A+ and Network+. You are also given the opportunity to make more by winning Top Performer (you hit all goals like QA and good surveys). I think the payout was about $150-$200. Yearly raises were a bit of a joke though, at least for me. Benefits were decent. Ok insurance. Good 401k plans. No pension plan, however.
Kontras
It has been a few months since I worked at Ritter but this was my overall experience... Management makes it very clear that they do not care about you. Only what you can do for the company. While I can understand it from a business standpoint, I cannot condone the blatant lack of respect management exudes towards their employees. It is a very corporate-centered environment. There was no room for open discussion with management simply because they did not care. They will often remind you that you are replaceable, ad nauseam. The morale was so incredibly low when working in the Help Desk department. You basically only came into work because it was a paycheck. You might have even enjoyed the actual work, but dealing with your management breathing down your neck or sending you passive-aggressive emails was ultimately draining and discouraging. Management will make an example of you. They will openly humiliate you in front of your other coworkers. Something incredibly weird to me was how they made fun of emotions. If you had any negative emotion (upset, angry, etc.), you were made fun of instead of taken seriously. The department was encouraged, by management and long-standing employees, that showing any emotion other than happiness was a laughable offense, which I think made it harder for people to feel comfortable to come to management about any issues they were having. Whether they intended to or not. They were quick to point out your flaws but remiss to point out how you have improved or what good you have done. It was a constant barrage of "you're doing this wrong" so many times that it became something I expected to hear almost every day. Management did not care about the frustrations of their employees and expected utmost commitment when they were unable to be committed to their employees. I did not expect to be coddled or babied but I, at the bare minimum, expected my employers to care about the department's thoughts and concerns in a professional manner. Ritter, as a whole, also preached about their Core Values but were horribly negligent in actually implementing those values. Ritter frankly embodies "do what I say but not what I do". Communication between departments feels tense and forced. Departments are basically like cliches and nothing had really been done to encourage friendliness between departments or facilitated opportunities for different departments to work cohesively. It was more like "hey, talk to them" instead of actually doing anything to improve upon the situation. It almost felt shameful to mention you worked at Ritter because of how the general populous (of serviced customers) downright hate Ritter. While Ritter does try to do a lot for the communities they serve, it does not make up for the terrible service some customers receive and have valid complaints about. Ritter was growing at a very fast pace while hardly making any improvements to their network. I have heard they are working to upgrade some areas of infrastructure, which is good. Working at my new job, I have been shown that management can and will show you compassion and understanding, while still expecting great work from you. Management can build you up instead of tear you down. Offer you opportunities to learn and grow and give you the resources to do that. Ritter simply chooses to make you feel undervalued and replaceable which is not the norm for other companies.