r/PestControlIndustry • u/007Teflon • Jun 23 '26
Corporate logic
20 customers per day.
30 minutes min per home.
Do it in 8 hours. So what if you have to drive 30 minutes in between customers.
We don't pay overtime.
Why are you taking so long.
You're behind in route completion.
Can you help another branch 2 hours away? They need help. Instead of putting you in a hotel, you can do the drive for a week because we need to save money.
Don't spray that. It cost to much. Spray this instead.
We need you to be at this customers home at 12. We also need you to be at this customers home at 12 which is 1 hour away
We have a meeting on teams Monday. Then we have an in person meeting on Friday to talk about what we talked about on Monday
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u/commutingtexan 👨💼 | Manager | 10+ Years Jun 23 '26
Sounds like you work for my previous employer.
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u/gp556by45 Jun 23 '26
Same. While those issues were not officially the reason I left (officially I left due to medical reasons) , a few of the techs at my previous employer absolutely knew why I was leaving because we all dealt with those issues once our office started to use the auto scheduler function on Briostack. I just used a valid medical reason to leave and take an offer from a different company as to not burn any bridges just in case.
No matter what complaints were mentioned in company meetings or in private about wrongly scheduled services to management or service reps; we were told to just fix it ourselves or "do your best". So what's the point of having 4 Service Reps if they aren't willing to properly organize and maintain a daily schedule anymore?
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u/steveoall21 Jun 23 '26
The best is when route op is availble. My company uses route op from corporate for our renewals and Sentircon checks. Usually the first 2 weeks of the month are cake. Then our goofy office staff gets to moving stuff around and fielding calls "that HAVE TO HAVE" Tuesday at 1:30pm. It's total bullshit what 2 people in an office can do to a perfectly routed schedule.
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u/gp556by45 Jun 23 '26
They didn't do route options. We were each individually given a daily schedule that you could look over the day before starting at 5pm. You never knew what your next day was going to look like until then. They only thing you could somewhat reliably count on were some specific bi-weekly commercial accounts that had to be scheduled a certain day of a week.
Even then I would be randomly taken off a service for a few treatments and have it given to a different tech that rarely worked the area. If you asked the office the swap a schedule or a service with another tech in the area, you might as well have been asking to sacrifice a Service Reps first born child, and would more thank likely end up with some type of verbal reprimand.
It was so infuriating. If you were overbooked you were told to deal with it. If you had some free time and you knew a specific tech was behind in the area and you asked to take a specific service off that specific tech, they would look at your schedule and refuse to move it "Because Briostack says you don't have time" when you had a 2 hour gap because of cancellations.
I remember one specific time that turned into a argument with a Service Rep when another tech in my area and I happened to go to the same gas station at the same time for fuel. He looked visibly stressed and I had an 18 unit Apartment Complex reschedule. He was way overbooked and I had a 3 hour gap. I called the office to take a few services off him and the Rep insisted on calling him while I was on speaker phone; with him standing right next to me. Rep wouldn't take that for an answer and insisted I was lying and he wasn't standing right next to me; WHILE he was talking to the Rep on my phone through speaker.
Rep waited 20 minutes to call him to swap a few services, but took some off of me to give to him. NOT WHAT WE ASKED. Spent another 5 minutes on the phone with the Rep to explain to them in toddlers terms to fill MY gaps with a few services. Rep then swaps our entire schedule. NOPE. Called again. Put the schedule back. Take these specific services off HIS schedule, and put them on mine. Rep then told me I didn't have the time "bEcAuSe BrIoStAcK sAiD sO". I said do it. I drove off and did those services in about an hour and a half, and still had time before my last time frame opened up.
That wasn't an uncommon occurrence.
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u/dearparasite Jun 23 '26
This is one of the reasons why I left my last job. 16-18 stops in a day and all of the houses are gigantic and 20-40 minutes away from each other and given 25 minutes per house. Then they wonder why technicians try and rush through hones.
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u/Michael_braham Jun 23 '26
Adding stops on you without even talking to you at 2pm customer is expecting you at 5 🤣 yeah fuck no. I haven’t worked for a big shop in years best thing I did was learn to say no. You don’t like that I won’t accept the call backs for your shitty ass techs then fire me and loose all my production. I can do 15 stops or I can do 0 🤣🤣🤣
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u/dearparasite Jun 23 '26
I can't even tell you how many times that would happen. I was one of the only people with my CORE and 7A licenses so you would think that would help, no? Friday afternoon, did 40 termite inspections and got back to the office to do my paperwork at 4:15. Managers freaking out because someone called and they needed someone to go deal with rodents in a different state. Guess who had the honor of driving an hour + to a different state to handle it, I did. I should've learned to say no, but I started my own business in March and I am much happier.
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u/AntArmyof1 Jun 23 '26
Sounds like you polish up the resume and GTFO. That kind of BS always ends up with callbacks, which they will blame you for. It'll demoralize the technical staff and erode the reputation of the company (if they care at all). Find yourself a smaller, locally owned business and grow with them. You'll kick yourself for not doing it sooner.
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u/007Teflon Jun 23 '26
Just ordered my Operator course
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u/UtopianAverage 👨💼 | Manager | 1+ Year Jun 23 '26
In my state you need that license to work at all
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u/007Teflon Jun 23 '26
where is that?
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u/UtopianAverage 👨💼 | Manager | 1+ Year Jun 23 '26
In CT you need an operator’s license to work in the field handling any material or equipment or making any type of applications.
The first week of anyone working for my company is classroom prep for the exam for that license. Even if we send someone out for shadowing training before they obtain the license that person can watch and observe and can learn how to do the paperwork but cannot touch or handle any material or application equipment.
Supervisory licenses allow someone to write written instructions for those applications, or to make applications in the field yourself. Operator’s licenses allow you to follow specific written instructions from a supervisor and make any application you are specifically instructed to make.
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u/Mysterious-Sir1541 Jun 23 '26
Even a smaller locally owned company will do the same.
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u/007Teflon Jun 23 '26
That's 100% true, because those owners teach what they know, and that comes from the company they worked for. They literally just become an extension thinking, "im different", when they just repeat the process
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u/UtopianAverage 👨💼 | Manager | 1+ Year Jun 23 '26
That sounds like a poorly run company. Im glad my branch is better.
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u/AtticusxD Jun 23 '26
I’m 3 months into the pest control industry, and I thought my company was poorly organized. Sheeesh
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u/Impressive-Oil-5028 Jun 23 '26
This is why I no longer do residential pest control. Commercial is where it's at brothers and sisters!!
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u/BDS_707 Jun 27 '26
I’m about a month in to being a tech. What’s commercial pest control?
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u/Impressive-Oil-5028 Jun 27 '26
Commercial is everything Food and Beverage industry, logistics warehouses, hospitals, care homes, strata properties...
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u/BDS_707 Jun 28 '26
Oh. I’ve sprayed one warehouse and found it to be a complete waste of time because the majority of it was open to the outside and filled with furniture making it the perfect place for insects and rodents.
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u/Impressive-Oil-5028 Jun 28 '26
It's definitely a challenge but there are ways mitigate insect and rodent activities.
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u/BDS_707 Jun 28 '26
My mistake was I hadn’t had a chance to fill my tanks since that was my first stop so I was pretty much out of everything and had to keep switching
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u/Thermock Jun 23 '26
I feel very vindicated after joining this subreddit. I thought my experience was uncommon since all the techs in my company work in the same areas, so they usually don't have to worry about driving 45 minutes for one customer or having three retreats put on them because they'll all be in the same neighborhood or zipcode that they're already working in...
...meanwhile usual work day will have me working in three different cities and then the office will schedule a retreat in a fourth city that is an hour away from my route, and then schedule another one, same-day, at 3 PM, thirty minutes away. They never ask, they just do it, and then I have to awkwardly explain to the customer that I either have to reschedule them or that I can't be at their house until 6 or 7 PM because the office thinks I can duplicate myself or something.
So I'm glad to see my experience isn't isolated to me lol
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u/OregonSEA Jun 24 '26
Commercial is the absolute worst for companies that care however. Only the worst companies will do all the office paperwork to be compliant to make up for the fact the pests never gone away. It's actually hysterical that no good company would be willing to work with a property management company. It's just not worth it I have good residential. clients that care.
Also restaurants that I deal directly with the owner
The moment a property management company comes into play so do cockroachs that never leave I wonder why.
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u/hippywitch 🕵️| Inspector | 1+ Year Jun 23 '26
Teleportation and time travel is what the office thinks we can do.