Pros
American pride A mostly solid product line A lot of good people at many levels in the company Very hard-working co-workers Opportunities to travel and see things you otherwise might not
Cons
Unbelievable chaos, 24/7. "Good-ol' boys" syndrome - "How could any idea but ours be the right one?" Ridiculous sales goals, the most consistent reward for doing well is more to do! 5 to 15 percent increase in go-gets and bonus tiers every year, but no COLA for you. Ever. Inconsistent programs, amnesia to promises made, total denial of anything that would even slightly require a change to the pre-established plan handed down at the last minute. The most vague concept of IT support for the product, and the sales systems, and the billing systems, etc... Unbelieveable communication breakdown between departments, data sets, and so on, at every level. When you find a problem in the Diagnostic Tool software, and take the time to document it with the customer, and report it, you never hear back. It takes months to years to get it fixed, and there are no release notes on their service upgrades, so you don't know where you stand. Commission scam - "Unlimited Income" claimed due to the Shopkey Sales portion of the job, nevermind that they sell it over the phone under the primary Mitchell1 sales channel by telling lies, and leave you with the fallout. Angry customers find out they are under contract, when they were told it was a 30 day trial. Then you walk into a hornet's nest. Any work you do to try to rectify the situation may help your franchisee's relationship with their customer, but won't pay you a cent. In addition to this, the Mitchell Sales Channel gets the inside track on new programs, marketing, training, etc. Your role as a ShopKey Rep is an after thought. Ridiculous work/life balance. Actual work hours expectation exceeds normal waking hours of average human being. You are considered "Management" but have no actual authority of any real kind. Constant Tug-of-War between local management, Regional management, the "DI" (Diagnostics & Information) division, and the Tools division, over what is priority #1. This leaves you with a "Drop what you're doing, and focus on, well, everything all at once" directive about 2-8 times per week. You effectively have about 9 bosses, 30 Franchisees to care for, and something like 3,500 individual customers and businesses to try to work with. Good luck!