window cleaner

cleaning technician

cleaner

student technician

regional manager

College Pro Window Cleaning

I was working 60-70+ hours a week and only getting paid for about 30 of them because of how their employees are paid (this alone is ridiculous considering I was promised a full time position and also that I didn’t get reimbursed for travel costs). They use a “piece rate” pay system that they claim allows you to control how much money you're making based on “how hard you work”. This system outlines that a job should take a certain amount of time, and if you work effectively and finish the job in less than that time, you will still be paid for the full amount. Yes, beating budgets is great but it DOESN'T MAKE YOU ANY EXTRA MONEY because you wouldn't be able to schedule extra jobs the day of in order to increase profit. It just means you're extra tired after your ridiculously long work day. As well, employees are expected to bring in five potential jobs a week via marketing. Each lead pays the employee an extra $10. Our pay was $14/hr unless you receive those five leads, then it increased to $15/hr. However, when you’re working 10-14 hour days every single day, you don't really have time for marketing so it’s very rare that you bring in five leads a week. Also, when I signed onto this job I was told it would be a 9 AM - 6 PM Monday to Friday job, with the occasional Saturday. That was not the case. I was working up to 14 hours EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. 

They also broke employment laws. I worked seven hours and made fifteen leads on Victoria Day, a statutory holiday. I should have been paid time and a half for working on a stat holiday, but instead I wasn’t paid hourly AT ALL and was simply paid $15 per lead instead of $10 - meaning instead of making the appropriate $255, I only made $150. I was not made aware of this until after the fact, and it wasn’t from my manager but rather my coworker. As well, there are certain hours of the day in which door-to-door marketing can take place, and these are not followed. Also, we were essentially not allowed to ask for time off, even for emergencies or sick leave/doctor’s appointments. I woke up with a fever one day and was still expected to work - and when I physically had to stop working and go home so that I wouldn’t vomit all over the windows I was cleaning, I was treated as if I was an inconvenience, and that my health and wellness was much less important than making sure the College Pro business is successful. My manager couldn't even pretend to care whether I was alright or not. You can’t run a business without healthy employees. 

Although working conditions are completely dependent on what your manager (the College Pro “franchisee”) is like, I have done my research and found that many people had a similar experience as I did - overworked, underpaid, and not appreciated. Both myself and my coworker were put in dangerous situations and were shamed/reprimanded when we asked for help or said that we felt unsafe. We were working on 24-32 foot tall ladders, sometimes by ourselves. We have the right to say no. During my second week, I had had a very bad mental health day that happened to land on a day that my manager had scheduled 11 jobs (our average was about 4-6 jobs per day, so this was essentially double our usual). At the end of the day, my manager expected us to market for another 2-5 hours, and after an hour I told her I had to stop. She called me that night and repeatedly asked me if I really wanted this job, told me that it seemed like I had given up, and that I should get used to it because the days are only going to get longer and harder. This really hurt me, because I felt that I was giving my 110% at work, but this was clearly not acknowledged or appreciated. I should have quit then, but I wanted to stick it out to see if the conditions would improve. They did not. College Pro’s working philosophy is to work until you physically cannot anymore, and then take a drink of water and keep working. This is astonishing, and my mental and physical health took a serious toll because of it.

This entire company is based on helping only the most successful franchisees (which is a very select few). My manager had a goal of making $70,000 in sales. She only employed two window cleaning technicians. The only way we would have been able to successfully complete enough jobs to make my manager $70k in four months is if we increased the hours we were working, which was already wildly unrealistic and unfair to us. When my coworker and I were informed of this business plan, we were told not to view this as College Pro only caring about our manager, as we were a team. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. College Pro was willing to throw us under the bus for the sake of my manager’s business success. They don't care about their employees at all, which was clearly demonstrated to me when the general manager of my region was informed of our extremely poor working conditions and he didn’t care even a little bit and actually blamed the issues on my coworker for not “communicating effectively” with my manager. He shared our complaints with our immature franchisee without our consent, which resulted in her treating us even worse. College Pro only cares about ensuring their CEOs are making as much money as possible, even if this is done by screwing over their employees. They need to remember that you cannot have a window cleaning business without the window cleaning technicians, and you won’t have the techs if you screw them around the entire time they’re working for you.

Many people who were successful in their careers with College Pro claim that the failures are completely the employee’s fault, and that they were not cut out for the job. That’s simply not true. Here are some links from College Pro employees that were scammed just as much, if not more, as I was:
* http://www.thenewjournalatyale.com/2010/02/paint-and-switch/
* https://myuniversitymoney.com/is-college-pro-painters-a-scam/
* http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/college-pro-painters-great-opportunity-or-franchise-scam/
* https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/college-pro-window-cleaning/etobicoke-ontario/college-pro-window-cleaning-cpro-college-pro-painters-scam-worked-for-free-lost-money-1086213
* http://correresmidestino.com/summer-jobs-scams/
* https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/college-pro-painters/seattle-washington-98125/college-pro-painters-is-a-scam-please-do-your-research-students-seattle-washington-967124

The only way you can be truly successful at College Pro is if you are (a) already wealthy, and (b) in a franchisee position or higher.

The most frustrating part about this situation is that College Pro has been doing this for so long that they’ve gotten so good at covering their butts that I can’t do anything about how unfairly I was treated. Many people have tried to sue them but to no avail. All I can do now is try and help make sure that other broke university kids like myself don’t fall for the convincing empty promises.

I worked for college pro in the summer of 2020 in Peterborough.  Promises are made during the interview such as how much money you'll make in the summer (they said 10k), how much overtime youll get, etc. None of these promises were fulfilled. Management is sloppy as they don't need any formal experience. Every payment period I had to request a pay stub and still only got them at the end of the summer after working for 4 months. It came to the point around end of july into august that we would only have one job a day so the techs would only be making about 20 bucks. In the interview I was told that marketing was done by the manager and team leader and for techs it was optional, contrary to that statement my team was told that the only way we'll get more jobs is to market ourselves (essentially doing the managers job for them). Multiple accounting issues each payment period which resulted in my team never being payed the right amount the first time on payday. Throughout the entire summer my manager only focused on one of her tech crews rather than all of her crews which led to one crew making all the money and having all the jobs and the other crew having absolutely zero work. At the end of the summer our crew did not have any work available so we I requested to be laid off so I could at least make money through employment insurance. My manager took this as me telling them how to run their business which they took personally and ended up firing me. The crews manager ended up having to lay my entire team off. All of this was done extremely unprofessional as not a single phone call was made as they laid everyone off via text message. When I requested an exit interview with my manager she did not want to and told me to have the interview with their supervisor. After being laid off, I requested my record of employment five different times over the course of two weeks then I finally received it after about a month. My manager also edited the ROE several times after they had finally sent it to me. Overall the management is purely trained on how to make the most money they can over the summer and that's it.  Even the safety training is a joke. Save yourself from a frustrating summer and get a paper route instead, youll make more money.  

Before I begin, let me state that I was not A MANAGER, I was an EMPLOYEE. 

I loved the job itself, super fun. It's a great summer job if you want to be outside, get a workout, and feel accomplished at the end of the day. I worked with one other guy, we were extremely efficient, always found ways to improve logistics, and were very customer service oriented. 

What I DIDN'T like, was our leadership. Before you choose College Pro, PLEASE remember that your manager is learning with you... The manager did NOT earn my trust, and most definitely deceived my coworker and I. Here's what happened:

- Promised $13-$15/h starting; instead started at $10.50 an hour - that extra money was earned through cold calling for at least 3-4 hours EVERY DAY after work... and would push through weekends.

- Manger allocated our pay based on DAILY SALES, we were NOT paid by the hour - I was about $250 short of what I thought I was earning every payday; oh, and I was told it was pay BY THE HOUR. Rather than normally paying us by the hour, our manager would estimate the hours we would spend on the house individually, then divide it by the number of people working on the house. (Have fun earning 1/3 of what you REALLY earned)

- Supposedly earned $10/lead from cold-calling; JUST KIDDING, manager says $10 is out of his range - AFTER 30 hours of cold calling in two weeks. 

- Our manager sometimes liked to under budget every house we went to just to get the sale.... making our time to complete a 3 story house with 100 windows covered in egg VERY DIFFICULT to complete on time. - Oh, did I mention I was paid for only a fraction of the time spent?

Tip: Do the research before you take a job here, depending on your manager's situation, you may not make a lot of money...

College Pro is a great organization and learning tool, but remember, you're a student working for another student.

Before starting this review I would clearly like to state that  the job, coworkers, or working environment were not the problem with this job, but rather it was the inconsistent number of business leads and actual work opportunities which made this particular job rather cumbersome. The business operates under a franchise/franchisee/crew member business model where by the franchisee purchases a specific franchise in a specific geospatial location. Following this, the new owner of the location specific franchise has to take on the responsibility to staff a 3-5 person crew, make enough business leads to provide full time consistent summer work, and make enough of a profit to pay the employees at a moderate rate. Well, the pay was good, it was above minimum, but the other aspects of the work were not. What started off as a full-time position quickly became a sparse part-time summer opportunity with a max of 12 -16 hours per week come mid june. This type of work is entirely dependant on cold calling, word of mouth, and its franchise name alone to generate enough business to market 'full-time summer opportunities'. As a result, depending on where the franchise location one may be, work may or may not be consistent, resulting in inconsistent hours and lots of time wasted trying to generate new leads (cold calling). The hardest part of the job was arguable the cold calling, there is nothing harder than trying to sell a service to someone that they already don't need in their own private space. The most enjoyable aspect was the crew, management, and working outside.

The franchisee/manager you work with can really make or break your experience, but I was fortunate and worked with a wonderful manager. It was just her and me, and we'd meet around 7:30am to carpool to clients' houses around the city. You learn to problem solve and think on your feet, as well as manage your time well so you are both efficient and effective in cleaning. It's so satisfying to see the difference you can make, even if it's transforming one window from being coated in dirt to being spotless. I enjoyed working outside and getting lots of fresh air during the summer, and so many clients had pets that you could interact with when you cleaned interior windows. Very rarely did we encounter unpleasant clients, but even then, you don't really have to deal with them as the window cleaning tech --just do a good job and move on to the next place. The hardest part for me was conquering a fear of heights and spiders, but it was rewarding to do so.
The only downside  is that the job is really vulnerable to seasonality --there are lots of jobs available in April and May, but by August it seriously dies down and it's difficult to get many hours; you can go from working pretty much full-time, 40 hours a week, to less than 10 a week by the end.
Other than that, it was a fantastic experience and I'd happily go back.

Your money making for a summer job is strictly relying on a Manager who is also a student and learning. Therefore, when your manager is not well trained/not good at getting clients and jobs, the other employees must suffer. NO money was made (only worked/had jobs until JUNE), the days were broken up and we had hour breaks in between that were UNPAID--> this means 10 hour days only 6 hours paid etc. It is unfair to people trying to desperately find a full-time job because their school year DEPENDS on it, and you get pulled into something that you will not thrive in. I ended up having to go to my old job, driving over an hour to work, as I could not go without a job. I would never recommend college pro, as it is unorganized with no job security once so ever.  To improve this company, the professionals should be helping the new managers get jobs for their team. It should be part of their responsibility, because if they don't do that, what is really their purpose. I'm just overall extremely upset about how last summer went.

Not many young people can say they ran there own business and its a great resume builder. The job it self almost makes it not worth it. There are Atleast 2 different ways your business can run. A franchisee who buys the rights to his territory then pays royalitys. Or a newer system where all cheques go to college pro and you get a SMALL cut. For running the entire business cleaning everything you would expect to get a nice profit. After paying all expenses you hardly come out on top. In fact if I stuck to my previous job I would of made more money that was minimum wage. The collage pro upper management almost always gave half answers to direct yes or no question. And when you weren't performing how they wanted you to you received a weekly phone call telling you how to improve which was really "dude how are you not performing you should be hitting these numbers". I would never ever recommend this job unless you want a life a business or can handle the constant pressure. Also you never have a day off as you are a business owner.

Working at College Pro is an experience like no other - hardest and best thing I did while in university. The whole leadership team is dedicated to the personal and professional growth of everyone in the company. You can tell that they really care. The idea of the company is to give entrepreneurial opportunities to young people in an environment that is structured for success. This means you put in long hours if you want to run a "big business" and the hardest part is that you're really only accountable to yourself which is really different and challenging to get used to. The people you get to meet in the business and the events are some of the best parts, along with an opportunity that you can really make your own. 

Go out with the manager and start at a neighborhood and try to "sweep" certain areas in a certain amount of time in order to book enough houses for a week of work for myself and the team of window cleaners. I learned how to pitch proposals in a very short amount of time and move on very quickly afterwards in order to achieve my daily set goals. My co-workers were kind and we sometimes would work on a house together but the job I had was mainly booking the houses. The hardest part of the job was during July which brings about the hotter temperatures and walking around on those days were a bit challenging. The most enjoyable part of the job was closing the deal and ensuring more work for the business. It satisfies me to know everything is running smoothly. 

Really, it’s just not worth it. The pay is horrible and the contract sucks. NO WHERE does it say how much you get paid. If you do get paid it’s not by the hour. It’s by unit. So your boss can give you $15 for the day or $15 per house. Some managers aren’t even nice about letting someone go. I know that a co-worker was fired in Starbucks by her boss. If you don’t get any leads when you go out marketing then they accuse you of not going. It’s very unfortunate that no matter how hard you work you could just be told in a public place that you no longer have a job. Make sure you remember to write down days that your manager tells your team you are on budget because you never know when they can do a full 180 and say that they are losing money the next week.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Window cleaner 1 salary reported	$20.00 per hour
Cleaning technician 2 salaries reported	$17.75 per hour
Cleaner 2 salaries reported	$19.75 per hour
Student technician 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour
Regional manager 1 salary reported	$20.00 per hour

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