audio visual technician

technician

operations manager

sales manager

warehouse/driver

Encore Global

PSAV Canada had a good thing going since 2010.  After years of growing and getting better the bosses moved to the US and all that was gained, was lost. 
The new manager is  concerned not about people, but about making more money.   They are say people come first, but thats all they say.  As long time technicians are leaving, like me, the new techs taking our places are new and inexperienced.  And this brings the company back 10 years. Its too bad.  But companies like FMAV, Clarks, Freeman (to a point), CCR, Stage Vision are driving  the industry now.  If you want an opportunity for growth - join one of these companies.  PSAV used to be a great place.  And might be again in 10 years.  But joining them now will provided no opportunity other then a pay check.  Use caution and ensure you have promises in writing before you agree to work with them.  From a freelancer point of view, still an ok place to work but ensure you come to the work site with EVERYTHING you will need.  Ensure you get an end time and understand EVERYTHING you will be expected to do.  As new technicians come onboard to replace those of us leaving expect them to be of little help.  They will receive no training.  One manager I over heard actually said, 'I just throw new people into the fire.  They may mess up but they will learn."  So ask if you will be working with one of these technicians. 
I hope this helps and as I work my last shift with PSAV this week I wish all PSAV technicians that choose to stay, all the best.

This is truly the worst AV company to work for, hands down. The level of disorganization and condition of equipment is laughable. The majority of equipment is questionable as to whether it will work at all. You never know what youll be doing or what is involved until you show up, that is if even the people on site know.

Its clear they are only interested in making money. Techs get paid well below industry standard and their benefits are almost non-existant unless you shell out more from your paycheck to a more expensive higher teir offer. 

Management would rather throw you under the bus than admit they gave you bad info for a show. Some management you wonder how they even retain their job due to their incompitence or garbage attitudes.

Most of the staff are ok but there are definitely a bunch to watch out for as they will backstab you just to protect themselves. Youll find out who they are quickly enough (lifers).

Over all, if youre new to AV this may be a good place to learn as they dont really care about your skill level, they'll throw you into positions youre not qualified for and then ream you out when you mess up the show as a result.

Stay far away from Encore. Youre better than they are and youll never get the respect, pay or praise you deserve.

Im sure every location is different but where i was, it was bad. So bad were the policies that a lawsuit was filed... Often we were interupted from lunch. People were sometimes asked to work off the clock. I've seen people fired for medical conditions. I regularly had less than 8hrs between shifts. It was typical to work until midnight then have to be somewhere else at 5 or 6 am. Promotions were pennies while the company hit record profits. We often included unjustified hidden fees that didnt make any sense to clients who were told, "thats just theway it is". Hours were routinely cut short so to help employees survive, managers would pay out out unscheduled vacation days and 'burn' sick days so employees could pay their regular bills. Ive seen employees go on assistance to meet their regular bills while hours were low. I was eventually fired for something i didnt even do because management only cares about their clients and wont stick up for their employees. Im sure all locations are different but this was an abusive job. I reccomend that any skilled tech work freelance or union instead of supporting this company with your talent. That said, there are many great employees who made working there less miserable and even fun at times.

Ive been working at Psav for nearly 3 years and my experience with the company has been mostly negative. 

Psav as a company consistently fails to make its employees feel valued. In my time working here I've seen around 10 techs come and go, sometimes within months, sometimes days, and very few stay more than a year. 
The main reason for this is the low pay. Psav pays well below industry standards, especially for people with a relevant education and experience as myself. 
Raises are few and small and benefits largely nonexistent. 
What benefits they do give are closely guarded, I have been working full time hours for years but they refuse to switch my job profile from "contract employee" to "full time employee" because they don't want to pay for benefits (this isn't hearsay or my opinion, this was said to me directly by my manager during my last evaluation). 

Sometimes you have to fight for enough hours to live on and sometimes you will be working 60+ hours a week and still be asked to stay longer.

Organization leaves something to be desired. I'm constantly finding out vital information about changes to shows long after it would have been convenient to  implement them.

Lack of consistent scheduling, the company will "try" to accommodate you but shows otherwise and actually promotes a lot to their full-time staff to file for EI in slow seasons. 

At work, sometimes instructions are unclear and you're expected to seek your manager or directors' help but usually it relies on you figuring it out and they can get to call you out for doing something yourself even if you know exactly what's going on. 

In terms of direction, your superiors can very likely have no idea how to do your setups, so they might think you should take 30 mins to do something, when you usually need 1 hour for that. You might not have any shifts so you have to take the last minute calls if you're only relying on this as your main income. 

They boast about "best place to work at" but who are the people having the good jobs? I have not seen anyone, from technician to even corporate level having a good time at work. The Workfoce Manager is also on call 24/7, so then I have no idea who is having a good time. 

Psav talks a big talk..but thats all they are. Even as a full-time employee you arent guaranteed any hours. When there are hours they have no problem scheduling you 12+ hours. They pay below national average for AV technician starting between $13-15/hr. yearly raise depends how many stars out of 5 you get on your review which determines a percentage of a lump sum that is to be split between every employee per location. (You are lucky if you get a 50 cent raise). Human resources can be hard to contact with concerning issues as they are located in ontario with emails commonly going unresponded. Little room for advancement, if you enjoy being a hands-on technician there is zero advancement opportunities. In an anonymous survey one of the biggest concerns was that employees did not feel appreciated or valued by the company.

Very little room to grow with a false promise that you'll be given the opportunity.

The company rarely has your back and often lays blame on it's employees when they haven't clearly set instructions.

Often breaks work safety rules and you're expected to get the work done no matter what. If you question it you will most likely not find work by the Directors of each property.

As a technician you have at least 4 different bosses on a day-to-day basis (Director, hotel staff, clients, clients bosses etc...)

Wages reflect that of an entry level intern but the work reflects that of a skilled tradesman with high level of customer service and willing to put your self in an unsafe work environment.

Best advice if you're unfortunate enough to get a job from PSAV is to network as much as you can and get out as fast as possible.

My Experience with this company was awesome to the worst.

The team: Directors from other properties, the entire staff are just awesome people to work with.
 But Higher management (in Canada)don't seem to know how to get their gears right.

I've seen properties getting all the necessary equipment, Labour, help they needed. While some others (mostly the remote locations) got nothing as of necessary labour or required help in order to have a healthy work life balance.

I've been awarded with #1 Customer Satisfaction and yet ended up having to work between 80-136h/week because my RVP didn't listen to me when I asked for help/labour.

I loved my work and would go back at any time, but not with the current RVP in place and certainly not under those same conditions.

FMAV / PSAV / Encore is destroying the industry. Profits over people always. Profits over health and safety- long shifts with not enough time for rest inbetween shifts during busy period, safety concerns rarely are addressed, the safety practices (or lack there of, are a joke). Blatant sexism in the old boys club (female coworkers were paid less, sexist comments often made on site, HR did nothing constructive about complaints.) No one cares if you are past capacity for delivery of shows, so things get sloppy, techs work unsafe hours and shows fail because of a lack of resources. The "process and procedures" are an absolute joke, they are either so restricting you can't do your job or don't exist when they clearly should.

Pros

-Offers decent experience
-Lots of responsibility
-Good amount of vacation to start

Cons

-Management has unrealistic expectations, especially considering how poorly they pay
-No direction (AT ALL)
-Very poor senior leadership
-VERY bad at thanking employees or showing any gratitude (which is ironic, because they preach this to their clients)
-Extremely poor communication from managers (They don't tell you what they expect and complain when you don't meet their unrealistic expectations)
-VERY low pay (Over sell bonus pay which is unattainable)
-Poor organization (no protocols in place)
-Feels like a start-up company ie. One shared phone for 3 people in tiny "office", wasn't even connected to a printer for 3 months!!
-Absolutely terrible! Avoid at all costs!

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Audio visual technician 1 salary reported	$35.00 per hour
Technician 3 salaries reported	$29.00 per hour
Operations manager 4 salaries reported	$48,000 per year
Sales manager 3 salaries reported	$63,333 per year
Warehouse/driver 1 salary reported	$22.00 per hour

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