programmer analyst

service technician

mécanicien automobile

chef d'agence

customer service representative

Sasktel

This company is definitely a crown corporation with lots of oversight and tons of micromanaging. Senior management argue and use destructive criticism to try and put down other departments but offer no advice, vision or clear outcomes that need to be achieved. The pay and benefits are great but it comes at the cost of a culture where it is hard to get support, cooperation and help from fellow employees. I notice that it is a command and control management style so if you try to suggest an alternative to your manager, director or executive you get labelled as a road block and that you can't follow directions. I've read the other reviews for SaskTel and I'm not sure what departments those employees were working in.

I can say this, if you're in-scope and you just go to work to put in your time and collect a pay cheque then you may like working here. I don't suggest taking an out of scope role since I've seen how the amount of time managers are required to work is continuing to increase due to under-resourcing in-scope positions.

10 years ago SaskTel was an amazing company who really valued their employees, fast forward 10 years later and not so much. Budget cuts are constantly demanded from the executive team and are further blamed on the Sask Party. The budget cuts are primarily cuts that only the employee's see such as Clothing allowance, cell phone concessions, work rallys etc. Even though SaskTel wants you to be a team you will not receive any store rallies, Christmas parties or BBQ's. The chance of career advancement is very low due to Seniority being the #1 factor. Most desirable jobs require 20+ years of seniority to even receive an interview. For the first 10+ years you will be part time and will not be able to take more than 7 days of paid leave in a year. You are eligble to take 2 weeks of non paid hours but will come at the cost of falling behind on seniority and eligibility for a full time  position when one does arise.

A typical day at work involves multi-tasking every second of the day to make it productive and efficient. Day starts out with logging into 10-15 online applications, then checking emails along side logging in and catching up with any updates with work. During work you are trying to fulfill customers requests, updating accounts, taking arrangements, completing orders, educating the customer and listening to what they want and fitting the customer with the correct needs and wants. Co-workers are great always willing to lend a helping hand and management is always busy under stress of directors and motivating people to meet and exceed quotas. The hardest part of the job was to voice an opinion in a large company in inefficiencies and errors with systems. The most enjoyable part of the job was the family that I had made while working there.

What is the best part of working at the company?
being able to refuse a shift every week

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
- training is done half-assed
- manager is “working from home” so they’re not there when support from manager is needed 
- irate, profane, abusive customers are a regular occurrence but you’re expected to tolerate them 
- workplace gossip is not unlike high school 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Best to avoid. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Be prepared to work next to someone who behaves inappropriately and/or doesn’t do their job properly — then have a manager who doesn’t do anything meaningful to resolve this issue as it persists and gets worse as time goes by.  The job itself is unpleasant.  Also watch for shameless brown-nosing and favoritism.

Working at the tech support call center.
The good: 
 -You get a decent hourly wage and good benefits package. 
- Co-workers are nice and friendly

The Bad:
- Managers are only there to make sure you hit their targets.  They are friendly but pretty useless for actually advising you and corporate policies. 
- Be prepared for 3-4 months of 20hrs per week.  Most months is 30ish hrs per week. Some weeks maybe more. 
- Be prepared for some nasty customers. They can be really angry and offensive. 

The Ugly:
Don't believe the promise of work from home after 6 months. It won't happens. Maybe after a year or 2 if you are lucky. Even with perfect metrics like call handle time and ACW and repeats, they will have a long list of excuses as to why you can't  ever quite get there. 
- A co-worker was fired on their 364th day of work right before their 1 year probation ran out. 

During the recruitment process they will tell you that it is possible to work from home upon successful completion of training.  That sounds great.  But the truth is that they move the goalposts so don't take their word at face value on this.  The office is in a location which is dangerous as the office is in an area densely populated with vagrants, evidenced by bodily fluids and bodily waste all over the pavement near and surrounding their building. Their customers are irrational and unpleasant to deal with on the best of days which is not unlike management. Work there if you absolutely must but the culture stinks. Also be prepared to have management who will lie to you and plays favourites.

-the majority of the time you'll always start as a tier 1, in either technical support or sales, and you work yourself up from there

-managers are hit and miss, its a 50/50 of good and bad


Pros:
-higher pay compared to similar jobs
-processes are well documented
-support for tier 1 techs, is reliable


Cons:
-there's seniority, so doesn't matter if you're more qualified, someone there longer is getting the internal job posting
-too many seniors, who should be retired but aren't, decreasing internal job postings
-calls are somewhat stat focused
-location has no onsite parking, Regina parking is ~$15/day


-overall it's a good stepping stone. There are some lifers at their 1 support. Thats a result of the combination of the person and just bad internal postings. Better off applying to a different company if looking to increase pay.


Like any call centers calls become routine.  The most frustrating part is not being able to make the required changes to solve a problem but having to rely on other departments to do so.

The people, management or otherwise, are great and make work an enjoyable place to be.  From my experience management is beyond supportive and honestly caring.

The hardest part of the job is trying to understand what goes through the mind of some of the on site technicians.  It is hard to believe sometimes but you do only hear one side (customer) of the story.

Overall WORK HERE and you will not regret it..

I worked as a service technician answering the technical support calls for Sasktels internet and wireless services.  The job is very stressful as there are many calls to answer and your adherence to your schedule is measured.  So it can be hard to get a breather in on a busy day.  Expect to be answering phone calls almost continuously for 8 hours.  (Aside from your 30 min break and two 15min breaks)

The work is typically casual part time, but they usually max out your hours.  This is a big problem if you need a full-time guaranteed hours type job to get approved for a mortgage or a loan.  It might take 10 years for you to build up enough seniority to qualify for a full time position.

Typical Day. Went to the office and discussed the workload with coworkers. helped cst's and ft's with there workloads and carried out my own individual assignments

What I learned. The importance of customer service, how phone and internet systems work and basics of fiber optic transmission 

Management. all the managers were effective and helped individuals with there concerns.

Workplace Culture. focused on the importance on teamwork. and worker involvement 

Hardest part of the job. dealing with upset customers, more specifically the general public of non customers who simply dislike sasktel. 

Most enjoyable part of the job. i enjoyed nearly every aspect of this job. i would gladly make it a career

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Programmer analyst 14 salaries reported	$34.64 per hour
Service technician 4 salaries reported	$26.75 per hour
Mécanicien automobile 7 salaries reported	$41.20 per hour
Chef d'agence 7 salaries reported	$106,413 per year
Customer service representative 3 salaries reported	$26.33 per hour

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