Mississippi Pest Technician Says Terminix is Terrible

Mississippi Pest Technician Says Terminix is Terrible: Another Terminix Technician Blows the Whistle

Let’s call this Terminix employee working in Pascagoula, Mississippi, “John.” Here is his story.

“I currently work for Terminix as a Residential Pest Technician. Where do I start on why this is the worst job I’ve ever had in my life?

I guess I should start with the pay. The current pay plan at Terminix (which was newly implemented in May of this year) is possibly the biggest scam going. I’m certain that the new pay plan is designed to completely screw employees out of money. The new pay plan is a grading scale that uses metrics that determine what percentage of your commission you actually get to keep. There are five grading metrics that go into the pay plan: 1. Missed stops; 2. Cancellations;  3. NPS surveys given to customers; 4. Route completion for the month; 5. Manager score of your performance known as “work flow.” This system sets technicians up to fail.

1. Here’s the problem. Missed stops are often out of our control. It doesn’t matter if a customer reschedules that day, or if its raining, or if the call center or your manager or route planner schedules something wrong, or if the scheduler made too many appointments to physically complete. Any missed stop for any reason is considered the technician’s fault. Boom. That is a direct hit to your pay.
2. Cancellations are often something you can’t control as well. Customers cancel for all sorts of reasons. Some can’t afford to pay for the service anymore usually because of lost job or they don’t feel they need the service anymore. Often times though, it is because they are frustrated with rate increases or unhelpful customer service agents or managers. It doesn’t matter if the customer is moving or even if they have passed away, the company will view it as your fault you lost a customer.
3. NPS is the survey the customer gets after the service is completed. The survey lets customers rank the service on a scale of 1-10. 8 is a neutral score that basically means nothing. 9 and 10 are the only positive scores you can receive. Anything below 8 is detractor and affects your pay. Often bad surveys will mention how they love their techs but then give a low score because of billing issues or promises that are not kept by management.
4. Route completion for the month is almost impossible. They expect 99 percent completion to get full commission for that grading metric. But because of poor planning and missed stops and cancels, that is basically impossible to accomplish.
5. “Work Flow” is your manager’s opinion on if you follow the work flow steps set by the company. A 5 in this metric is the only good score you can have. Guess what? Managers do not give 5’s. I find it crazy because they never, and I mean never, come out into the field to observe or help you at anytime, so how they know if you’re following the work flow is beyond me

To make commission, only paid schedule stops make you money. But on any given day you can have multiple free extras scheduled, and your manager can come up with any bull$*** reason to have you come to the office before work starts or after it ends. You are also required to call customers two days in advance to confirm appointments on your own time. You are responsible for collecting suspended accounts like a collections agent. Even if you do manage that, good luck getting your manager or the call center to not screw up the processing of said payment.

I work anywhere from 50-60 hours a week, and at the end of the month I’m barely making minimum wage. However, you are told you can sell services to make more money for yourself, but more often than not, your manager will key it in under themselves and steal any commission you may have earned. Human Resources at Terminix is a complete joke. They are definitely in cahoots with corporate. They are completely unhelpful with any concerns or needs you may have.

This company is so corrupt and unethical it’s not even funny. I‘m not even gonna get into the termite side of Terminix. That would be a ten page essay of how they screw honest people over daily.  If you are considering taking a job with Terminix or hiring them for a service, just don’t. There are plenty of local companies that wont treat you like a cash cow.”

This story came straight from an anonymous Terminix employee. Boy, does this sounds familiar: forcing workers to achieve unreasonable quotas, terrible customer service, poor treatment of employees. And “John” hints at the company cheating its customers. What’s your Terminix Story? Tell your story HERE.