Pros
*Extensive training at Alabama Training Center...it's basically a 2 week Certified Operator Course. Helps a ton when you go to another company that doesn't refuse to send you for Certified Operators test. *Ability to run your given route in a way that you feel works best *Nice work vehicles if you get a newer one. They don't skimp on the build-out of their rigs. *Monthly service rotation Cook's uses seems to cut down on "Call-backs". *Base pay will allow you to survive. Things get weird when you start down the road of collections....
Cons
*Uniform policy is insanely strict. You wear their shirts, their pants, and their name badge. You are required to wear brown or dark colored socks....socks.......socks. I once got sent home for wearing light grey socks. Again.....socks.....really? *You must be clean shaven every morning or you will not be working...or you can cold shave with a community razor conveniently kept in manager's desk. Oh, but you can rock a pedophile mustache if you like because that's acceptable.... *You are a debt collector that happens to do pest control. You will spend hours calling customers about outstanding balances. But when it comes down to it, you'll run the service again, paid or not...no way manager is canceling an account for bad debt unless they are forced by people above him. *They will feed you a ton of "For God" mumbo-jumbo and then do things that will make you laugh at the absurdity of it all. If Cook's taught me one thing well, it is that if a company is over the top with the "For God" deal...and it ain't a church...watch your back. *You will work a ton of hours. 7:30 to ? is a reality you will learn to live with. You will keep a time card that means nothing...yet management will force you to fill one out...there may be something going on with this that is not exactly kosher...but whatever, if you like getting a pay check, you'll do it. *Mandatory Saturdays are insanely common even if you are a stud who can keep up with the route. They always tend to land the Saturday after a Monday holiday...weird how that works.... Management will also call a Mandatory Saturday for other reasons...usually because they fired someone for something and need the free hands at the end of the month to run that "OPEN" route. *You will always be a man short. "Cover Drivers" are as mythical as Unicorns in the Land of Cook's. If you go on vacation...enjoy it....because you will pay for it when you return. 6 days a week and sun up to sun down till the end of the month for daring to take some time for yourself. *You'll never truly know what you're pay is. There is no breakdown of what you were paid for and what you missed out on. You'll be fed BS from your manager...(he has no clue how your paid either, by the way)...about how you're paid on collections.
