SIM International reviews about "work environment"

Somewhat of a toxic work environment

The company is just getting into Canadian market and is still very small (less than than a dozen employees) but they intend to grow their business in the country and expect to hire many more people. There's very little information out there, they're a subsidiary of The Argus Group, an insurance company based out of Bermuda. Somers Isle Management (SIMs) is their Canadian branch.

Compensated less than required to lead a life in Vancouver.

-The vision of of the company is not always clear for employees

Low compensation, not a lot of opportunity for promotions or growth, difficult to get raises.

Low pay A lot of changes recently

I was terminated 2 days before I became full-time for being a poor fit. Let’a just go back to the moment I was sent an offer. They sent me an offer and it was addressed to another individual who also started on the same day as myself. Got to work the following week and my name is spelt wrong this time in my emails and the applications. I get it to be corrected after a week or so but it was misspelt again. Sent out another communication to get it fixed and I was told it’s spelt correctly but again it was wrong. During this time I had I believe 4 different email addresses created for me, I had no idea which one was working and for what but I couldn’t log in to access personal information. Besides the constant spelling errors and login information issues, they were all finally corrected 2 days before I was terminated (2.75 months in). During the interview, I was told by the floor manger who would be my direct supervisor that due to my position being swing, I would not be able to properly get all the experience from each department as I would be moving around. It’s more of a position where you get put in a department when they know it’s going to be busy (basically the labour), which is something I didn’t mind, I’m just there to work. During the termination meeting, I was told that I didn’t master all the departments and didn’t take radio calls or try to do something different, that it just looked like I was happy processing and not doing any other calls. The fact of the matter is that the employees who were In their specific department always took the radio calls and just went and did it. When I asked in many scenarios what can I do to help, I was always sent back to process gear in the back. I was told many times that they have enough hands out here to just go back and process, how does one learn the job if one can’t be out there on the floor doing other tasks. I was pretty happy to work in the cable department because those guys had a different approach to the work ethic and they brought us the new guys along when there was a radio call and taught us how to properly do a task. Although it was the toughest department to be in, it was the absolute best department to work in due to the friendly behaviour and work ethic of the entire crew. I was also told that I never took initiative to do anything. This is absolutely far from accurate. On my first day and every other day after, I noticed that the environment was the absolute filthiest place of work I have ever been in. No one swept, tape everywhere, piles of dust bunnies and paper and plastic bits everywhere. I was the one who took initiative on the slower periods of time we had and deep cleaned the work areas. This goes unnoticed but it didn’t matter to me, a cleaner environment is a healthier environment and makes the day seem to go smoother. I would always sweep the floors at the end of the day and certain individuals didn’t care about seeing the floor being cleaned because as it was being cleaned, these individuals would try to throw tape and paper into the bin (like basketball) and miss and the floor would just end up dirty afterwards. Now to the behaviour and communications of some of the people at this location. My direct supervisor only held 2 conversations with me throughout the entire time I was there. He would not even respond to a good morning or a hey or anything, just walk past you while you said it. He once came to me about 20 minutes before the end of the day and says I’m working slow. Ok, I’m doing what I’m told to do but apparently each person who’s in charge likes things to be done a different way. Some want an item to be meticulously checked and other just say make sure it’s working. On that day I had to Meticulously check everything I was doing and multiple times. It was annoying how long it took and the lack of tools made it even longer. You’d have to share a bottle of disinfectant, screw drives, testers and this reduces the efficiency of the work. Sometimes bulbs wouldn’t be available and you’d literally have to search deeps and wide for one of expendables wasn’t open. I high suggest you look at this lack of tools issue and have proper stock of items you won’t have to walk 2 minutes to get one bulb each time it’s needed. Back to the meeting in the boardroom. I was told that I was comfortable pulling up a chair and doing sandbags all day and that I should have found something else to do. I said that I was told to do that and he was like it seems to happen often. Yeah, it happens often because of how many sand bags are needed. Literally I’m getting told that I’m doing the job but not doing the job. Made absolutely no sense to me. I was called over from other departments to do sandbags and sandbags alone (processing up to 200 dirty ones a day). Am I supposed to go against what the department head told me to do? I was also filling out an order one time and then I was told go back to sandbags they’re needed to be done. Imagine being told I’m to comfortable doing to job while literally doing what I’m told. I was also never once told on how to improve or where to improve while working there. No one gave any advice and even when asked it’s always to general just process the item and it’s fine, that’s what you’re here for. In addition to this, favoritism is seen throughout the work environment which is fine, we all have favourite people, but, what I couldn’t stand is over hearing conversations between heads of departments making fun of people for having bachelors and masters degrees and working that specific job. Maybe these individuals need to take a step back and realize that Covid messed up lots of career paths for lots of individuals and people were just looking for a job such as myself and others. The toxic behaviour should stay at home. In general, there is just a massive lack of communication and no one seems to care to do anything about it.

-The company vision isn't very clear