pay cut

this comment pertains to commissions not being paid. it's rediculous that management can't figure out how to pay what's owed to their productive sales people. they bust their ... to sell and do a good job for trugreen, but are not getting paid what is owed to them. THAT IS BULL..... The ones that get paid a regular salary don't seem to be worried about it either. Sales people need their earned pay to help with bills and to be able to have a life. They get harrased to meet their sales quota, but when it comes time to paying them on time, upper management drags their feet. What if all the salespeople were to drag their feet like management does?

To see the law firm's video about back-pay that is owed to TruGreen employees, go to 

www.viddler.com/v/c536bc46 

The entire video is also posted on You Tube.

TO: Trumeen (and to whomever else this may concern).  

So far us Specialists seem to be getting paid our commission OK. I would assume that employees throughout the entire company have those weekly 3-page "Pay 130" forms that your Manager has you sign-off on. The first [1 pg] is your electronic time clock punches. the second [2 pgs] is your hourly pay breakdown with commission. Just have a 1-on-1 with your Boss, and have him go thru these forms with you. 

The big issue that we are having here is that new hires are being brought in at a higher wage ($12.00/hr), which is nearly the same, or in some cases a bit higher than veteran Specialists that have been here a few years. 

Plus with the new standardized 10-12 hour work days {which alot of guys were already working before under the old FWW pay system} the company is expecting us to produce more dollar revenue. And believe me; now that we're making hourly with time-and-a-half overtime, they are watching hours worked a lot more closely now! So alot of guys are not hitting these new higher numbers. Management says that the computerized "Route Optimazation" is supposed to make us more accoutable when it come to efficiencies. The problem is that there are a lot of "intangebles" and "variables" that this computerized routing does not take into account! We shall see how this new pay, sales and production plan all shakes out!!!

Got a question for any salespeople out there. Our branch hasn't paid out on any commission yet this year and say it's because of a computer glitch in the new pay structure. They claim it's a nationwide issue. Is this true? Is everyone else having to wait on their money too? I can't live or provide for my family on the base draw pay. I need those commissions to keep my head above water. Anybody have any info on this?

As a 2nd year employee, another guy and me pulled in 35% of full program sales, and he was in Hort!! But anyway I was screwed out of 2000.00+ minimum commission bring home! Oh "they" typed the wrong # ( employee ID )into the computer, ETC ETC ETC!! B____ ___T the auditor's boy friend conveniently got the commission and the bonus days off. I made comments to the senior Manager in which he told the Sales Manager to give me = amount of the next sale.... HAA NOT!!! And this was the same Sales Manager that SCREAMED and THREW my clipboard at me because?? I QUIT MAKE RECOMMENDATION'S ON THE INVOICES!! Because I had a background in HORTICULTURE and I could explain to the customer the REAL problem, so it always most likely was a SALE, but no commission in my pocket!! The SALESMAN the next morning would go through my invoices and call my customers, that maybe wanted to wait or whatever and OFFER them a discount to make A FULL PROGRAM HORT SALE!!! But I worked 65-75 hours a week on a salary, the branch never made our goal or retention bonus because OH it is going to be this # TODAY and Oh THIS WEEK it's going to be this # !!! REALLY!! Oh but this year WE DON'T HAVE TO WORK IN THE RAIN, JUST 4 DAYS A WEEK @ 11HRS A DAY AND WE'RE GETTING PAID HOURLY!!!! Oh the CRAP is going to hit the fan in another 30 days!!! Last year we went through 30+ employee's and lost 2 rounds of business, because we couldn't get to the customer as needed!!

Dino, 

Do you guys do aeration and seeding where you are? And will you make more money at that time? Will the production goal possibly be raised at that time to suit the company's needs? I'm not being sarcastic. I do wonder how things vary from branch to branch. I just think that if the company can find a loophole, they will.....regardless of how it affects us.

Yes, it is true that Trugreen has switched to this new payroll plan because the Ohio Attorney General filed a Class Action Lawsuit againt TruGreen in 2009 for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act. This legal action happened as Trugreen was paying its employees salary with half-overtime + commission during the regular production season. And then paid hourly (at or below 40 hrs/wk), with no overtime nor commission during the off-season. The Court ruled in 2010 that Trugreen could not have it both ways by alternating their pay methods back and forth between the two different seasons. So farewall Chinese Overtime. No more working more hours and making less money. 

I am a Specialist down South and we are working full-time under the new hourly payroll plan. Under the old pay plan we were working 10+ hours per day, 5-6 days a week. The new plan is a maximum of 12 hours per day 4-5 days a week. The actual weekly pay take-home is the same with the new plan, yet we are working fewer days per week. 

All in all, this new work schedule has been a win-win situation. Specialists like getting more days off in the week. For the first time in a very long time, specialists are glad to have their lives back, for personal & family time! And Managers like the fact that more production actually gets done with the longer work days. Plus, vacation requests cannot be denied once the vacation days have been earned.

Ok, so now we get 1.5 for OT instead of .5. Improvement. However I'm not buying that we're gonna get any production pay. 40-42 hours a week and a goal that's too high to reach in that amount of time. The only reason they've changed any of it is fear of getting in trouble because of labor laws. Don't think for a minute that you control your own destiny while working for trugreen. We are their ***. Plain and simple. They will do what they want to with us when they want to. ..........signed.......Your Humble Servant

All of the Managers at my Branch called a special meeting to fill us in on the new Specialist pay-plan. This new pay-plan of going from salary with half OT to hourly with 1.5 OT looks promising. Prior to 2012 TruGreen used the flutuating work week "half-time" method to pay employees. The sad effect of this old plan was that Specialists ended up making less per hour the more hours they worked, because the fixed salary is divided by the total number of hours worked. 

Also Specialists were required to work 6 days a week most of the time which does not allow for a proper work/life balance. New employees with families made negative comments that they "Didn't know they had to sell their sole to TruGreen!" Or that thay weren't aware that Trugreen would "own" them. 

Specialist's non-productive hours each day are a major reason for low payroll hour efficiencies. In addition, working Specialists 6 days per week negativily impacts Specialists turnover. No advance posting of work schedule, causing last minute changes forcing employees to work Saturday when they thought they had it off. 

This new plan's goals are to improve Specialist's work schedule to increase production efficiencies for hourly payroll format plus improve Specialist retention. Specialists will still make commission on $$-production & sales. Solution: No more employees quitting due to working excess hours/days. No more customer cancellations due to poor service from burnt-out employees with negative attitudes. Utilizing the simple equasion of happy employees = happy customers. 

EMPLOYEES that want more information on this new plan may contact Rich Basis 570-239-5969

All the returning Field Specialists started back from lay-off at our Trugreen Branch this week for the 2012 season. And our Branch General Manager kicked-off the new-season orientation by introducing the new "'Alternate Work Schedule Project Replication Roadmap"'. 

Since the late 1980's (starting with the extreme drought of '8 TruGreen Corp primary focus has been MAKING MONEY. As a result, taking care of its employees, and really caring about its customers fell by the wayside. The end result over the last 20-some years has been high employee turnover. And a high customer cancel rate. TruGreen Managers always "benchmarked" its employees by ranking the ones that brought in the most dollars the best. Whereas, employees that were more "service orientated" were actually regarded less, labeled as "too slow". 

To address this, TruGreen's "'Continuous Improvement Team Managers/Consultants'" (Terry Preece & Rich Basis from PA and Charlie Keith from GA) performed a detailed review of the past Specialists daily and weekly work schedules. Data revealed that their work schedules showed that Specialists spend 2+ hours per day in "unproductive" time (in-branch paperwork + truck wash/fill time + travel to/frome route). As much as 30% [nearly 1/3] of a Specialists day is non-productive. In addition, increased "Chinese" OT pay negatively impacts the labor % (i.e. working over 50 hrs/wk the pay-out rate flucuates downward.) 

TruGreen specialist turnover is a major contributor of bad service issues (poor application rates, spray/granular products under/overuse; customer dissatisfaction). Managers also not calling off work due to poor weather in order to make budget. Specialists made to treat yards in poor weather conditions such as rain or wind, reducing effectiveness, and negatively impacting public perception. Creating an employee attitude of "I have to half-*** it in order to hit my 'Saturday off' number!" Plus operational demands to finish open routes "requires" remaining specialists to work overtime (mandatory Saturdays; adding yet another 2+ hours of unproductive time).