Too many lies trickle down from Corporate, and it taints everything. This company fools itself into believing anything and everything in order to appease a manchild like Ergen who's "too late" technological strides continue to drive us slowly into the ground. We introduced the New Slingloaded 922 VIP DVR Receiver to no fanfare. We told ourselves that it was the most sophisticated receiver on the market. It's most notable feature? The ability to stream content from your receiver to any computer or Sling-enabled device, anywhere that there is an internet connection. Guess what? They already have that. It's called Hulu. And it's free. Or Netflix, which has low-priced tiered subscriptions. We are our own biggest fan. And we can prove it. We recently just ended a promotion to drive employees to install Dish Network services in their houses, because, as a whole, our employees did not subscribe to our services. Charlie Ergen, our Chairman (who recently stepped down as CEO of Dish Netwrok Services in order to let some other schmuck take the fall if our company suddenly goes belly up), held a televised all team meeting, addressing the fact that a majority of employees did not take advantage of what he called "a free service". He stated that those who did not, in fact, subscribe to Dish service did not have pride in the company. He wanted to chnge that, and "suggested" that people "show some pride" and get our services installed, even if they did not have the ability to do so due to not have landlord permission to install, not having line of site. He said, "I don't care if you don't use it, just get it and throw it in the closet." Our Chairman said this. And that was followed by a corporate wide initiative to get employees installed. One would think this would be easy, given that the service is"free". But the services for employees are not free. Employees receive a monthly credit of 39.99, enough to cover some costs, but it could leave you paying taxes, DVR fees, phone line fees, etc. In my opinion, is something is a credit, it is not free. Dish even built a web forum to address this and other hot button topics, and one employee from Colorado stated that "until we become profitable as a company" , we shouldn't expect to get free programming. During this chaotic, and neurotic drive came another corporate initiative - to become "Best In Class". No one ever mentioned what we'd be best in class at, or who decided, but it spread like the plague as our new corporate mantra. After meeting our goal of signing up enough employees to both placate Ergen and fluff our subscriber base, we proclaimed that we are now "Best In Class"! Where? And who decided? The company derided us with hoopla to get employees as subscribers with such tactics as saying, "Do Pepsi employees drink Coke? Do Chevy employees drive Fords?" and a "You can't be a brand
ambassador if you don't have the product" mentality, all the while stating that it was free. That's a lie. The fact is, if this company could get over itself, it wouldn't be so bad. You figure, we work 4 days a week - that's roughly two weeks a month. The FSM's have to perform a Tool audit, a Van audit, a Quality Assurance Inspection (because we're low on QAS's), a safety survey, and aride along, with each tech, twice a month. The IM has do the same, for all techs. The General Manager is also supposed to do this. Five times a month, minimum. How is that productive? And it's all because some coprorate guy visited a jobsite once, and a tech was missing one tool. Suddenly, we need to audit every tech monthly. And techs have to bring in their tools every night, because Corporate is afraid techs might be "freelancing" on thier off days. But we're Best In Class.
That's why I think the lies are Dish Network's Biggest fault. We think we're competing, but we're not even on the playing field. We might not even be at the same game.
Bottom line, like my science teacher always told me, "K.I.S.S.", which means, "Keep It Simple, Stupid."
