This thread spurred me to call my friend who worked at UCS and ask him about it last night. He said he couldn't understand how they haven't gotten sued or in some sort of trouble for abusing their employees or doing something illegal.

You know the type of people...You know they're doing something really, really wrong, but you just can't prove it or figure out exactly what it is.

Hi, my name is RenoAg and I worked at UCS from 8/94 - 4/95.

Do I have to say much else at my first meeting?

Mookie, Bad Example, and Computer Nerd- I'm sure I would know you guys. I was one of the first ones in PTS in College Station and stayed there for a couple years in the shopping center and in the new building. The only good thing about that job is I met my wife there. I finally had enough and quit by yelling profanities at my supervisor (he tried to write me up for not turning in a project on time - the same project that my manager told me to stop working on). Of course they like to say that I was fired.




[This message has been edited by D_Wag97 (edited 1/6/2003 7:33p).]

The UCS philosophy is to accept the turnover and take the gamble that people with legit suits will roll over and go away. I do know of some people that received settlements (mostly regarding overtime issues), but those take time and resources to arrange. Most people would just as soon cut their losses and get on with their lives, and hopefully, learn a lesson from the whole sordid experience. Sometimes you don't know a good job until you've truly had a crappy one...

[This message has been edited by D_Wag97 (edited 1/6/2003 6:37p).]

I got the last laugh. I used the knowledge I gained in their classes about the car business to help get a job in finance, that is, I work for a company that purchases contracts from car dealerships. I'm not sure I could have got my foot in the door in this business without that knowledge. Basically they paid me to get trained for a later job which has turned into a career. So you never know. But while I was there, it was a most miserable place to work. I'm glad much of my time was spent in those classes - I wasn't actually doing anything at all. HA!

Oh - I was supposed to be training to become a "Regional System Consultant". They were gonna move me to Charlotte and I'd cover both Carolinas. They kept trying to get me to put money out of my pocket for movers and make the move itself, while always delaying any discussion of a raise - which was agreed upon beforehand for me to make the move. Push came to shove, I said I wouldn't spend a dime or move until the issue of my raise was settled. They still insisted I go ahead and move - they must really think their employees are stupid. In other words,spend money, go move, be a LONG way from home, and we'll continue to "consider" a raise. Oh yeah, I'd have some real leverage then!

I basically cussed out my boss and left.

There was some other stuff but I think I have suppressed it too far to recall.

RenoAg...so you were a Sales Trainee? Were they still making you guys show up at the Houstonian a couple of times a week to run/"bond" with the VEEPs?

No, not sales. Maybe they don't have this position anymore, I don't know. Their system consultants would go to the dealerships, and show them how to use the bazillion different reports that they didn't really care about anyway. The idea was that these useless reports (which the competitors didn't offer) were important in keeping a dealership from going to a competitor. If the dealership employees got used to "using" them, then if the dealership's owner or GM tried to switch to a competitor, the dealership empoyees would fight it.

In reality, what would happen is a consultant would show the reports to the client and how to run and "use" them. The dealership employee would quickly become agitiated and point out the "usefulness" of the report and would then pepper the consultant with a list of problems to fix that the customer service folks had not been helpful with. At which time the consultant said I'll check into it and make a quick exit.

Allegedly.

But we weren't required or even asked to do the bonding thing with Brockman at the Houstonian.

RenoAg...based on the fact that our tenures at UCS coincided only three months (8/94-10/94) your position may have been something new I didn't know about. Was it considered part of Client Services, like a remote rep?

RenoAg, that's exactly what a good friend of mine did. He was supposed to go to LA, and the company balked on talks about raises, moving expenses, etc. and he quit. He was even named employee of the year right before that- they definitely don't know how to manage people.

[This message has been edited by 77008 (edited 1/22/2003 3:46p).]

I've forgotten all the names of departments, but it was technically in the same department as the customer service folks who'd take calls and try to fix software stuff.

I don't think it was a new thing. At a minimum, they were in existence for 2 years when I came in.

77008...I knew Bobby pretty well...I often wondered if he had some dirt on BB and the other VEEPs that allowed him to get away with the stuff he did...I remembered he did a pretty decent RC imitation...I managed a software support department in Houston for a few years and got into the same kind of trouble for trying to run my department different from the typical UCS mindset...although nothing like what Bobby got away with.

Bobby cracked me up. He and Jimmy Crain called me into their office and busted my chops one day - all in good fun, I later learned - because I had a slip of the tongue and called this dyke who worked for us "Baby" one day. She evidently reported me to her superiors. I thought I was in trouble until Bobby and Jimmy started laughing. Before they sent me back out into the cubicle area, they were practically high-fiving me.

[This message has been edited by 77008 (edited 1/6/2003 1:41p).]

D-Wags! How's it going dude? Been trapping any hogs lately?

BTW...did you hear RC got canned?

Reno...you are right...I do remember the remote CSRs now. If I remember correctly, as a precursor to remote CSRs, UCS had travelling CSRs. One of these, a woman who had previously worked for Ford DCS, had an affair with a high-placed dealership employee. When UCS tried to can her, her boyfriend stepped in. She ended up taking a remote CSR spot in the KC area.

There was another situation where a UCS employee had a gay affair with a dealership employee in Cali. That caused quite a flap and generated a lot of dirt.

As one of the originals in the CS bench facility, I remember the good old days. I worked in the back room, cleaning & prepping the computers, boards, printers, monitors, etc... before they went to the front. The managers that rolled through there were a freaking joke.

I heard somewhere that Corey Pullig went to work there in Houston after he left A&M.....

Wasn't there also some story that Brockman kept a huge stash of guns near his office in Houston and shot up the store room with an Uzi while working late one night???

I've heard tons of stories about their Christmas parties.

What's up with those?

Gig 'Em

They got the Beach Boys to play one a couple of years back. Wow. The Beach Boys.

The Christmas parties were far and away the coolest events at UCS. They were suit and tie evening affairs, and no kiddos were allowed. They had a killer food buffet with all you can eat jumbo shrimp, and the bar was all the Crown you could drink. There was also a live band. All in all, it was a great time.

I heard the Beach Boys played at the Houston party several years ago.

yeah, about 2 years ago, they hired the Beach Boys to play at the Full Timers party in Houston. It was pretty sweet. I heard that they dropped over a mil on that party

The Xmas parties were fun, but what I loved was teh explanation that the company did not have the $ to give decent raises/salaries when everyone knew that they had just dropped a mil on a party. That was the year that they instituted the double declining overtime after they lost a lawsuit and had the nerve to freeze everyones rates for 6mos.
I worked in CSC from 12/97-5/00 and the only redeeming thing was the employees. I was constantly a leader in all the damn stats that they measured and always got the max raise, but that didn't stop them from complaining that I only came in 2 minutes early and left on time.
Also, I spoke with a labor lawyer and their policies are illegal - just noone wants to deal with that sh*t once they finally manage to leave hell.

any more christmas party stories?

did the part timers get free booze too?

Man, I'm starting to see some familiar names now.

The funnest part about working at UCS was the softball league. We had some pretty competitive games. They even had a home run contest one year.

Second funnest part: burger day in the cafeteria.

The year before I started, one of the software installation guys brought an 'escort' with him to the party. Evidently, she had a very NICE dress (or lack of one) on.

I remember everyone used to look forward to seeing who the field service manager in Los Angeles brought as a date. We usually weren't disappointed.

quote:

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Also, I spoke with a labor lawyer and their policies are illegal - just noone wants to deal with that sh*t once they finally manage to leave hell.

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This is what I was asking about in an earlier message? How the hell do they get away with this kind of behavior?

Although I don't agree with their methods, what was illegal? If I remember right, you had to sign a pretty lengthy employee agreement contract before you started. UCS had two lawyers on staff, and I'm sure they knew how far they could go, legally speaking.

Funny thing is, I still have my paperwork from when I worked there, because I'm still afraid they are going to call me and say I owe them a modem or something.

I don't know if it's still there, but when I left (10/94), one of A.J. Foyt's old Indy cars was displayed in the first floor lobby. I never heard the official price, but I'm sure it was quite high. That ticked a lot of people off because the company line was always that there was not enough money for better raises.

Big Cat...the home run contest was in 1994, at least the one I took part in and won. It was more of an excuse to meet at Memorial Park and drink beer all day. But then again, remember there was an official budget for beer kegs at Fiesta during Spring and Summer softball seasons. I had official permission to clock out on company business on the days I went to get beer. It really messed up the time clock system when I clocked in to work the next morning and I'd been out on company business all night.

I do remember the "professional" date...she was an eyeful, and the dress was quite nice, too. I especially remember the Exec. VP's wife getting pretty snitty about her.

I pitched quite a bit. You probably yanked at least one of my fatties (in a game, not the HR contest).

Remember Bernie? He was a pretty good player. Slick fielder.

I heard they gave 100k for the Indy car, and 50k for Chad Little's in the CS location.

I'll throw in an agreement with the softball league. That was fun. Enough to make you forget you were working for the gestapo? No, but it was fun. When the other team's pitcher was "management" I used to hit it straight back up the middle to try and get a good lick on em. Got a few nasty looks.

They also had a good hoops league when I was there.

By far the best part of that place was the employees. You could go to lunch and talk sports the whole time because there was so many guys. Course the ladies that would have lunch with us would get tired of it, but who cares?

OK, just remembered a good UCS story. There was a fella that worked there with the last name pronounced "Lot" (spelling changed to protect anonymity ) He used to go around telling everyone the first name of the woman he married was Mona. Get it? Mona Lot. Get it? Get it? That is exactly how he'd tell it. Funny thing is, I met her at the Christmas party - it was true.

And another one (Oh no the memories are coming back). I can recall a chick giving blood at a blood drive there and passed out going back to her cubicle. She was wearing a skirt and had no panties on and was showing her goods when she was passed out on the ground. I didn't witness it, but knew her and heard about it (not from her obviously - she was pretty embarassed).

still no grenade story?

Big Cat...I remember you from UCS and from Second Baptist (right?)...the funny thing is, I rarely went deep in league, but must've hit the right BAL (blood alcohol level) at the contest to be "on". The only Bernie I remember was on the building maintenance staff and did a lot more drinking/talking than softball playing. I also used to play in weekend tournaments with JMcK (a MIN man) and the CSR Mgr.

RenoAg...the funny additional joke about the Mona was that her maiden name was "Little"...that made her husband turn the brightest shade of red when we asked him...and the basketball league was fun, even though those horrible tartan basketball courts with the racquetball courts jammed right up against the end lines were a potential hazard.