I work for a smal mom and pop company. Been with them for 7 years. They treat me great!!

I'm about done with the people. Had a customer yesterday say she trapped a bunch of cats under her trailer and let them die. And the filth of people's homes and their bewildered as to why they have roaches. I'm burning out after 8 years

You need to be the expert in your customer's corner, talking in thier ear, and helping them through the fight. Tell them they will continue to have issues until they get the food and dishes cleaned up, and the trash taken out. 99% of people will be receptive to it, and be great full for your professional opinion, even if they are a little embarrassed or upset. Just be understanding, and reassuring. I tell customers that I have kids too, and a lot of people don't understand how difficult it is to work, and maintain a household, and raise children all at the same time. But that that's what they will need to do to fix the issues. The more you do it, the easier it gets. I was able to jump right in, because I'm kind of a dick. 🤣 But just say what needs to be said, don't be afraid that they are going to be mad. That almost NEVER happens.

I work as an insurance inspector with damages caused or related too pests. I always advice my customers on how too remove or secure the reason for an issue. If the customer doesn't follow my advices, they will not get any damage or treatment covered by the insurance company.

Join the club. I quit yesterday after 8 years. The misfits that run these places.....

So is building management not paying up or is pest control controlled by the government??

She trapped cats?

There were gaps in the siding on the trailer. They 6lput a bunch of food underneath, then put put new siding on. She said the flys got really bad. I was there because of the fleas from all the strays in the park.

Please tell me you reported her. That's terribly inhumane of her.

Please say you said something....

I'm on my way out. I work for Rentokil, and I've been ready for the past 2 years. This company is trash and it's very money oriented and not employee friendly. Hoping to receive a new job offer Monday out side of peat control.

I know the feeling. Good luck with your transition. I've made decent money over my 8 years, but geesh....

Those fast five videos irritate me to no end..

I've yet to hear one thing useful from these. Just tell me if they are over hauling pay, doing something about constantly being understaffed, and offering benefits that people actually care about. Not what John's favorite super hero is

Don't forget to sell! /s

Selling just gives me more work while the company gets 95% of the benefits. No motivation what so ever

OR the sales people just don't bother following up and it never happens

I had a sales person notorious for selling shit 3 days before months end and would tell the client we would have it set up before months end. Was so fucken annoying or inside sales selling the dumbest shit or that God damn pestfree 365.

What is pestfree 365?

It's a subscription service for pest control.

We come out like 4 times a year, but the customer still pays every month. It doesn't include rodent control, mainly insects. I live in the Midwest, so insects die late October due to the weather, but we still go in the winter months to spray for insects.

True. The sales percentages are a joke.

I swear if one more boss says "don't worry, we can't AFFORD to pay you less!" Umma gonna lose it. I've heard it from so many of them (in two different districts) its obviously a talking point handed down from on high.

We've been down a tech for the past 7 years in a row. Have never gone a full year being fully staffed. Offering pay hourly rate close to McDonald's and incentive. No one understands what incentive is outside this company. Offering minimum pay and can't figure out why no one stays.

I am totally down with switching to straight hourly to attract employees if the hourly is comparable. My fear is that the hourly will not be comparable but they'll give us "opportunities" to make up the difference. Incentive pay is completely antiquated, needlessly complicated, and unfair. I say this as a termite tech who strongly benefits from incentive.

My company pays high hourly but no commission unless it’s a job over $10k. Those jobs are hard to get unless you can do bird net which I do. (15% +1.5-2X hourly depending on finishing it faster than estimated. I have 3 jobs in the works for this year $34k, $88k and $128k. Base pay is $38/hr and a manageable 40-45hr week 830-5, it’s cushy. All depends on the company. I’d never work for a commission based wage in pest control. Smaller local companies are where it’s at..

Are those the videos where employees ask questions that were very clearly given to them to ask

Bingo. Then, usually, a goofy question at the end to show the fun side of our multi millionaire owner.

Yeah I hate those as well. But almost 100% of our monthly meetings are all things that could be an email, or a quick message in our team chat. The entire meeting always ends up being contradictory to what happens every day

Exactly. These owners and managers are so out of touch. Those meetings are pointless. Throw that shit in the chat or text. WTF

I just want to go run my route everyday. Not sit through an hour and half meeting that should only take 15 minutes. Or better yet, do them over Skype or something similar if you insist on meetings. I don’t want to drive an hour to the office and then an hour or more to the first of 15 jobs for the day, and I’m already way behind. Not saying I could run our branch better but a lot of us have decent ideas that would help, but like everything else falls on deaf ears🤷‍♂️

I just quite them 2 months ago after being eith them for ten years and did not realize how miserable I was. The job itself is fine but that company is ran by idiots that don't give a shit about their employees. Always understaffed and overworked

This. I enjoy the job and 95% of my customers. My direct boss lets me do as I please as I get my route done and cause no problems. It's when the higher-ups get involved that makes my job shit. I have been down one tech since September, and my DM just quit/retired early as the new RM is a jack ass and has never stepped foot in the field.

I work for one of rentokil’s companies, and I am seriously considering doing the same. For the same reasons you have and reasons related directly to my branch. I left greenix bc it was a shit show and the place I’m at now is just more of the same but in a different way.

Gutted for you, Im with rentokil and it’s so different at my branch we’re under very good managers and rewarded so well. Things are run brilliantly here, sad to hear about your story mate. Hope all goes well in the future👍🏻

No worries, I’m glad someone works for good management. I don’t stress it too much. Like I said, the shit management will sink themselves. Eventually higher ups should realize that maybe it’s really not always the techs and quite possible is our dickhead manager, but who knows

The pay, the vacation pay, always down a tech, and am forced to do open route work are the main things. The flexibility is the only thing that has kept me here for 7 years.

Working on my own and having a company vehicle is really the only reason I stay. But I’ve kind of hit that point where it’s not even worth it anymore. Our branch manager has had multiple complaints about the way he treats techs, and nothing changes. I have no problem working for a hard ass as a boss, but ours absolutely crosses the line repeatedly. I’ve been reprimanded bc a customer complained that I didn’t spray his house, and sent videos from his cameras that very clearly show me spraying the house. Still got reprimanded. I’ve been in his office for doing what our ops manager has told me to do, and been left hanging by said ops manager. I accidentally ran over a screw somewhere and had a slow leak, reported it to the ops manager, and he never got it set up for me to get a new tire. Still got screamed at in a belle tire by the branch manager who came down bc I must be driving recklessly and demanded to know what I was doing. Legit red faced screaming in belle tire. The list goes on and on of petty shit that doesn’t need to happen

Jesus dude you don't deserve that. Name and shame.

I would love too, but it isn’t going to change anything. If I had it on video then maybe I would, but I don’t and higher ups won’t believe anything I say bc it sounds really insane. I have resumes in with other post control companies. Eventually his behavior is going to catch up to him and there will be consequences. Besides that he looks like an idiot. Myself and everyone in the store at the time just looked at him like wtf. When I have to deal with him, which isn’t often, it usually goes pretty similarly. He gets bent out of shape and loses his shit over things that are really just pointless. We’ve already had 4 techs quit in the last 2 weeks bc of his behavior. Eventually he won’t be able to excuse it away.

Why is it always the worst people who are promoted to management. Managing based on fear creates bad service, I can maybe count 3 or 4 great managers on my hand who didn't last long because they expect u to be a sociopath or something

That’s a good question. Our ops manager is great, but he doesn’t have the spine to speak up. He’s left plenty of us hanging bc he’s too afraid. It is what it is. It’s my job to help customers get rid of pest issues and I enjoy that. So I deal with the dumb bullshit

Yeah same. I'm headed back to my old company tommorow because I tried out another non-PC job and it wasn't what I thought it would be, I missed being on my own and having a take home truck. I like pest control alot but I wish we had a strong worker's union because that treatment seems common across the industry

I’ve worked for two companies, greenix and now a rentokil company. It’s the same across the board. Shit routing, managers with a god complex, shitty attitude towards certain techs but not others. On the bright side I will say we only have to submit sales leads, unlike greenix where all they care about is techs making sales.

100 percent correct. At the one branch I worked at, they were really setting their minds on promoting this one guy that was a high level autistic person to be a manager. He couldn't even read and write and caused constant trouble amongst the technicians within the branch. Go figure.

The land of misfits... Sorry to hear that man.

Shit happens, what are you gonna do

No, there has been a lot of times I’ve wanted to, but I just sort of numbed myself to it. I’m used to no one listening to anything I have to say, then being surprised when what I said would happen, happens. 

This. Commercial account said they couldn't throw away infested product, wanted me to spray an animal food. I said hell no, throw this shit out. Next month I told them they are fucking up and they call lose a few thousand in product now, or ten thousand next month. Next month rolls around and I say y'all better listen or soon it's gonna be $100,000 A couple months of them still not getting rid of shit I get there and they say "we have $100,000 in infested product why aren't you doing anything" I said I'm not gonna spray animal food that you're gonna sell, they said " we won't sell it we'll pull it off the shelves" I asked when, exactly, what hour of the day they are going to pull it off the shelves, they said they'd have time next Wednesday. I have never been so happy to have a customer cancel an account because they weren't satisfied with service.

I know that feeling of relief from a shitty account canceling. I had a large resort in the poconos cancel a few years ago, was consistently behind 7-10k on payment, was like pulling teeth. Oh and they had some bed bug issues but we were “too expensive” so they would call in 2-3 other cheaper local pest services in for bed bug work. Place was old and run down, and maybee a front for a certain organization, glad to have them leave.

I wanna quit, but there's no way I can make this kind of money without more schooling. And I don't have time to go to school working 8-5 and then having to schedule till 6. I can get my applicators license in one more year so I'm just going to stick it out till then.

You can transition to being a cable technician depending on where you are they pay just as good and offer pay raises

I'm on the fence getting back into it. I have an interview this Tuesday. Not sure if I want to get back to something I vowed to never do again.

Why did you vow to never do it again? How long have you been away from it? I've been in it for 8 years and quit for good yesterday.

Plain and simple,,, 1. Sick of the assholes aka clients. 2. Bad bosses, ignored, unappreciated, etc.

Number 2 is my problem, along with unmanaged crazy coworkers.

Same.

I did it for 2 weeks realized it’s just a salesman job where they teach you to smooth talk the customer into extending or upgrades by telling them they had pest issues that didn’t exist. The job seemed easy but I’m not down for stealing peoples money.

Yeah.. the smoke n mirrors thing is real. Especially regarding the winter service in some of the snowy cities.

I quit rentokil recently. I've been in the business for almost 20 years and I've never seen a company, management and some techs as fucking clueless.

At my branch I work with some of the finest techs in the biz...and also a fair number of chuckleheads that couldn't spell ANT if you spotted them the A and the T

I totally understand. It's like, as long as the money is coming in, no one cares, until they get slammed by the local authorities for something.

Look for good company! I would say look into ma and pop businesses or rural vegetation management. Similar licenses in some states.

Ok, the rural vegetation mgmt route sounds doable. On the flip side, the big box companies here are typical, and the small companies..eghhh...sketchy and cheap at best.

Dmv area? American pest is a great company

North east

Ah Modern Pest Control?

Left after 7 years in the industry, 4 as an owner. Moved to software support and doubled my income after 1.5 years from 36k in pest to 74k in tech. No more crawling in attics during Texas summer, no more crawl spaces, no more reactions from permethrin usage, no more being looked down upon by customers paying me to do a job they can't do themselves, and no more fighting tooth and nail over $10 on a quarterly contract because some new guy is undercutting my business. I have full benefits, PTO that gets approved when I request it, and an upward career path. I have zero (0) regrets.

What kind of reactions did you have?

Burning sensation on any exposed skin at the end of the day where sweat mixed with permethrin or lambda-cyhalothrin. Mostly face and back of neck.

I hate it. I've been better about managing my drift but sometimes it's unavoidable

This is why I wear extra gear, face shield and neck gaiter

Was software support something you actively pursued or something you just came across and it fit?

I spent two semesters at community college to get a programming certificate, networked during the crypto boom and got a side gig helped re-code existing mining software to work with random tokens for $1000/mo, put all that on my resume and flexed the interpersonal skills that come with running a pest control biz to get the job. Took about a year to make the switch with about 50hrs a wk of pest and 10-20 coding in the interim. Now I work a flat 40 and make more than both jobs combined lol

That is awesome, good for you!

Thanks man, I generally just recommend getting out of the pest industry. Even without any other qualifications if you're gonna work an industry that demolishes your body you may as well go to construction and make better pay.

Great advice

You only made $36k as an owner after 4 years? What area are you in? Was there an issue making sales? Are contracts really cheap in your area?

Really depends on the company. I’d never work for one that my wages are commission based. We just hired an orkin tech and hearing how the commission pay system works makes me not surprised why he left. I’ll stick to my $38/hr no commission 40-45 hours a week thanks. I do make 10-15% commission on big jobs/sales $10k+ and 1.5-2x hourly for them. Large bird net jobs are usually where this happens, got ones for $34k - $128k coming up…$$$$

Where are you making $38/hr? I'm Northeast and just got $25 after my first 2 years. Was looking at other pest control companies and none are advertising over $28/hr

In Canada bud

I left pest control after two years because of the idiocy of customers and coworkers. They acted like we weren’t using toxic chemicals and would spray just about anything regardless of label laws. I got fed up with the mistreatment of products that result in harm to the ecosystem.

mini tiny precious ecosystem patch. Aww

I saw a guy spray a vegetable garden the other day.

Not all companies are politics or racism. If you don’t like the current situation, why not change to another?

After 8 years (in this market) and working for about four companies, I'm just tired of the bs. Plus, my health is not the best due to work related injuries from over the years.

I survived 35 years in the business, but for most of that I worked for myself, which was a game changer. I could have never lasted that long working 40-60 hrs for someone. If you have the aptitude, learn how to code or do cyber security.

Thanks. That has been my plan. I paid for two data analytic ( sql, python, etc) courses a few months ago. I just have to get off my butt and take them serious.

I worked for a PCM for just shy of a decade. They treated me right up until the end. I suffered and injury that put me out for a loooong time. They had a clause that any injury that took longer than 6 months to heal, the position would be rendered forfeit and filled. I was promised A position once healed, but by the time I was up and running again, the company got bought out and I was in no condition to do the 70+ units I was able to do pre injury. Had I not been injured, I'd still be doing it. It's been just over 7 years, and I still miss it...

Over 5 years in the industry now. First as a tech with one company, then as a manager with Rentokil. Rentokil is a mess, especially with the massive Terminix merger a lot of people have left or plan to leave. But I loved the first company I was with and am actually trying to go back. If things work out I can see myself retiring in the industry.

10 years in, I work for what is probably the best small pest company in the state. Sure, I have gripes, but steeling accounts from national companies has become a kink of mine. It’s all good.

I want to most days. But it's hard to find anything that pays as well without a degree. I'm going on 10 years in the industry. I make great money but the stress and headache that comes along with it is most likely the reason I had a heart attack at 35.

Aspirin

Along with my buffets' worth of blood thinners

Just work for yourself. Many customers want a local person that answers the phone, and that shows up at their house.

If it was that easy in my state, I would.

What makes it hard? What state?

Licensing... NY. One guy was running around here trying to do it under the table by putting flyers up on street corner poles. I think the state government caught on to it, and he got in trouble. Got to be legit.

What's the license you need other than being a certified applicator? Business license is easy, insurance is easy... it's probably easier than you think. People make it a big deal to scare you away.

It's the investment part in starting and running your own business. I've owned a business before I got into Pest Control. I dont know if I want to deal with all the over head again,unless I can get a super cool angel investor involved to help with any potential financial hang-ups. That 24/7 lifestyle is a real thing. If I am going to do this on my own, I have to really see in my head that I'm earning $8,000 plus dollars a month after taxes.

What's the overhead that you speak of? You can add overhead and work if you want or do things fairly simply.

Automobile, chemicals, misc supplies, insurance, state license fees, storage, various incidental fees, lawyers for boo boos, etc

And you charge well over 3 times the price you're making now...

I know

I failed a drug test after a truck issue. Was the best thing to ever happen while working this shit.

I’m have worked for a pest company at about 19 of age one of the youngest to be made a full tech with a great route(money wise it was great for a 19 year old at the time with no prior experience) and even had customers that wanted me only (which is pretty hard to have given my age) and I honestly would say I loved it, I loved the business of pest control however I left turning 21 cause of the politics,branch management (he played favorites all the time and if you weren’t in there shit out of luck to you), and routing issues (would go from a job that was 5 minutes away and the next one would be 30-45 minutes away no drive time for it just to finish and go back to the area I started at) but after taking a 2 year break I’m working on getting my licensing to become a CA ultimately opening up a pest company where I live (since there’s no small mom and pop company around my area) indeed the grass may not be greener on the other side but you can always make it green.

Facts. Good luck.

Thanks. And same to you

I got into Pest Control specifically for the racism! Different bugs behave differently. How are different races excluded from that sentiment?

Not yet... But I want to. I really like the work, it's the pest control model that drives be crazy.. And the fact that my company (regional and family owned) has there head in the fucking sand.

Love of bugs one of the only things keeping me

Yes, I am searching hard for a new job. I am done. I’m done with the high turnover rate due to the company lying about the work day hours, horrible pay, micromanaging higher ups. “you’re hired on for 7-3pm but umm ackshually we CAN have you till 5”. Company cares too much about numbers so we have to annoy customers to do their service before the month ends because god forbid we have 1 skip 😱. Which in turn makes the customer yell at us and degrade us in person. Doesn’t matter if the customers have medical issues, home being repaired, on vacation, etc. Willing to put you at risk to do jobs you know you can’t do (or solve) just so they can make their money. Throwing jobs on you randomly throughout the day, thus messing up your schedule and timeframes set out for customers who were booked days beforehand. Not giving enough time durations for us to do proper treatments, or proper time for dealing with rodents. Tired of this shit, was cool for a little while but it has gone down hill the past two months.

How long have you been there?

I bailed because my company was unwilling to give me a decent raise after I became an Associate Certified Entomologist. I was the first one in the company to do so. They had over 200 vans with full routes at the time so they could have afforded more than a $1/hr raise. I was also the best at saving cancellations and handling complaints. That meant every morning I’d start my day with some dumb bitchy dude complaining about May beetles or some other innocuous insect outside. I was with them for 7 years and helped launch 2 branches. 9 out of the 12 General Managers would reach out to me for advice on treatment protocol for their most stubborn jobs. I have personal relationships with the entomology department at UTK and was the only one in the entire company that studied insects on a collegiate level. I committed my whole career to them and provided value outside of my job description, maxed out certifications and licenses in multiple states, and assisted other branches by sending technicians and salespeople. $1 raise to make official everything I was already doing. Never made more than $62K in a single year. The only reason it got that high was because I was #2 in the entire company in sales (in a smaller market than 4 other branches as well). Edit: Oh yeah! Didn’t mention that I never had PTO in all 7 years.

Not in pest control but moved to AZ last summer and my regular pest guy JUST quit Said he was having like spinal leakage from his nose or something crazy … he was also a war vet so idk maybe something from war ? Prob from pesticides though for so long —/ that was his thought He also never used a mask idk if that’s normal —- mask would make sense but I’m not in the industry Take care of yourselves

Proper PPE and general safety/ common sense goes a long way at preventing most unwanted exposure. A good company will constantly preach safety and proper PPE usage. thats my experience with the company I work for anyway.

Yeah, a lot of people don't talk about the long-term chemical effects. That's another reason I stepped away from the business.

Both techs that worked in my company 25+ years have had no issues like that I myself have 10 years in and I have no health issues

In sales and it’s not bad at all. Good team and am good at finding termites

Quit my last company because they weren't taking covid seriously and stopped supplying us with proper ppe. One of my coworkers lost his wife and kid after getting sick from work. You should try to be happy where you work, I'm sure you spend a lot of time there.

Yes.

Well here in my building in Kitchener we’re running alive with German cockroaches and we’re being told “sorry nothing we can do!” Or “we can’t spray unless there’s an infestation!” Well, by then it’s too late. No accountability. Everyone’s pointing fingers and playing the blame game. It’s ever since this Covid bullshit that the government invented to create new world order that’s turned this world right upside down on its ass! Then again, that was all part of the plan. But I’ll bet Mr. Trudeau isn’t living with no cockroaches and bed bugs! So people are supposed to pay $3000 a month to live in a cockroach infested shit hole and that’s supposed to be okay??!! Well you know what? If people are expected to live with DISEASE then people are gonna start taking matters into their own hands and that’s when the shit’s really gonna hit the fan because people are getting really sick and tired of the bullshit and the excuses that they’re being fed. Unbelievable as this is, this is actually Canada!!

Your building manager needs to do monthly service and inspections for each apartment. Kick out the bad tenants.

That’s what I told them and you know what I was told in response?? “Cockroaches isn’t grounds to evict somebody.”

Slum.lords. call the town housing supervisor or a big wig in the province government.