Copper River IT Employee Review

Former Employee – worked at Copper River IT full-time for more than a year

Pros – One of the benefits is having access to many of the free online training offerings that their technology partners are providing, such as VMware and Cisco. However, most of these are sales related that VMware and Cisco offer for free to their partners, so it is of limited benefit if you are looking for decent technical training.

Cons – This company is basically a head shop - they are filling "butts in seats" contracts with various government agencies, and they must keep overhead low in order to make a profit. Growth potential in these positions is almost non-existent, and once you are placed on a contract there is absolutely no management visibility whatsoever.

Another major problem is that there is almost no job security at Copper River IT. As their primary business is in the Government contracting business and they may in fact lose a contract at any given time, they will simply turn around and release those employees in order to ensure profitability. While I can understand the desire to run a profitable organization, it was my experience that employees were released with no advance notice and no severance package whatsoever. At one point, we actually observed almost 20 people fired for no apparent reason in a 2 month timeframe, which is a lot considering the company only had 90 employees at the time.

The benefits are probably some of the worst I've ever experienced in the industry, in fact, at Copper River IT I paid almost double for my family's health insurance compared to what I paid in previous positions. This really has a huge impact on the overall take-home pay. And in fact, over the years, the benefits at Copper River IT have actually gotten worse. Although they finally decided to establish a 401k in 2010, there continues to be no employer match.

Advice to Senior Management – The executive staff at Copper River IT claims that the key to making their clients happy is by having a group of enthusiastic professionals dedicated to serving their clients' interests. Management also claims that once the necessities of life are properly addressed, such as family, home, health, prosperity, and opportunity - people are more engendered to pursue their professional goals.

However, the reality is that many of the employees working at Copper River IT are extremely unhappy in their positions, and management is completely out of touch with their employees. It feels like a body shop and it is, and it has created a "revolving door" atmosphere that nobody can feel completely comfortable working within.

Not only do employees feel that the necessities of life are NOT being properly addressed, there is a feeling that upper-level management simply doesn't care about the employees and only wants to meet the bottom line. Certainly not the type of environment that allows one to blossom and pursue their professional goals.

With some real changes within the ranks of upper level management and some pretty big changes to the overall benefits and compensation, along with a genuine desire to create an atmosphere of goodwill towards the employees, the environment could change to one which actually inspires people to help transform and grow the company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company