Advanced Distribution Solutions Reviews

Top level management relies on totalitarian authority accompanied by ever-changing business goals and non-existent communication. The one and only management style that is employed in the entire office is fear. Executive emails threatening mass termination were commonplace. I remember more than one sales meeting where sales management went around the room asking every single person whether or not they thought that their jobs were on the line. If you were not willing to literally work 20 hours per day you were labeled as lazy. Whenever anyone left the company, executive management would send out horribly demeaning emails not only to the entire company, but also to partner companies, despairing the employee who left. There are no such things as holidays or weekends, as you are expected to be working at all times. In one meeting I was told that I was expected to "give a little back to the company" by getting to the office about an hour earlier than expected and giving them a "free" hour as thanks for them hiring me. Quotas were set by taking the best year that any salesperson at the company ever had and setting that as everyone's quota, regardless of their experience or time at the company. Verbal abuse was daily occurrence. They had a policy for salespeople to be "on the hook" for the items they sold. That means that if, for some reason, a customer didn't pay for an item, the salesperson would be charged for that item. On a few occasions a customer returned a printer after the manufacturer return period had expired and refused to pay for it. I was charged the full price (not our cost, but what we had charged the customer) and it was automatically deducted from my paycheck. I later found the printers that I had paid for had been added to the company's demo pool. Management took every possible opportunity to withhold pay. Salespeople were "billed" for postage when sending out marketing materials or product literature to customers and prospects. On one occasion executive management assigned a House account to me right before taking that customer out to an extremely expensive and extravagant dinner, and the cost of that dinner was deducted from my sales. I was told by executive management that I wasn't being a "company guy" and that I needed to adjust my priorities because I wouldn't skip my son's first Cub Scout Pinewood Derby when one of our vendors had stopped by the office at 5:30 and asked us if we wanted to go to dinner.

The title of the review is the response an HR professional gave me when I described the company culture. Blanket threats to fire entire teams are treated as motivational strategies. Speaking up on any topic is generally a prelude to personal insults and condescension from certain management staff, even if the comment is in line with a previously stated company directives, which themselves change without warning. Working less than 13 hours a day is referred to as lacking passion, but don't expect overtime pay if you do have passion.