DLT Federal Business

DLT Federal Business Systems No job training or orientation, Firing without cause Chantilly, Virginia

7th of Jul, 2011 by User221076

I had no misgivings when I went for an interview. I met with their HR associate Donna and their IT specialist Geoff. I was told that I would serve as an IT inside sales representative. It was a woman owned small business. When I got the offer letter it seemed like a standard job offer. When I came in my first morning I had a couple red flags. There was another sales associate who started the day before me. He had absolutely no sales background. I was told that the company had their headquarters in Delaware for tax purposes but ours was the main office. I found this odd because there were only three supervisors, three sales people, and one "government liason" workingthere. I also had no job training. I was told that my job was to contact government agencies and introduce myself and the company and offer our services for IT, hardware, and software solutions. They set me up on the phone and had me start googling Department of the Interior phone numbers. After about two hours, Cliff, the manager called everyone into the conference room and talked for about an hour and a half about how important it is to work hard to make money. Afterwards I went back to work googling agencies and calling. The odd part was that the company had no GSA Schedule. They said that it was pending. Over the next three days I heard several accounts; it was coming next week, it was supposed to process yesterday, it was supposed to be in three months ago... Despite having no training, I picked up the job very quickly. I found two lists of every purchase card holder for two different bureaus. Without a GSA schedule I was supposed to call them and ask if they had any micro orders pending or any office supplies they needed. By day two I had all kinds of bad vibes about the place. I was told their revenue from the past year. For proprietary purposes I will not post it, but it was nowhere near what a small business government contractor with a woman-owned holdout should make. I also saw Geoff interviewing a new woman in the conference room. Despite this I needed the money and kept working, trying to make the best of the situation. My neighbor has worked in sales with government contractors for about twenty years and managed several multi million dollar companies. He said that the company was not following proper practices. Thet had no GSA schedule. They were using accounting software to build quotes for clients. They offered no orientation. He also showed me a few different programs companies can buy that list all the card holders for government agencies. DLT-FBSC had me googling them and then asking to speak to card holders. I told Cliff about Centurion, the software that listed these numbers. I said it would save about 4 hours of work each day and allow for more direct contact with our target market. He said he knew and wasn't interested in spending the money on it. My "mentor" at the company was a woman named Venessa. She had worked in the sales department for about 8 months. Her sales strategy was to shamelessly flirt with anyone she called. She actually interrupted a conversation at one point to tell her potential customer that he had a sexy voice. Her mentoring consisted of her taking me into the conference room and tell me that I should be on the phones during peak hours. I should also point out that I am a Muslim. I took about 10 minutes every day around 1 to pray in the conference room. Rose, a sales manager told me that I could and it would be no problem. I was grateful for the accomodation at the time. Now I wonder if it may have been a factor in my firing. In my job offer it stated that company hours were from 8am to 5pm. I was caught in traffic and came in some time between 8:03 and 8:05am that Friday. Venessa asked to speak with me alone. I was expecting another "call customers" speech. Instead she said that the company had to let me go. When I asked why she was the one telling me this she went and got Rose. Rose said the company has a zero tolerance policy on tardiness. She said the company was small and needed people "dedicated to the process." She said the attendance policy should have been explained to me when I was hired. I worked three whole days at this company. While I was there they were actively interviewing new sales people. I received no orientation or job training. I was fired for being 5 minutes late with no coaching or warnings. I performed better than Venessa or the other new hire by finding two entire databases of phone numbers and contacting people from them. This looks like a company that churns and burns. I think they keep hiring telemarketers and putting them to work with no training. I have no idea how they have an A+ BBB rating. They have ORCA and CRC certifications, which means they should be held to mor astringent hiring and termination practices. They hired me away from another company and fired me in less than a week on flimsy pretenses. I am now unemployed for the first time in five years. DO NOT WORK FOR DLT FEDERAL BUSINESS SYSTEMS!

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