Reynolds and Reynolds – worst place to work, according Glassdoor

Jeff,

Wow, that Glassdoor report is a real eye opener! I worked at Reynolds and Reynolds from the time they acquired the HAC Group, where I worked as a Cyber Car Catalyst, in May of 2000 until I left Reynolds to work for Courtesy Chevrolet in August 2005. Since March of 2007 I have worked for Reynolds primary competitor, ADP Dealer Services, so I have opinions about the differences in working at each company. While I worked at Reynolds, the company was generally a great place to work... Good benefits, promotions... Other than the "reorganization" of the company every 6 months prior to Brockman buying it, Reynolds was not a bad place to work and there were a lot of good reasons to be there... Then, after Bob Brockman took the company over, I noticed that my friends still working there were becoming more and more like people acted back in the old Soviet Union days... Paranoid, afraid for their jobs, not wanting to speak out or be heard... More and more of the best people at Reynolds left. When I started working at ADP, I was amazed at how many of the brightest and best people I had worked with at Reynolds were now working for ADP... Why? Apparently the article you cite really helps to clarify why many of the best people at Reynolds who had other opportunities have left since Brockman bought the company... I had the great honor of sitting next to Bob Brockman as a dealer guest at the Reynolds Superbowl Party in Las Vegas in 2007. His attitude, commentary and conversations with me were part of what put me over the top in deciding to go to work for ADP. Something about that guy made me WANT to work for a competitor... And, well, kick some butt in the dealer solutions marketplace!

I checked out the Autotrader.com ratings for the hell of it, is it me or is it pretty obvious the Autotrader.com listings are being sugar coated by HR Recruiters from ATC? Wouldn't suprise me. The begining of the Kool Aid fountain.

This is really sad. Growing up down the road from their headquarters in Dayton, Ohio and having a large group of my friends that work at the company it is frustrating how one person can change the face of company. I never thought I would see an approval rating lower than our wonderful one foot out of the door president....

Mega high turnover and they even drug screen for nicotine, yeah, [sarcasm]I'd love to work there[sarcasm]

Reynolds screens for cigarette smoking? Since drug testing is normally done after an offer of employment has been made, does that mean you could lose your Reynolds job offer from having smoked cigarettes? Is that legal? I don't smoke, and I don't recommend smoking, but if it isn't illegal, not even immoral, how can Reynolds withdraw their offer? Is this something that simply reflects the arrogance of Brockman's army of pit bull ferocious lawyers that are on standby to sue car dealers or their widows?

The Bob Brockman experiment is failing. The business model is broken and good people are fleeing the sinking ship like rats. I submitted a 'lead2sale' prior to my departure. 6 months later I am informed they will not pay me the $250 they owe me. I guess they are too stupid to realize that I still have my database of all the clients I engaged plus some. That will be the most expensive $250 they ever didn't spend!

I worked for Kalamazoo-UCS in the UK two years after Bob Brockman bought out Kalamazoo to increase the companies European share. I was employed from 2004-2006 and left of my own accord. I took drug tests, answered personality tests, mensa tests, and an over the phone quizzing session to the Houston office regarding smoking and morals. I was told the job I applied for involved 6 months in the states was no longer available on my first day and I would work in the UK office... I then realised a large percentage of the staff resented the take over and people were steadily moving on. Bob has rebranded the European arm to Reynolds-Kalamazoo and I hear from current employees that nothing has changed, people are still getting randomly drug tested and if caught smoking even in personal time warnings are issued.

If you have experienced the cult...you'll know what I'm talking about!

I had the extreme displeasure of working for Reynolds when it was still UCS (Based out of Houston) and after the merger with Reynolds. We (UCS Employees) were very much used to the good old boy, big brother, inept leadership, etc. that shocked everyone in Ohio and the UK. The resoning behind the tobacco screening (When I was still there) was that they (UCS / Reynolds) provided health care at no cost to you, so they can dictate what you put into your body. The humor of this was that the free healthcare coverage was so poor that I enrolled into my wife's through her company out of my own pocket because it was less money to pay for coverage than to have free, miniscule coverage. Most vistits to the doctor were considered "wellness" visits and, therefore, were not covered by your insurance. You had to pay out of pocket for all lab tests, blood work, and the m=prescription coverage was laughable. My Clarinex prescription was $75 a pop on their free insurance and it was $15 on my "Pay" insurance. Sadly, the cycle will just continue because the Texas offices are located in College-centric towns and their will always be an inexhuastable supply of cheap labor that will stick around while they look for real jobs with real pay and benefits.

"Because of the economy," I and a few others were let go. And I must say, I've been thrown out of bars with more class than what they showed.

A recruiter called me from Reynolds and Reynolds in response to my resume. The first question she asked me is whether I used any kind of tobacco products. No one is legally allowed to ask that. Instead, have you ever been disciplined for extensive or additional breaks?

Lo, and behold, today I received a nice, neat email informing me that the positions they had available are not a match for me. Why would they call me in the first place then?

I believe I have been discriminated against. Some comments have eluded to the fact that it is an "insurance issue". Even at that, employees should be able to be insured in the way we are insured with life insurance companies.

Being turned down for even an interview based on a phone quiz about my tobacco use is discriminatory and has no bearing on how I perform my job or my skill sets.

Is there any petitions, class-action suits, etc. that I can contact? Jobs are hard enough to find in the Dayton, Ohio area without these illegal questionnaires.

Actually, in the state of Texas asking about tobacco use is legal.

Did anyone else find the irony in the "personally sent" completely biased political e-mails sent by Bob a few times in the past year? (another legal question?) The main purpose of the e-mails were to warn us to fear the evils of big government dictating our lives. I am convinced Bob would prefer to dictate our lives for us instead, and may not realize he is doing the same thing he preaches against. Mandatory health screenings, drug tests, monitoring employee e-mail/internet access, building location entry/exit, and now monitoring diet, thanks to mandating employee ID's are the only form of payment in the cafe at lunchtime. Yes, you do feel as though you are in a Soviet Union environment, unable to speak out or have an opinion. Very depressing.

I worked at Reynolds for 8 years before I was let go in April of this year. So I remember what Reynolds was like before Brockman. I also got to experience the Brockman regime for a couple years. I was on the Product Management side of the business for one of their CRM apps. What just blew my mind was Brockman's insistance on sticking his nose into every centimeter of every business/development decision. Any new feature requests, enhancements, bug fixes, etc had to go through him for approval. You can probably guess what that did to our ability to creatively meet customer needs and keep ourselves in the game. Brockman became the bottle neck, and it wasn't long before I found out that any new feature requests/enhancements simply were not going to happen (at least not within the next 3-5 years...not kidding by the way). You can guess what this did to my job. I honestly had nothing to do all day everyday because the back log of feature requests that the programming side had to deal with was so huge that new feature requests were just laughed at. Eventually I just broke and stopped wanting to come to work (though I kept coming in day after day with nothing to do). This is just one example of the garbage that is going on at Reynolds. Knowing what I know about their situation, especially their development process, were I a dealer I would set sail in a very different direction for my CRM or any other software needs.

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Isn't it weird how the Dayton Daily News has not printed a word about what is going on at Reynolds? Well the reason for it is because when they wrote initially about the takeover Brockman and his goons went to the main office and told the editor and chief that if they print anything at all about Reynolds they will have their contributions pulled among other threats. Pretty sure that's considered blackmail. It is amazing how it is legal in this country to buy out a perfectly good company with a billion in revenue that has a long standing heritage of over 100 years, no problems and steady growth, buy this company, and destroy it from the inside out to make a handful of people rich while destroying the local economy and more importantly the lives of the people who live there. The VP's and former CEO Fin O'Neill got rich from the buyout and moved away while the company steadily lays off 5-10 people a week equaling thousands over the years with a crappy little severence to keep them quiet. He does this so that there aren't enough laid off or fired at once to start a lawsuit or draw any attention. He blatantly fires/lays-off older people and women which would be a huge discrimination lawsuit yet no lawyer will take the case out of fear. The employees hate him, the dealers hate him and there is no protection from these types of occurances from the government especially in Ohio. Go to hell Brockman!

Brockman has enough customers locked in to run the company into the ground while squeezing out every dime for himself...and when one day...it's just not worth the trouble...he'll padlock the door and kiss it goodbye..laughing all the way to his bank in the Cayman's. That's the thing about not having to answer to those pesky shareholders... Reynolds is Private. Bob can do whatever he wants. The longer people wait...the more barriers he has time to erect to dissuade exit... while charging people through the nose.

Michael, You are so right. Older people and women at Reynolds enter work daily with the fear that they could be the next to be walked out. We know the routine. Two managers approach with folder in hand. The three of you go to the office, then you gather your things, they take your badge and then comes the walk of humiliation as they escourt you to the door and watch you until you drive away. Your former fellow employees are instructed not to let you back into the building. What can you do but go to work everyday and leave with a sigh of relief that you get to come back and do it again the next day. I'm just glad I have a job. Job opportunities for those of us over 50 are not that great, not in this economy. I just wish it were for a company with somewhat of a conscience.

This is definitely something I want to keep tabs on.

I expect to hear any day now that Reynolds will be moving their headquarters to Houston. They been moving job positions that way since the takeover.


Also, now that they are implementing a no smoking ban on current and future employees to begin in January 2011, more and more folks will be exiting that place.

Maybe if Reynolds management didn't fib about the earning potential and problems with their "next generation" software...the stock wouldn't have gone in the toilet which made the company ripe for a takeover.

Reynolds is a joke since Brockman took over. I had worked with Reynolds for almost 12 years and had over 25 years of Automotive experience. When I applied for a sales position internally, I had been turned down due to some personality trait exam that I failed to complete years earlier. WHAT? Are you kidding me. Obviously, I told the Company to go #&$% themselves and now I am earning well over 6 figures in my new career and being treated like a person. So long Reynolds, I know you will not make it another 5 years under the Brockman Regime. Brockman is Done!

I'm ready this at work!

I retired from Reynolds & Reynolds in Ohio this year. And to date, there have been several employees exiting this place like rats. WHY? Brockman's dictatorship is the answer, and I do not blame them. When he dictates that if you were a smoker and quit and NO ONE at your residence can not smoke because that is a NO NO, that is wrong. You are not on the property, so your private life is none of Reynolds business.
No one likes the dictatorship changes being made, but due to the economy, there are not an over abundance of jobs available, so you try not to make waves so you can keep your job, until someone decides to walk you out with humiliation.
Richard Grant (who started this company) has probably rolled over in his grave hundreds of times, wondering how Reynolds could allow such a thing to happen to what once was a good company to work for.

I was a UCS employee from 2001-2002, in the Regional Systems Consulting Group. While my immediate bosses were ok, the culture in houston was awful. I was a college graduate, in my first job making a WHOPPING $30,000/yr! AND I had to but 4 suits to wear every day. 6 months into my employment, they let us wear UCS branded polos, but only a few times a week. On outings to visit client sites (I only traveled 25% of the time), I drove a 1992 Mercury Grand Marquis... now THAT's class! My family urged me to quit, and referred to them as the "evil empire". I posted my resume on monster, got called into HR because they found my resume, and eventually found a job making $48k. For 13 months I sold my soul to Mr Burns ("Simpsons" reference: Brockman looks like the walking dead). I don't regret it at all, as it taught me to enjoy any job I will ever have, because trust me, it doesn't get any worse than UCS, or apparently Reynolds and Reynolds...

I just left Reynolds.its awful there people are getting fired left and right for smoking.its hard to see my friends with babies get fired for no reason...

Totally legal as long as it is disclosed up front. Dayton Power and Light has not had a smoker employed there since 1992.

Reynolds almost killed me... gave me a heart condition and so stressed out I almost lost my life in a car accident. They laid me off the day I came back from FMLA, t was the worst part of my life but I have a good job now and my health is good my face is not quite the same but I am alive and if still worked at Reynolds I know I would be dead... That is how they treat there employees, they literally make them want to die. If you buy anything Rey you are supporting terrorism and I am living proof.

I DO NOT LIKE PEOPLE POSTING WITH MY NAME AND WHAT THEY THINK HAPPENED TO ME, THERE IS SOME TRUTH TO THAT BUT THAT IS NOT ANYONE'S BUSINESS!! Delete both posts Moderator!

8% is WAAAAAAAYYYYYY to high. Should be a negative 10! This man single handedly ruined a once great company. There was a post further down about someone who had a heart attack and almost died - one of our best salesmen (early 50's, great shape, exercised regularly, ate well) DID have a heart attack while driving a company car on company time talking to his useless dictator boss and died in a heart attack. No doubt Reynolds and his manager caused the heart attack. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!

I was the best person that Reynolds and Reynolds ever hired, and they fired me!   I single handedly transformed every job that got there into something truly special.   I was their best employee ever.   Everyone knew that I was the best employee.   I have an MBA from Keller, and a Bachelors from Devry, and I memorized all the books that were assigned to me in school.  I have that kind of outstanding memory to do that.     I have done everything better than everyone else, just ask me!   To bad Reynolds let me go, I would be running that place inside of 2 years.