Skilltech

Skilltech is the most unsympathetic, horrendously unprofessional company I have ever worked for, I was completely shocked by how it treated its employees and the number of unethical and at times illegally Gray practices on display was disgusting to say the least. 

Issues with the company itself: 

Supervisors and staff are uncaring and often reply to you in a passive aggressive manner when you have to get in connect for help out in the field, every other field worker and area disconnector I met told me to ask them for help first before getting involved with the office, there is a constant almost *rivalry* with the field worker and office due to the unhelpful and uncaring nature at the office. 
Staff are on a constant rotating door, in the span of less then a year Skilltech has had four different Meter Reading Supervisors and one new Area Manager. Supervisors were let go without notice to us and even after a new supervisor was hired field workers were not notified. When they let go of my first supervisor no one outside of the office knew about it, I rang him for help with a location only to be greeted by a very awkward conversation informing me that he was fired, mind you this was 2 weeks before Christmas. 

Problems with payment were a recurring issue with the company “forgetting” to pay me or other workers for certain routes or hours, you need to constantly keep a personal log book to make sure they are paying you correctly otherwise they will not correct themselves or show any interest in making sure the pay is correct.  
Team meetings consist of standing in a car park for 30-45 minutes, I was honestly taken back by how unprofessional it was and staggering these were mandatory meetings before the start of work. Multiple hardware issues and often not enough hardware to go around, any hardware issues mean you need to drive to the office, depending on where you live this could cost you 2+ hours driving there and back to your location, time lost is not recuperated and workers are not properly paid the hours they missed because of the hardware issues. 

Injured on the job while thankfully it wasn’t serious I and had to take a few days off, supervisor was extremely unhelpful didn’t want me to *officially* put in a report with Spotless, he told me the company prefers to deal with it in their own way and subtly suggested it would be looked down on if I were to put in a compensation report with Spotless. In the end I was only compensated for 2 hours of pay time for the 3 days that I couldn’t work. With there being no paid vacation time, no paid sick leave and no proper compensation when injury happens the job quickly becomes a nightmare of trying to work as much as you can with a constant fear of possible injury and no proper compensation. 

To top it all off at the end of the year we were invited to come into McDonalds at 6.45am before work, this was essentially our *Christmas party* and a thank you for working so hard during the year. I had to double check and make sure I wasn’t getting pranked, I can’t describe how embarrassed I felt when I got confirmation it was real, I had to show previous co-workers, family and friends who were appalled that it was real, never in my life have I felt so disrespected and unappreciated by a company with its attempt to show that it values you as an employee.  

Mentally draining job 

The hardest part of the job is how home owners, business owners treat you, you are often made to feel and are viewed as a debt collector, when 90% of your interactions with people is met with utter disdain for you being there because you are *giving them another bill* it mentally takes a toll on you. On the rare chance i was met with violence, owners threatening me, I have even had some beg me to not give them an electricity bill because they couldn't afford it, I cannot stress how debilitating this is when the majority of human interaction during the job is like this, without any coworkers to talk to or to vent to the job quickly becomes extremely isolating.

I’ve been doing my job for 10+ years and this mob recently took over the contract, slashed our pay and changed the work conditions to casual so we had to do about 50 hours p/w just to get close to what we received before as full time employees. Also they will try to dock you an hour a day ‘reasonable travel time’ to and from work, even though they pay minimum. They also have gps tracking so expect to be logged out as an unpaid break if you take longer then 5 minutes between meters, which in rural country NSW areas is a lot. Makes going to the toilet expensive if you are working 10km or more out of town from the nearest public facilities! 
In my entire working life I have never felt so disconnected from my employer like I do now, also add under appreciated and under valued. 
If you are desperate for work, well maybe give it a go but don’t expect any support, and tuck your pride back in your pocket. Expect to walk up to 25km a day in any weather from drenching rain to 40+ degrees whilst maintaining a very high level of accuracy and efficiency on minimum wage. There is really no chance of advancement as smart meters are making the readers job obsolete now anyway.

The most disappointing employer I've ever experienced.

Another review title here is 'Expect ridicule' and that's exactly what you'll get.  The first day was listening to a constant stream of criticism and some aimed at me as personal attacks.  Training was along side of the lead team member who would only think to explain something when it was encountered.  I was still learning things I needed to know 2 months later.  Asking questions was met with frustration and you are belittled because of that.  You get told where to park the work vehicle because of the micro management practice of the other team members.  If you're unable to locate a meter, then you're expected to call one of the other team members who don't always know where the meter is either.  When you explain what you see, when asking for help, and it doesn't match what the other recalls then you are told you're wrong.  Upper management refused to listen to any concerns and instead put them back on to you despite that concern being about a team member, who will just tell you again you are wrong.  After my last shift I was expected to garage the work vehicle for them until someone would collect it at an undetermined date and time.  Intimidated, ridiculed and emotionally abused.

Wanted to join the army. Started my training here. Great job for introverts and shy people. Just make sure you are extremely fit and can carry loads of PPE without fainting by 10am. Not a job for the faint of heart. You must complete at least 15-20kms and around 1000 reads per suburb. Pay is rubbish and work is tough, but if you love the outdoors, dislike office politics and have Olympic level fitness and mental power, this is perfect for you. Also great for uni students, whack on some study podcasts and go for that epic walk! Cons are long hours, very long distance walking, bad navigation (for the love of god get a potable military GPS, trust me), dodgy people who will chase you with a rake, dangerous dogs, depending on location dangerous or highly difficult terrain and weather (too wet or hot 40 degree days with all your gear) management was pretty friendly and took any sort of injury very seriously for your own well being too so great all round

Absolutely loved the job, given a work Ute and left to do the job at own pace, management was very helpful and took any problems I had with urgency and care, expect to work rain hail or shine, if you don’t like dogs definitely not a job for you, if you can’t take light abuse from customers not a job for you, visited some beautiful locations you would never be able to go, meet some very interesting characters, you are left to yourself to do the job so no useless workers to slow you down, if you finish your rounds early there’s always more work so never nothing to do, could of worked this job until retirement. only reason I left is the pay is quite poor. Also you are only told what you need to know, there’s a massive disconnection between the entire team and management, hardly any updates on the company and what’s happening, might not hear a thing for over 2 weeks, although if you call yourself with a problem they are very good to deal with. With smart meters becoming increasingly popular, this job won’t be around for to long.

The cons in the other comments I can understand. The organisation of these systems for meter reading is less ideal compared to my personal standards when it comes to rural routes.
 I find town routes ok. 
I find a lot of the meters rurally to be unnecessarily tricky to find a lot of the time, and I would have thought that after the many decades of being there, there would be very clear and concise instructions on how to find them. 
It would save a lot of time if this was organised for the meter reader to read, rather than spending time locating them. Really not sure why this is the case after the profession being around for so long? 
Just seems inefficient to me. 
Skilltech otherwise seem ok. I haven't experienced any grief on an interpersonal level. Supervisor is good. 
I like the town routes, the walking is good exercise, which is a big contrast to the constant driving of rural. 
Your experience may differ depending on where you work and live. The team in my area seem pretty decent. 


I don’t recommend working here unless you’re desperate. Management are totally incompetent and can be vindictive. I don’t know how they hold onto their contracts to read electricity and water meters. It’s very low pay and you have to do lots of hours to make a decent wage. That’s if they remember to give you work. Every meter reader has been attacked by a viscous dog at some stage. They regularly mess up your pay so you have to fight for it to be fixed. There’s always a high turnover of staff and I can understand why. Worst job I’ve ever had. 

Normally 7am starts but can start bit later. finish at 3. Expect 20km walking days unless you jag a driving route. Management is fantastic and very helpful. Safety is really coming in hard so if you sense danger it's your choice to not enter. Dogs especially cause the most problems. Overall it's a pretty crusiy job where you get to enjoy the day to yourself pretty much barring the occasional customer who wants a chat. Abuse is actually far and few between. Oh.... and expect your first week to be glued to a gps or your phone locating addresses ;)

Wages need to be reviewed. They are currently too low. The old wage system was better. 
Work will run for 1 full week then you may not have anything for the next 2 weeks. You only get paid when there is work yet they want you at their beck an call 5 days a week. 
The job consists of walking up to 10hours some days. This is ok when the weather is good, not so good in 45 degree heat or pouring rain. The best part of the job is being left alone. You hear from no one at head office unless any issues have arisen.

Poor communication between team members. Unrealistic workloads. A figure it out for yourself attitude. Some helpful staff and management but half hearted and much pressure put on ground staff to work things out for themselves. Theory seems alright but in practice things do not work as they should. Initially I had a positive attitude but not being paid for lost time put me off this job quickly. Management tried to help but only to a point and the problem was not resolved. 

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