TFI Solutions is another Cydcor corporate cult office. I am very familiar with the owner Lauren Siegel as I worked with her before she was promoted to management. I will be more than happy to share my experience with her as well as the whole experience with Cydcor and its relationship with TFI Solutions.
Cydcor is an overseeing marketing company with a couple of hundred branch offices. Now, each branch office claims that it is its own company, but it isn't. Sure it may have its own EIN number, but that is only for deceptive purposes. If all of these companies were Cydcor branches the company would be shut down in a heartbeat with all of the BBB strikes against it.By creating 200 unique names, Cydcor is able to dodge the brunt of the complaints that most of its independent branch offices receive.
Now, when you see their ads on Monster, Hotjobs, Career Builder, etc. You should save the original ad as it is extremely deceptive compared to the actual principals of the organization. It will make the job seem very glamorous, but in all actuality if you accept the job you will be hunting door to door trying to bother business owners with no soliciting signs outside who will chase you out for bothering them.
If you interview at TFI you will be interviewed twice, with the latter being a day long experience with a two-part interview. The first interview will be a brief, but highly skewed synopsis of the company. You will not be allowed to ask questions, but if you do sneak one in, they will give you very vague answers in order to avoid upsetting potential candidates. They will also mention that managers make $100k, just that easily. That is not quite so simple. It is true that a few mangers make $100k. It is also true that most managers work between 65 and 70 hours per week. Now, $100k is impressive for a one year salary, but if someone is working that many hours a week it is more like working 1.5full time jobs. Since most managers work more like 45 to 50 hours per week, the justified annual income. Is $100k/1.5 which is $67k salary. That is an entirely respectable salary, but that is not the same as $100k.in actuality, most managers will make more like $60k in their 1.5x full time job which translates to $40k annually. Now, these are the managers who succeed. Most managers can't turn a profit at their branch and will end up being shut down by Cydcor.
Now, they will make it seem like they are doing you a huge favor offering you a job, but they will hire anyone willing to work for them. The more people they hire the more money the company makes. The more they train their staff to lie and confuse business owners, the more applications they turn in. The overall success of each branch, such as TFI solutions, is contingent upon how many applications are turned in. If you work at TFI or another Cydcor office, please identify just how scrupulous your fellow employees are when they are trying to make ends meet.
This brings up another point. Most Cydcor/TFI employees are almost broke. After working a grueling 65-70 hour workweek the best employees take home about $45k which justified against the 1.5x volume workweek translates to $30k compared to another full-time job. TFI will not cover gas expenses, health insurance, or anything else, which is not unheard in a 100% commission job. Most other 100% commission jobs allow an individual to make much more money from start to finish rather than waving a haughty promotion in front of their face enticing them to continue working for very little pay. Such is why many employees cannot afford to pay their own rent and end up subleasing from their boss which creates an extremely unprofessional work/social environment. When I worked for Cydcor there were two employees living with the manager of the company.
Now, the above points include a brief synopsis of Cydcor and its general practices. Going back to TFI Solutions and the character of Lauren Siegel. I can't quite tell whether she is extremely smart and conniving in her manipulation and distortion of facts and statements or whether she is just so brainwashed by Cydcor that she so blindly follows them. I was actually interviewed by her on my day of observation.
I asked her, "How long have you worked here?"
She said "About 9 months, so tell me about why we should consider you for the position"
After accepting the position I found out she had actually been there almost 2 years. That in and of itself may not seem like a big deal, but one of her major selling points about the company is that people are promoted to management within 12 months.
I also asked her "So how much can someone in management expect to make?"
She answered "Well my boss makes well over $100k annually because she works so hard"
Well that very boss lived in a $25k annually or less low-income apartments. Now, there is nothing wrong with living in that type of housing at all, but I shouldn't think many $100k business managers should find themselves living there. Now, I don't believe the manager made less than $25k annually, but I greatly suspect that she cheated her taxes put most of her money in her corporate account in order to save money on housing. This also doesn't address the two employees who were paying rent to her. Now, someone who makes that much money probably doesn't need to scrimp and save that much, would they? This former employer, who shall remain nameless, was Lauren's role model.
The third scenario came about when I gave out our corporate phone number to a customer. We were just supposed to sign people up for at&t home phone service and give them the at&t customer support number. However, I had a customer tell me that they were lied to by one of my co-workers and they would like to speak with that person's manager. I did not feel that it was out of line to give out our corporate phone number as I did not want to work with dishonest people. I was later yelled at by my boss for giving out our phone number as all reports about our marketing company should be complained to at&t customer service. Surprisingly enough, within 6 months at&t received enough complaints about Cydcor that they decided to remove Cydcor from their from representing them.
In effect, watch out for TFI Solutions as both a consumer and employee.
Lauren Siegel will use you and abuse you until she can't wring any more sales out of you. Just read the general underhanded practices and imagine them tenfold.
Former employee
West Palm Beach, Florida
U.S.A.
0 comments