Imagine my surprise to see another report about Praetorian on this website; I just had to add my voice to it, and reiterate that Justin (JP) Sheets is a lying, bad-check writing, arrogant pr*ck of a boss.
To begin with, every picture on the company website, or little company video, or any sort of promotional material, has Justin on it or as the primary focus. This is because Justin is a former marine (and a bad one from what I heard), and because he is the only one with only "real" training at Praetorian. This is not to fault the other employees, who are honest, good people I genuinely loved working with. But Justin gave us the bare-bones training, slapped a certificate on us that is worth absolutely nothing at other companies, and threw us into... Nothing. Every job I have ever performed at Praetorian was a "warm body job, " where nothing was required but the ability to stay up for 12 hours at a time. Any "real" job with Praetorian was done by Justin himself, which is why he puts himself in all the pictures and promotional material - because he was the only one he considered to be the real deal. It's a company of Justin being the hero, and everyone else doing the crap jobs.
Unlike the previous commenter on Praetorian, apparently, I did not have to pay for my training classes with Praetorian. I received the CPR training, TASER/OC training, and restraint & arrest control training classes. According to JP there were "literally hundreds" of classes he could teach to further our skills - after 6 months on the job, I had received no additional training despite repeated requests (such as numerous employees asking for a class on fake IDs and the like).
And then the paychecks started bouncing. First one, then another, (eventually rectified with cash). Then came the company directive of not being allowed to "cash" our checks, only depositing them. Over the course of my employment there, JP switched banks at least 3 times, and at one point left the country for over a month, leaving no one in charge of writing checks. His employees simply went without being paid.
I obviously complained about this, and was told that paycheck issues were "above my paygrade." I don't understand how my paychecks bouncing were something I was apparently not qualified to ask questions about. During all this time, of course, my paychecks were bouncing, my co-workers paychecks were bouncing, and we lost a major contract and began to struggle for hours.
There is more than one story about JP "manufacturing drama" and false reports in order to convince clients that his services are vital. Those stories are too long to tell here, but they exist. Be warned, JP has some interesting job-related anecdotes that have probably never happened.
At the end of it all, my co-workers were furious (but unable to quit in this economy), I was broke and hadn't been paid in over two months, and I had had enough. I left messages that were never returned. I covered for coworkers who had quit or were on strike, only to be ignored by JP upon his return in-country. I finally said, pay me with a check that doesn't bounce, or I'm getting a lawyer. I was then "suspended pending a review board, " which would consist of himself and... Himself. I then didn't hear from JP for over a month. I was suspended Sept. 25th, and did not hear back from him until November 2nd as to the status of my review board - and to get him to contact me, I had to leave him numerous voicemails, during which I essentially said I knew I was fired, just mail me the money I was owed and I'm gone.
I was then fired for my insolence - how dare I want to get paid! How dare I be frustrated with my ass hat of a boss! Apparently wanting to be paid is a fireable offense, in JP's world. Having to wait over a month, with no contact, for notice of a review board - not the actual hearing, just NOTICE of a review date, which would have probably been another month in the future. Having my paycheck bounce, then the replacement check bounce, then the REPLACEMENT replacement check bounce! Only to be immediately fixed with cash on hand.
And the drama is apparently never over, because even after I was fired, I am having to fight to have my uniform allowance (150$) returned to me. His wife is now the director of finances at Praetorian, and although I was really hoping that would help things, nothing has changed. My check has been "lost in the mail" twice now, despite double-checking of addresses. At this point, I'm willing to just drop the matter and be done with it, because this is a horribly run company that doesn't give two shits about its employees.
During all this, his wife got a new truck, he got a new motorcycle, and his joke of a retail store started up. Crazy how he had all this money to be spending, while his employees were getting returned-check fees.
Long story short, Justin is an a*hole, and you should look for a much better job.
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