Hey, Boss: Communicate Better, Trust More

More than three-quarters (76 percent) of employees were satisfied with their bosses or immediate supervisors, found the 2019 PCT/NPMA Workplace Survey.

Alec Rogers has known Neff Exterminating owner Joey Neff since high school; he started working for Neff six years ago. “He’s always been a really good guy and tries to give you everything you need,” said Rogers.

Rachel Alexander Mendes, Advantage Pest Control, said her supervisor is accommodating, encourages her to attend educational conferences, and has given her opportunities to take on management tasks.

“I have the best manager anyone could ask for,” said Antonio Briceno, Truly Nolen of America. His supervisor, Laura Agostino, prioritizes customer care and deftly moves employee and customer concerns through proper channels so everyone is happy, he explained.

Only 9 percent of pest management employees said they were dissatisfied with their current managers, found the survey, but employer- review websites Glassdoor and Indeed were filled with comments critical of company management. In some reviews, current and former employees said their supervisors were more interested in meeting quotas than doing right by the customer.

“The micromanaging that goes on is the biggest downfall,” wrote a former customer care specialist on Indeed. On Glassdoor, another former call center employee wrote, “The company has potential to be a good place to work if senior management would trust their employees.”

Trust relies on having good communication. And 85 percent of workers said regular communication with employers was important to them, found the PCT/NPMA survey.

If employees aren’t included in the conversation, they begin to think that they don’t count and question why they should care about the company and its customers, explained Rion Cobb, Terminix Service, which implemented a new internal messaging system to improve communication with employees.

“Communication is always something you have to keep working on. It’s never done,” he reminded.

Leila Haas, Sprague Pest Solutions, urged managers to make sure workers know what communication channels to monitor for important messages, and that the messages are concise and conveyed more than once.