Sigma Technology Partners ripoff bad business practices deceitful management hiring scam Tampa, Orlando & Orange Park Florida

Sigma Technology Partners is/was a software training company headquartered in Tampa, Florida with offices in Orlando and Orange Park. In February 2004, I answered an ad on HotJobs for a position as Instructor/Office Manager. On February 27 received my offer letter and gave my two week notice to my current employer. Began working for STP on March 22, 2004.

During my first week, traveled to Orlando to observe my boss train a class to "get the feel" of his style. Having 8 years of training experience, jumped right in and held my first class (Excel Advanced) on Friday in my first week of employment. Also, during that week had a conference call and was advised I would be teaching Access Advanced the following week. My concern was I had never used Access and had no inkling of how to begin teaching something I didn't know. Was told, just read straight from the book and I would be fine. I asked how to handle questions and was told they had enough confidence in me that I could handle that (talk about smooth talkers). The reasoning was they can not bill until the class is over. That should have alerted me to the cash flow problem.

My first week-end after starting the new job had me wondering if I had made the right decision. All was answered for me upon arriving at work on Monday. The sales guy, in my office, received a call from the President and General Manager asking to meet him off site (they had driven up from Tampa). End result .... they closed the office (as well as Orlando & Tampa) that very day (3/29) and I was out of job after only one week! The sales guy came back and broke the news to me --they didn't have the guts or courtsey to tell me themselves. I was right about the cash flow (they had NO cash to flow).

My biggest gripe is very personal -- you KNOW they were aware of their financial situation when they hired me on 2/27. Yet, they had no problem luring me from a solid job that I had held for the past 2 years. Now I am unemployed and scrambling to find a job as unemployment compensation had been denied. I never received pay for the days I worked or my expenses to Orlando.

For future refernce, as I hear the major players are trying to regroup and go after the Miliary Market (they always said that was EASY money) Education Services. The STP Management Team were/are: (Tampa) Allen Hicks - President, Aimee Jones - Corp. Financial Manager, Cathy Yates - Corporate Operations Manager and (Orlando) Amber Eller - General Manager.

Beware of Sigma Technology Partners, LLC -- and these business people in general as the client is the very last thing of their list of concerns -- right after employees!

Patsy
Jacksonville, Florida
U.S.A.