interFACE Networks interFACE Marketing, interFACE modelling, interFACE Talent, Got Talent Modelling interFACE Networks is a lousy company to work for or deal with in any way STAY AWAY East Brunswick New Jersey

There are a lot of complaints about interFACE on this website (and on many others) but I wanted to take a minute to give you all an insider's perspective, and let you all know that it isn't just customers being taken advantage of, it's the employees as well. 

I was hired as an administrative assistant for interFACE in the late summer of 2012. During the interview with the assistant manager of the department I worked in (I'm not going to give names, because I truly liked the people I worked with and they are still friends of mine), I was told that it was a full time position and that in January 2013 we would be receiving medical and dental benefits as per the new ObamaCare regulations as well as a starting salary of 10.00 per hour (which is low for an admin assistant, but I was desperate so I took it) for the first 6 months, with a performance review and an uspecified raise after that. I took a typing test and then went home. Later that afternoon, I received a call from one of the HR girls to tell me that they were offering me the position and should report to work the following Saturday at 8 am. Which I did. The people seemed nice and the work wasn't complicated, it was cool. My boss was very chill and as long as our stuff got done on time, she didn't seem to have much of an issue with anything else we did. 

Everything seemed fine for a couple of months, but the fact that certain people seemed to be offered more overtime despite the fact that the quality of their work and attendance was far worse than mine and some other people's bothered me, but I was still the "new girl" so I didn't raise a fuss about it. When I was hired, I was also working part time for another company at the time, and had told my boss of this and so I had limited availability, but I had also told them I only intended to keep the other job through the holiday season then would be leaving. I lived 45 minutes away, so they knew I needed adequate notice for any schedule changes or call-ins to cover shifts. They were cool with that at first, but when I couldn't fininish typing a mall because they hadn't sent me their leads early enough and I was already an hour late for my other job they threw a fit when I said I had to go and handed it off to another person in my department. Other people did this stuff all the time because they had something else to do and we were running over our schedules, which happened A LOT. My department was in charge of typing the leads that the scouts in the malls generated, and the mall managers are disgustingly incompetant about making sure their scouts submit their leads in a timely manner. The company as a whole is run inefficiently and as cheaply as possible, and is very opposed to accepting suggestions on better ways to streamline processes for more efficency, even when it will save them time and money. But I stayed on, because I needed the job and I liked most of the people I worked with. 

They claim to be the best at what they do, but we dealt with customer complaints all the time, including being verbally abused and threatened because customers had not received what they'd been told they would or were otherwise unhappy with our services. A certain number of complaints is normal for a larger company (interFACE is located in 5 states, and expanding); but the number of complaints vs satisfied clients is way out of proportion at interFACE. We dealt with the phones and leads for all 5 states and were expected to do it all in very little time, with no support from the malls or other departments. 

Hurricane Sandy shut the company down for about two weeks due to no power in the building, and I have to give my bosses credit, they were very good at making sure we were all informed of what was going on, and helping those who were directly affected find the services and help we needed. After things got back to normal, changes in the company started happening and affecting our hours. They moved all the incoming calls that my department dealt with to the call center reps, which cut our hours by about 3 hours a day, and then eliminated the night shift and cut our department down to about 7 people. We laid off quite a few girls, but those of us that were left felt lucky to stil be employed. Winter is slow for the company anyway, because kids are in school and people aren't out at the malls and places as much, so we were only working between 5 and 6 hours a day, when we'd all been told it was a guaranteed 40 hours a week. I'd quit my other job sooner than anticipated because I was getting so many hours at interFACE, so the cut in hours really hurt me financially. I had moved closer to the company to shorten my commute, but it still was difficult to support my family on what few hours I was getting. Yet other people who were far less dependable than I was and had been with the company a shorter amount of time were getting asked to stay and work on extra projects all the time, and I wasn't. I asked my boss for more hours and extra work and she gave it to me for about two weeks and then it was back to the cut hours and short days. 

As summer got closer and we got busier, they hired an unnecessary amount of new people and increased hours slightly, but again, only the bosses favorites got the extra hours. We were scheduled 8 hours, but if we got done earlier were told to go home, and if we slowed down to try and get our scheduled hours, we were told to hurry up because the call center needed our leads in. It was stressful and annoying to say the least. Most of us were sending resumes out, but not having much luck in the current economy. They would tell us if we were scheduled an 8 hour shift we had to take a lunch, but if we took a lunch we got yelled at for not getting everything typed fast enough and if we didn't because we knew we'd be sent home earlier than a 7 hour shift we got yelled at for not taking a lunch. 

The corporate culture is one made for 22 year old people without families or resposibilites greater than a cell phone bill. It was very common for the managers to come in much later than they should have for no real reason, come in hung over or not show up at all on days they were supposed be there. They expected us to bend over backwards for them, but god-forbid you actually need something from them or a day off for a valid reason. They change policies all the time without informing employees until they mess up and get written up or fired for violating a new policy. 

They won't issue paychecks until 5pm on the Friday you're supposed to get paid, even if you're off that day. They say it's because they don't want people to get their checks and leave early, but it's really because they don't want people to get to the bank in time to cash it, so you end up either having to go to a check cashing place or depositing through the atm at your bank so it isn't available for a day or two. The don't offer direct deposit and when we asked about our raises, we were told they would have to see about that. No one has received a raise yet and very few people have been there longer than a year. I hear they treat the scheduling coordinators even worse. 

If you are looking for a job, I would avoid this company at all costs. Some of the people are great, but its a lousy company to work for.