Pros
- You will work with some of the greatest, funniest, and most incredible employees you'll meet in any company. There are a lot of incredible branch and assistant managers who will do all they can to make your experience easier. Your area managers will be very money driven, but are also incredibly nice people. - You'll gain a lot of practical experience which you can take into pretty much any company - The training days (Particularly pre COVID) can be really insightful and are delivered excellently by the HR teams - You'll drive some unbelievable cars.
Cons
Where to even start... - THE HOURS - I can not emphasis this enough, you're lucky if you do a week where you get out on time every night. Don't make any plans for after work because I guarantee you will never be able to fulfil them. You will be expected to work at least 50 hours, upwards of 80 per week and you will be told 'It's just Enterprise'. Not only that, often you won't be paid for your overtime. It's also impossible to take any holiday as it's seen as too much of an inconvenience if you're off. - The obsession with customer service - You are expected to bend over at every request a customer has, and if a complaint comes through and you're mentioned, you will be slaughtered for it. - You will never get any recognition or credit for anything good which you do. Senior management will scope into your negatives and hammer you for it, when a lot of the time it's to do with variables which you can not control. Hit 10 of your 12 targets? Better than any other branch in your group? Well why didn't you get 12/12? You won't ever get told you're doing a good job, it will demoralise you to a point where you can't be bothered with the company anymore. - A lot of accounts which negotiated in Enterprise come with horrendous rules, e.g. BMW, where you have to provide a BMW product within 2 hours (And no, branches do not have them sitting around ready for these customers, you will have to travel to find one), then you have to deliver it (When you could already have an obscene amount of deliveries left to do), and still provide VIP service to that customer. This is just one example, but other accounts have 2 hour no turndown rules meaning you have to deliver a vehicle to them with 2 hours notice. This could be anything, and I guarantee you won't have that vehicle available. Not delivered to them within the two hours? Then expect to have that account screaming at you or threatening not to pay the branch for the hire and you can't do anything about it. Also, a lot of accounts request the fuel in the car is on a full tank when delivered, yet you will get screamed at if you spend money on fuel. Accounts have rates so low that you actually lose money if you give them a car. You will constantly be in lose lose situations. - Recently in the new COVID world, new senior management are appalling and completely unforgiving, thinking only about their pay and money, completely disregarding you as a human being and forgetting that they were once management trainees. - The games involved in Enterprise are horrendous, and it's very much one rule for one and one for another. If you make a branch profitable, Enterprise will happily turn a blind eye to them if do anything unethical e.g. a dodgy sale, manipulating their controllable costs, or renting dodgy cars which are not road legal. Whereas if you do the same thing in a branch which is doing alright then you will be hounded out for it. - Particularly for Assistant and Branch Managers recently, you will lose your job if you make a mistake, immaterial of circumstances. But again, a blind eye will be turned if you're a top performing branch. The disciplinary process is never fully explained to you properly, and they're looking at reasons to get rid of people. Probably as an ego stroke to those in upper management. - This job will damage your mental health, even if you don't notice it until you leave. The stress and pressure put on BM and AMs in particular is astonishing considering how little they get paid. The company do not actually care about your mental health, they make it worse and have the odd 'mental health first aider' for you to speak too. - As a management trainee or management assistant, 90% of your job involves you driving and cleaning cars. You're a glorified valetor and have to wear suits which will get ruined (And no, the company do not care about this. You'll earn about £1,400 a month after tax and expect to spend about £100 a month on either new shoes or suits). - You will be moved to different branches with no notice at all, don't get comfortable working in the branch closest to where you live, you will be expected to work at least 45 minutes away from your house. A commute is fine, but if you start work at 7:30am and finish at God knows what time, adding an extra hour and a half onto your day to get home will rinse you. - Area and group managers will always brag about how much money they earn and how amazing they are and promise you the world and that you'll get to their position. You won't. Unless you're a part of the gentleman's club and click then expect to work in a role no higher to a branch manager equivalent after 5 years of grinding. - You will never be showed any appreciation for the work which you do except getting a generic email on your anniversary start dates and on your birthday, which is just the same recycled email with no personal touch. Quite insulting really. - Neighbouring branches constantly play games with each other over missed damage on vehicles and your branch will be responsible for the repairs costs. They will also deliver cars in your area if the amount of money per day you receive for the hire is more than £50 a day. Again, a blind eye is turned on these practises. - You will have to sell excess protection packages which are extremely expensive and use scare tactics to get customers to buy them. Don't hit your sales targets? Expect a formal warning. Hit your sales tactics? Expect no recognition. - BMs and AMs commission is constantly undercut and unless you're willing to grind it out for a few years, you won't be paid anywhere near these imaginary targets they tell you about in the recruitment process. - Upper management is very autocratic, you will be screamed at. It's practically bullying, so if you haven't got thick skin, do not ever go for any management roles. - Expect to be told to rent cars which are illegal, particularly if they're going one way - Low tyres or a nail in one them? Rent it. Due a service? Rent it. Dodgy engine or the power cutting out? Rent it. Branches will do anything to flog their dodgy cars so they don't have to sort them out themselves.