Having always worked for legitimate companies. I had no idea scams like
"The Henry Group" aka "THG of NY" existed when I applied for the job.
In retrospect, there were a million red flags which should have told me
to keep my old job where I had benefits and made an hourly wage, and
that I should have run like hell from "The Henry Group" aka "THG".
* The Company is Constantly changing names to escape bad reviews online
and connive unsuspecting job seekers into accepting employment.
The Henry Group aka THG of NY is owned and operated by Brenda Bernal.
She is an illiterate woman who was promoted to management in this
multi-level marketing scheme by Elana Stein (formerly of Polaris now
renamed EQ Charity). The Henry Group presents itself as an entry level
training program to promote you to management running your own marketing
company. This is complete crap. The job is 100% commission
door-to-door sales. You are expected to work from 11:30 am until 9:00
pm every day knocking on doors in selling energy for the extremely
sketchy company Direct Energy.
For the first four weeks you work you do not receive a paycheck. You
sign away all your rights with an "independent contractor agreement"
which basically indicates that you are self employed, that you will not
be compensated for any of the hours you work and you are all on your own
if someone decides to sue you or something for trespassing in an
attempt to sell them energy. You are paid on a 10-99 which means that
you are responsible for all of your own taxes and not entitled to
minimum wage or unemployment. Brenda couldn't afford to pay you minimum
wage anyway, because she doesn't make any money either.
When hired, you will be promised that in 6 months you will build your
own team and be promoted to assistant manager at which point you will
double the amount of commissions you make and begin "saving" to open
your own office. In reality... it takes at least a year to be promoted
to assistant manager if you manage to last that long. No one in
Brenda's office has ever been promoted to assistant manager. To be an
assistant manager you have to have a "team" which requires scamming more
people to come work for free for this despicable company.
They will tell you that you make 500-800 dollars a week as "Corporate
Trainer" which is the second "level" or position on your road to
"management". However, most employees make $350 a week if they are
lucky. None of them can afford to pay their taxes or live by themselves
and most are barely scraping by. Brenda claims to make 80,000 dollars a
year, but she is constantly overdrawn on her bank account and lives
with 5 other people on 135th st.
The only people making money in this business are Elana Stein and Raf
Diaz who will soon be married. When an assistant manager becomes
manager, the "promoting owner" receives a $20,000 bonus (herein lies the
pyramid scheme).
Whatever you do, do not work for this company or any of the other
companies operating out of 690 8th Ave. They are all scams. You will
be expected to work 60 hours a week on straight commission... when it
comes time to get paid you will be told that for some inexplicable
reason or another your accounts have been cancelled. Many people work
for a week or two only to quit and never receive a paycheck. As an
"independent contractor" you are responsible for your phone and travel
expenses which will be major as you have to make all the calls yourself
and travel all over the city going door to door selling energy.
If you need to take a day off or call out sick you will be penalized and
not given interviews (thereby making it even harder for you to
theoretically get promoted because without interviews you cannot build
your team). You have to be at work every day at 11:30 am for leaders
meetings. You have to come back to the office every night for "PM
Atmosphere". You have to work Saturdays even if you close 40 accounts
because "your guys" (people you are training) have to be there. This
makes you an employee not an independent contractor.
The average person works at the Henry Group for around a week.
Interviews leave in the middle of their "Day of Observation" all the
time. No one ever gets promoted. If you want to work like a slave for
sub-minimum wage. Who is Henry? Brenda's Pug. The company is named
after her dog. Don't work here. You could make more money begging on
the subway.
