BEWARE THE PAPER TIMESHEETS! I had a manager skim more than 14 hours from my checks when I noticed one check was a little short and requested just a 6 week review of my time. I still have copies of my timesheet and the one they changed and turned in "on my behalf." Other employees had their mileage skimmed (must use personal vehicles!) and hours as well. I left "amicably" under the agreement that I did not discuss my situation with other employees at the time to avoid everyone going to the labor board for stealing our time worked. There were times when they would actually cancel our direct deposits and withhold checks because reports weren't turned in within a couple hours, then claim our checks would just be "late" so that we would have to wait a few days to be able to actually cash them, but again, that is AFTER they canceled the direct deposits for everyone. (I still have documentation for all incidents even several years later, and I highly recommend everyone keep paper copies of everything: emails, texts, timesheets, etc. because you never know when you will need them!) They also regularly promise post and promise environmental positions, however, those positions rarely come available. They will tell you that "it has been filled, but if you give if 3-6 months..." but the turnover rate is so low and they only promote from within. There was a 24 month minimum waitlist for people within the company they promised lab or environmental positions to and they had them take a CMT Field positions in the meantime. When asked about why they posted those positions if they weren't available, I was told it just "casts a wider net to get people in the door" which is more of a bait-and-switch tactic. "HR" person is very much friends with management who changes the timesheets, and it is nearly pointless to go through them. The secretary and other staff personnel were amazing and wonderful people, but once you get to upper management, things start getting pretty shady pretty quickly. If you come in with no experience, you will be doing almost nothing but DCPs for the first three months. You have 90 days to get your basic three certifications in, first being nuclear gauge user which is a must, then WACEL which is NOT nationally recognized and bears no weight outside of the company or DC area, so push for your ICC Soils as much as possible! Then you'll get your ACI. They would often push people to the very end of their 90 days before scheduling their ACI so that is you failed, you were fired because you had no time to re-take the exams. If management was fond of you, they'd push you through quickly to get you certified early. If you have experience, you will be doing things in an "old school" way that is no longer nationally recognized for accuracy such as using Drive Tubes most of the time instead of gauges or sand cones. They don't teach you that using the burner in the field will degrade clay material samples, and using a "one-point/curve" method is...ok...at best for getting an "idea" of the material, however, a more proven, efficient, and accepted means for determining pass/fail should be used. I learned grout sampling 3 separate wrong methods before having to look up the ASTM for myself to get the correct methods. There was little to no potential to grow or move up. It was so political/"good ol' boy" that getting anywhere and upward mobility within the company was just not feasible aside from moving to a new department when the opening became available. The number of LB violations, poor testing methods, and blatant lies/false promises were innumerable in the year I was there. But having my pay skimmed was absolutely a final straw for me. CMT Technicians work too hard, and put in too many hours for management to skim their pay to increase their bonuses.
