Pros
Good benefits for Foreman and above Meet some great people across many states Little direct day to day supervision first year foreman should make around $45,000 If you are good enough and will sacrifice your body..after a year you should be able to earn $50,000-$60,000. Keep in mind you will rarely be home.
Cons
I spent years working for this company. I held positions of crew member, foreman, and supervisor. THIS IS VERY DIFFICULT PHYSICALLY DEMANDING WORK!! There are no field oriented jobs which wont wreck your body. Non stop travel. They demand at least 40 hours every week no matter what. Rain...work around it, 105 degree heat... suck it up, snow...work anyway. Oh, and regardless of conditions you are expected to exceed very high production goals. At christmas time they tell supervisors (middle managment) to make all crews work until the end of the day on christmas eve to complete projects. This proves there is poor management in place. how can you tell someone after they have already purchased a plane ticket they cant leave? Especially after they had already made arrangements with their manager to fly out at a specific time. Liars! Foreman are expected to perform some work off the clock. While they say they will pay for all hours, they carefully lean on you until you no longer pay yourself the hours. If you get hurt on the job and you have medical insurance they try to talk you into not doing it as workers comp. they are good about keeping people on "modified duty" to avoid osha recordable injuries. they tend to pay for co pays and even prescriptions (off the books) if you do get hurt and use insurance vs workers comp. Basically, as a foreman if you are paid for 40 hours during a week you likely actually work 45-48. As a Supervisor you are salaried. A supervisor receives a monthly salary and a quarterly bonus at this point. A typical supervisor will work 70+ hours per week. They tell you on one hand if we are giving you too much and you can't handle it let us know. The problem, when you let them know it is too much you are asked if you think you should be a supervisor if you cant handle the workload. What the hell is that? It is also sad that as a supervisor a really good foreman will likely earn more than you. I spent years at both positions. Supervisors receive no training. You learn on the fly. There are a few tasks which must be accomplished each week. Everything else works around that. They have thrown so much administrative BS at supervisors they can no longer spend time in the field with the crews to teach. At one time I would spend 3-4 days in the field with crews. Now, I consider it lucky if there is time for 2 4 hours field visits in a week. Most likely it is one or two 1-2 hour visits. I also loved that when i hired on i was given an "expense advance". I think it was $200 but dont recall. I signed a piece of paper saying i would pay it back when i quit or was separated. about 90% of people who quit never repaid it! a few years ago, the company said..we want our money back now! if we refused to send them a check they took it out of our bonus! At the time, they were giving a training completion bonus of $500 to foreman trainees with no strings attached...it was theirs. They took the $200 back from everyone who had been loyal through the years. They are solely about the bottom line. The company is no longer employee owned. It hasnt operated like it was for over 10 years. They say their people are their most valuable assets. They actually act as if they own you and you cant go anywhere else. It was at one time a great company to work for. Now, it is just a sh**it**ty company...PERIOD. I think i would prefer to be on welfare than give them another year or two of my life. It will seriously destroy your body and make your home life non existent. Find something else!!