Pros
Only Pros that I could think of as a current Flagger at MTS is that it's a job and you get to ride the trolley and any MTS transportation services for free. Met some good people working there. Most of the Flaggers are hard working individuals that look like they care more about their job than those in other departments.
Cons
Well, let's begin. First of all you have no set schedule, one week you'll work mornings and the next week you'll work nights. One week you'll have Sunday off and the next you'll have Wednesday off. And forget about school or a second job. The schedule is so hectic you can't plan ahead. We are the lowest paid of all departments .. if you even consider us a department. We get no night pay or no holiday pay so it's not worth trying to work on Christmas Day or any holiday since you won't get holiday pay. EVERY other department gets holiday pay by the way. We get no benefits since we are considered Part-Time. We take the trolley to get to our work site and in some events we have to ask for a drop off since sometimes the work site is between stations. We get no truck to get to our work site. At night, by 1:30 AM their is no train running on any line so if you work at night and you finish work at 2:00 AM you might get lucky and get security to give you a ride to the year OR you have to wait till 4 AM for the trains to come out of the yard. You are at the risk on any lunatic at night since you work a lot around trolley stations which is a breeding ground for a lot of weird people so keep that in mind. In my experience I have been almost jumped by gang members by the Encanto Station working night shift. We are at the mercy of the contractor and in house employees so if their isn't a lot of work then your schedule might only give you around 20 hours or less per week. During the interview they inform you that you'll get around 40 plus hours per week. Don't be expecting that, by the first couple of weeks you might but once you settle down you'll get short weeks. We only get a couple of shirts as our uniform, and by a couple maybe like 2 or 3. We don't get any pants like every other department. We do not get compensated for the work boots we buy. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind buying proper boots for the job since you do walk a lot on rocks but we don't get enough pay to be able to get a proper pair of boots. So a lot of Flaggers buy cheap boots which they'll replace after a couple of months. Also during the interview process, even in the web page when you are applying it says the Flagging is a "stepping stone" into the company. The company tends to hire outside before they try to upgrade the Flaggers. Unless. and this is probably my BIGGEST complain, you have a family or a close friend in high management then you won't move up. You'll get an interview here and there and you might get lucky but for most of the time I've seen people keep getting denied over and over. Nepotism is a BIG issue in this company. Don't expect help from HR, I've tried and I've gotten nothing from it. I have this theory that HR hires ANYBODY that is walking down the street so be ready to work with some interesting individuals. Also we are technically in a Union but we pay no dues so I wouldn't say we are Union. We get a Union rep once in a while but nothing ever changes, we might as well leave that Union to be honest. If you are trying to join MTS to move up by being a Flagger first, be ready to deal with all this.