I worked as a bush regenerator for two years. I was employed casually with full time hours. So I had no job security or any benefits yet worked virtually full time the entire time.
I had to lobby to get paid for driving the work vehicle to and from work sites. Up until I was successful I would be spending 10-11 hour days in the field and driving the work vehicle to and from work sites and getting paid for seven and a half hours. I got paid for driving after I continually brought it up. However, payment for driving was not offered to other staff until they found out I was getting paid and they complained about the inequity of the situation.
Very little bush regen was undertaken. Work primarily involved spraying extremely toxic chemicals with a quick spray unit. I was aware of this when taking the job. Most other work consisted of landscaping or labouring.
I was told the pay rate was $25 an hour in the interview and found out it was $22.50 after I started working.
The bush regen team were told they would receive a $1 pay rise in the new financial year. The actual increase was around 18c an hour. I queried this numerous times with no satisfactory answer forthcoming.
Oppressive American corporate culture. Upper management genuinely appeared to think people would get excited about dull meetings where people would bang on about their accomplishments and then explain to everyone the new corporate slogan, such as 'Growing forward'. Ugh. You cannot expect employees to get passionate about the company they work for when they get absolutely nothing but the bare minimum in return.
Way too much middle management. There were so many people in the office who served no useful purpose. Workflow manager is one such ridiculous role where people would let that person know what work they were doing that week. That person would then email them back virtually the same email outlining what they were doing that week.
No staff development. The people actually working out in the field received no 4WD or chainsaw training whilst people who spent 99% of their time working from their desks got the training instead. Staff development was a big selling point during the interview. Like most people working there I was a bush Regenerator with an Environmental Science degree and received no additional training or development.
