The company is not transparent (or even communicative) about their policies or the job hazards or expectations they have for you during onboarding. The employee retention rate is abysmally low, partially because of this. I have seen fielders start and quit on their first day because the company failed to tell them their job expectations and job hazards and they did not find out until post-hiring. Some job hazards you will encounter regularly are: Frequent dog bites. The company encourages you to hop backyard fences and survey on private property without doing their due diligence of informing the land owner of our need to access telephone poles or underground wires on their property. This leads to situations where you are frequently crossing invisible fences without realizing it until you are charged by a 100lb rottweiler and hoping you can run faster. This also applies to pastureland occupied by bulls that you may not become aware of until you are running away from them. Bear encounters. For projects requiring mountainous easements to be surveyed, it is common to run into dangerous wildlife such as bears, venomous snakes, and coyotes with no provided PPE such as wildlife deterrents, training on how to deal with wildlife encounters, or phone service in case of emergency. Armed and confrontational land owners. Depending on what states you are sent to work, it is not uncommon for survey technicians to be shot at or actively threatened with a gun despite legal rights to access the telephone poles. This is another example of the company not doing their due diligence of informing land owners of our need to access telephone poles or underground wires on their property. There are numerous fielders in states such as TX that have been fired upon while on the job. Management’s view on this issue is that no fielder has been successfully shot yet, so it is of no concern until it finally happens to someone. Weather conditions. Fielders are expected to work in all weather conditions unless severe weather reports (such as tornado warnings) in the area are documented, submitted, and approved by the shift coordinator. This means fielders are expected to work in thunderstorms next to tall structures that attract lighting–namely telephone poles–since they do not fall under severe weather report warnings. Weather gear is not provided for extreme heat for summer or cold during the winter months. There is a company issue jacket, but any footwear you require you are responsible for, as well as gloves, hand warmers, or any cooling equipment you may need to prevent heat stroke during your 10h shifts. There are others, such as bloodborne pathogens from ticks and mosquitos (which the company provides no information or training on for their employees) but I will limit it to these for the sake of time. In addition to the lack of transparency and the job hazards themselves, the company goes to great lengths to save money at the expense of their employees regardless of employee job performance. The nature of the at will employment structure allows Luck Grove to change policies and job responsibilities as frequently as they like, but the company is not communicative of these changes. For example, the company used to offer a starting rate of $18 travel time and $23 an hour fielding rate with an automatic $25/h fielding raise after a 3 month probationary period. This shifted from being something that was automatic, to something that was based on a performance review, to no longer being offered at all. Crew lead and Trainer positions as opportunities for advancement have been mentioned, but not implemented in any way. Instead, the Trainer position itself has been done away with and crews are now responsible for training new hires with no additional compensation. Crew lead positions have not been authorized for the newer crews, so project coordinator positions are responsible for tracking and speaking to every single fielder that works for them (which can be 15+ people depending on what teams they manage) rather than just crew leads, so that the crew leads may be the go between the coordinators and crew fielders. This has led to great difficulty in planning logistics for projects so due dates can be met in good time, as well as fielders who sit around on shift with no work because their coordinator has not kept up with their workflow. In short, the company speaks about advancement opportunities (and frankly, the company needs them to run smoother) but does not actually provide them.
