working for big companies

[moonshine]

Anybody have experience with or is working for one of the big companies ouy there. Davey-Bartlett, you know. I would like pros and cons of working for them.

 

[demographic]

One problems with large companies over here is that some of them have 90 day payment terms. So you can wait for 90 days after you put your invioce/bill in before being payed.

Its worth reading through the payment terms just to be sure cos I don't know about you but three months wait after finishing a job is a long time to me and my finances.

 

[Job Corps Tree]

I was with Davey for 2 Years, loved the Davey. could not stand the local manager. He was not a tree man he was a spay feed teck, he had no idea how long it took to do tree work trim or remove though we could dig out stumps, Care of Trees is now part of daver they will keep the name that was always a good one. past 10 years I have been with ACRTinc.

 

[Rftreeman]

I've worked for asplundh, davey and nelson and they all had good and bad, the good of davey and nelson was that they had decent benefits, insurance, 401k, stuff like that and davey ahs stock purchase option but the down side was that i worked for the utility side and when the contract was up you might not get another in the same place and have to travel several miles or not get one at all be out of a job so I'd try to get on with a residential company if you can, davey has them all over the US as well as Nelson and I think asplundh does also even bartlett has residential.

 

[mckeetree]

Asplundh residential here consist of the Mexicans side jobs.

 

[maloufstree]

yeah, on saturdays and sundays

 

[BRCCArborist]

Not really a big company sort of a guy. The benefits are decent usually, but you usually have to put up with all sorts of cheesy, fake salesmen and managers. "Safety cultures" are bogus too. They do not care about your safety. They care about profit and nothing else. Nothing really wrong with that, just don't be naive going into it, thinking "wow! this company really cares about me, my safety, and my job security! And, I own part of the company!!!" It will lead to disapointment.

 

[Rftreeman]

Not really a big company sort of a guy. The benefits are decent usually, but you usually have to put up with all sorts of cheesy, fake salesmen and managers. "Safety cultures" are bogus too. They do not care about your safety. They care about profit and nothing else. Nothing really wrong with that, just don't be naive going into it, thinking "wow! this company really cares about me, my safety, and my job security! And, I own part of the company!!!" It will lead to disapointment.

safety and caring about employees really depends on the person you work under, I was taken care of as an employee and as a GF and took care of mine and I enforced the safety rules, I wasn't calling someone's wife to say he isn't coming home today and when i left i wasn't disappointed with the stock and 401 payout i got either, you just must have gotten a rotten area with rotten people.

 

[BRCCArborist]

Yeah my post was kind of silly and over the top. This thread just brought up some bitter feelings obviously. I apologize if I offended anyone.

 

[mckeetree]

yeah, on saturdays and sundays

With Asplundh's equipment so we are bidding against folks with no equipment investment, insurance, etc. Asplundh should put a stop to this practice.

 

[maloufstree]

With Asplundh's equipment so we are bidding against folks with no equipment investment, insurance, etc. Asplundh should put a stop to this practice.

But they wont, two months ago I put in a bid on a fairly large contract, and my bid came in at 15,500. They had a Asplundh crew in there doing line clearance and the Foreman approached the park manager and asked why they weren't getting to bid on it. He told them to turn one in and they ended up getting the job for 9800. All the work was done on Saturdays and Sundays. I was furious and started calling forks ended up talking to someone who was suppose to be the region manager and he told me he would look into it and get back with me, never heard back.

 

[mckeetree]

But they wont, two months ago I put in a bid on a fairly large contract, and my bid came in at 15,500. They had a Asplundh crew in there doing line clearance and the Foreman approached the park manager and asked why they weren't getting to bid on it. He told them to turn one in and they ended up getting the job for 9800. All the work was done on Saturdays and Sundays. I was furious and started calling forks ended up talking to someone who was suppose to be the region manager and he told me he would look into it and get back with me, never heard back.

That's a classic. Same thing happened to us several times. It also happened with Trees Inc. and ABC. And right, Asplundh is always going to "Look into it." Of course nothing ever comes of it. A guy in Tyler, Texas actually considered litigation against Asplundh in a similar situation but was told there is nothing to prevent a company from letting employees use equipment for nothing nor the company receiving any money from the job. If you think about it though, our electric bill is somewhat reflective of companies like Asplundh overall operating cost and wearing out your equipment on the weekends for nothing increases your operating cost.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Hi, Well, I started climbing in 1977 for money. Every tree co. here advertised topping. I live in San Diego and we have many eucs that were subject to these practices in the years before. A lot of us became excellent toppers and spiked everything in-site. Some of us that made alot of money furthered our careers buy joining on to a co. that wants to improve tree care and emplyee safety. We still need the tree guy that just wants to climb! I think it is a personal subject.
Jeff
Operations Manager

 

[TreEmergencyB]

someone told me bartlett really dont do removals is this true?

 

[Blakesmaster]

someone told me bartlett really dont do removals is this true?

There was an article ( a very good one too ) in TCI a few months back about Bartlett taking down a massive tree at Thomas Jefferson's old house. They had to work at night under spotlights with a big crane and 2 climbers. The thing was so hollow at the base they cut the but with a 20 inch bar. So yeah, they do removals.

 

[maloufstree]

There was an article ( a very good one too ) in TCI a few months back about Bartlett taking down a massive tree at Thomas Jefferson's old house. They had to work at night under spotlights with a big crane and 2 climbers. The thing was so hollow at the base they cut the but with a 20 inch bar. So yeah, they do removals.

That was a great article, that tree was huge!!!!