laborer

driver

truck driver

loader operator

mixer

Heidelberg Materials

Culture:
If you want to learn, excellent place. It is a workplace that reward the eager learner and the fresh worker. Salary is very competitive, benefits  and pension plan are good compared to industry. If you are lucky to the spotted by one of the managers in a positive way, you are in, but you must plan your exit or make a plan to move among other divisions to learn the industry. The more you shine, the list of enemies in management that will block you as the vision for development was not clear during my time. Always suggest your ideas, but be prepare to be stabbed by your own supervisor or even your manager, know your place and look down. Supervisors will try to shine by claiming credit and eliminating those that bring change (internal competitor).Young management team, but they lack the emotional maturity needed to interact with labor force, comes clear on quality issues as they tend to blame everyone rather than to become accountable, because the moment you show accountability you sign your termination package.
Rumors are prevalent in the work culture, again part of the maturity level of supervisors.
Typical day/ work week:
Spring/ Summer are long work days, long weekends are short and stress level is high among supervisors, it is a seasonal industry so save your money during the season. Expectation is that you are there to work hard during those months. Equipment usually gets a big tune up at the beginning of Spring but by beginning of summer preventive maintenance is history and becomes a reactive environment and that usually is stressful to everyone, but as long as you understand that that is the way for the next 4 months you will be fine, just do not take it personally. 
Record all orders you get, you will need those records when the blame game begins every Monday, yeap weekly.
The union is symbolic, only to facilitate your exit and making sure the door does not hit you hard on the way out.
Safety on paper, so take your time. The ultimate and most important step in safety is you, if it is not safe, STOP! your manager is there to make a quota not to protect you, except at the foreman level and at the field level, they  know the risk and will do everything to protect you because they really want you safe. 
Crews are ok once you find your place.

Two-faced safety enforcement and double standards of behavioural expectations; Management picks and chooses what to enforce and how heavy handed to be, yet completely ignores other major safety violations and refuses to act on feedback concerning said issues. 
Double standards of behavioral expectations - some can get away with downright rude, offensive self-righteous attitudes without any fear of repercussion, yet others are held to be some kind of golden child of the organization while dealing with all of the other obnoxious garbage and should one choose to call out the ridiculous behavior repercussions will certainly occur. Hypocrisy at its best.
Management hates drivers, and the union hates the organisation. The politics are astoundingly bad- bullying, no communication and attempts to grind employees down to break morale and the union- it doesn't get much worse than this folks, it really doesn't. Collect your paycheque, ignore all of the horrible politics and poor behaviour and get out as soon as you can. Work/life balance is very poor. No idea of when start/finish times will be so it is impossible to plan ahead outside of work for personal endeavors. Time off works on seniority and "favourites". Winter season is a 50/50 gamble for layoffs or taking a leave of absence to seek other employment. The rules and deadlines change every year forcing decisions to be made sooner and difficulty securing employment before the seasonal switch occurs. Oh, and did I mention management had the audacity to fire an employee who was deceased for a week? The guy worked for the organisation for FOURTY YEARS and they fired him while he was dead, for not showing up to work even though they knew he was having health problems. I cannot use the inappropriate words I'd like to. Take the job and take anger management, you'll need it. I'm running out of room for more examples.

Very Large company, with buffoons in management positions. Safety first, as long as it doesn't affect production or doesn't inconvenience large clients! Foolish safety rules that are unnecessary and counter productive! They will overload a truck without consideration for the safety of others on the road with a trucks' braking system that overloaded and unsafe! Call ins and start times change everyday and are determined by seniority. Favouritism is rampant and supersedes seniority when it is time to go home! Never sure when quitting time is. This makes having any type of family life after work, very difficult. Management runs around putting out fires, instead of preventing problems before they become problems. Very large corporation, therefore the brain trust at the top of the pyramid (Heidelburg Cement) has no personal contact with the management team. Company management just protect the job they have as best they can. They are not in it together, management within this division is at odds with one and other! The general manager is an accountant and runs the company through the eyes of a cold number cruncher. Equipment is generally bandaid repaired and generally on the boarder line of being unsafe. Drivers are under staffed and over worked in many cases! Every end of year the management has no idea of a forecast for the winter months and therefore they can't accurately predict staff requirements (How many drivers are required through the winter months). Drivers are therefore unsure what employment, if any, will be available during the winter months and cannot arrange for meaningful employment during the winter months ahead of time!

Lehigh Hanson (and its related companies) is a great company to work for. The pay is fair, and the benefits and resources are stellar. 

This being said, whichever manager you get can make or break your career, and there are really no remedies available unless you're a high-level employee. I have had both good managers and terrible managers within the same company, and the latter forced me to leave a company that I really liked. Unfortunately, I was stuck with an emotionally abusive manager who took their anger out on their employees, didn't really know how to teach/train effectively or accurately,  and blamed instruction errors on their employees. They micromanaged, and you felt like you were constantly being watched, to the point where you have no room to actually work. Officially, there are ways to communicate this to the company (whether it be HR or other avenues), but I soon found out that multiple complaints from previous employees had been largely ignored by the company over the years.

In contrast, the managers I had before that were stellar, and fostered a positive work environment and really gave the company a good name. It's a shame that they value the work output of one manager over the employment, work quality and emotional health of countless other employees.

Good pay...... but you sacrifice any personal life for it.   No fixed schedule as to when your shift will be finished..... it's whenever the job is done.  Most workers just phone in sick because this is becoming the choice they are limited to.  Bad management and culture.   Most is dictated from the U.S. subsidiary company and long term local management that has been hanging around just to settle some scores and holding grudges.  A lot more disconnection between workers and upper management.  Lack of positive communication and they won't listen anyways to accomplish maintenance and company issues. Meetings are held just to enforce dictatorship rules and nobody speaks up much anymore other than to make the odd  comical sarcastic remark.  Worst environment it's been here in a long time ever since they have a new approach with extra managers and upper management shuffle. 

I was hired as a Labourer, but almost immediately placed in the scale room performing scale operator duties. From the start, there seemed to be significant confusion between management and staff about where I was actually supposed to be posted and what my role was meant to be long term.

Day-to-day work felt very stagnant. If you didn’t bring something to occupy yourself, the days dragged heavily, as there was often very little to do. Despite being told during onboarding that there were no upcoming layoffs and that the position was stable, I was laid off very early into probation.

After the holidays, I received a termination email citing a “change in operational needs,” despite no prior indication that my role was at risk. While the letter stated it wasn’t performance-related, the lack of communication and suddenness made the entire process feel disorganized.

The coworkers I interacted with were fine, but overall management and operational planning felt messy and poorly aligned. The experience left the impression that the position itself wasn’t clearly defined or truly needed.

Currently employed (20 years BC ready mix employee.)

Leigh pushes safety; when push comes to shove, safety will take a back seat over money.  If you have any medical issues, this is not the company for you.  Lehigh will go out of their way to release you of your duties or even prevent you from returning to work in the event of a medical incident.  Area managers will overly use surveillance and use entrapment techniques on their employees.

As for work schedule, we are on call employees, senior employees will know the start time for the following day the night before.  All employees, regardless of seniority, never know what time they will be off!

If you like attending functions for your kids or the ability to attend planned events after work, this is not the job for you.  We are paid well with decent benefits; it does take a couple of years to start making a decent wage.  That being said, the first 2 years are very difficult financially for new hires.  

The managers will tell 'false truths.'  This job would be great if it wasn't for lack of work life balance and the petty games our managers initiate.

Worked for them for 12 years, 2 years in pipe production and 10 years as delevery driver (Winnipeg). Was a great place to work for when I started but as years past it got worst. Poor upper management and penny pinching. Very unorganized in the production department. Their main concern is production numbers over quality  and they are strong on safety in some aspects but if safety slows down production they turn a blind eye to get the job done. Work as a delevery driver was great till they decided to park truck for 5 months and not telling me why they’ve decided to to park it. Turns out they figured sub contracting delivery trucks was the cheapest route and more cost effective for them. So after waiting 5 months in hope of getting back on the truck I’ve decided to end my career with them. Also come slow season you get last minute notice of a day or so for lay offs which usually is 2-5 months depending on the work during that time.  For work environment I’d say 80 percent of plant employees hate working there but hard to leave cause of good pay and benifits and pension.

I have worked for this company for over 6 yrs since they took over from OK Ready Mix. It has steadily gone down hill as a company to work for since that time. If you want to work at a place where management treats their employees with dignity and respect, this is definitely NOT the place for you. Employees are not at all valued or treated respectfully, they are merely a number. The job is hard on your health both mentally and physically e.g. breathing a lot of cement and rock dust as the plants don’t all have dust collectors. Hours of work change every day. One day you could start at 3am, the next day 8:20 and next day 5:10 etc and you NEVER know when you are going home. Pretty impossible to have any type of work life balance with this job and management could not care less if you are missing out on any appointments or family obligations. I’ve lost track of how many employees have been fired or have quit  in the last 6 years. 

- Mostly friendly work environment from onsite crews to co-workers. 
- If your a workaholic this is the job for you, I averaged 50 hours a week all year round.
- On the better side of the pay scale for what you're doing.
- If you tend to screw up a lot you wont be happy here. (they aren't scared to yell at you)
- Mandatory Saturday work usually in the summer about once a month.
- Understanding when it comes to sick days unless you abuse it
- Friendly management however they're often very busy so pick the right time.
- Truck maintenance is a HUGE issue, not enough mechanics for the amount of trucks. A lot of old trucks with band-aid fixes. You're in the shop/making repairs twice a week minimum. (not the mechanics fault, they're overworked like the rest of us)

Overall a great place to work (honestly) if you don't mind having no time at home during the week. Start and end times vary every single day so its difficult to plan anything during work days. Currently going through a change in management which means lots of changes to trucks, plants, and policies.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Laborer 78 salaries reported	$28.48 per hour
Driver 76 salaries reported	$31.07 per hour
Truck driver 78 salaries reported	$34.96 per hour
Loader operator 76 salaries reported	$35.27 per hour
Mixer 36 salaries reported	$33.06 per hour

Working at Heidelberg Materials: company overview and reviews

Heidelberg Materials

Heidelberg Materials ratings

Popular jobs at Heidelberg Materials

Salary satisfaction

Job seeker tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected