snow plow operator

préposé à l'aménagement paysager

crew member

equipment technician

equipment operator

Urban Life Solutions

The typical day at work involves starting at 6 am too get a start on they day and make it to site by 7 am. however this rarely happens due to a lack of equipment or plans being shifted around at the last minute. finally getting to your site you can enjoy the worn out and damaged tools/equipment you equipped with, working sites while under staffed to minimal crews. While the Forman are competent  they are hamstrung by overburdening of work and incompetent micromanagement from the managers above them. You will constantly be on the hook for the poor choices made by corporate. 

They will preach an open door policy but will deride any opinion or insight that goes against what they have already decided.  They preach that they want to instill a close knit company feeling but will fire people with no stated reason. the opportunities for advancement felt like placing your head on the chopping block to be the next scape goat for a corporate level screw up.

The hardest part of the job is dealing with management and being forced to do your job wrong because that's what was decided by the management. dealing with a lack of or busted tools. and finally the crunch they will apply to workers when one of their ill managed and chosen jobs backfire. In the winter it only gets worse.


ULS is a very interesting company to work for. An experience i'll always be thankful for, but will never do again. The people you work with are a mixed bag from every corner of society, good and bad. A lot of people are there because they need the money, which is fairly good for the work you're doing, but very few people enjoy being there. It's a common sight when the supervisors (Hereafter referred to as SI's) aren't watching to see people being exceptionally lazy, breaking many company rules, and generally just messing around. 

It was my experience that if an SI liked you, they would usually give you pick of the jobs for the day, or at least give you easy ones. If you got on the bad side of an SI you were under, you could expect to do the bad jobs first, and often get stuck finishing the routes of the lazy people that the SI's did like. This was something I experienced both sides of. 

Working for ULS in the winter you can expect brutal hours, often waking starting work at 4am with only 2 hours notice by automated phone call, being out in the snow for sometimes upwards of 12 hours (Usually 10), and because they hire on salary, they make sure you are working often. Spending all day many days with the same few people meant I had a lot of fun with my coworkes, but the culture is permeated with people trying to avoid doing their jobs as much as possible, and the SI's are very hit-or-miss when it comes to competency and personality. 

Seems great once you are in that all changes. 
Managing Directors, VPs, Department Managers and leads are power hungry, very quick to judge and gossip filled. When asking if your department/ team can have someone hired you are basically laughed at. 
Unfortunately the staff are all connected, partners, kids, friends and if you are not those select few you are not liked.  When applying for advancement being friends or sleeping with someone will help you. 
The company is striving too hard with the social media and getting staff connected although the engagement treats they have been giving out to office and field staff has made a difference to the overall moral of the two companies from our office.
I learned a lot of great things, and I'm thankful for the job during a pandemic but it added a lot of stress in my life I do not need.

Best part of the job is the field staff, worst part of the job is upper management. No overtime allowed. Equipment maintained poorly. Poor upper management, great supervisors and field staff. Bad wages and no raises for majority of good staff. New staff start at higher wages then current good standing staff.

-No OT pay given
-12 hour shifts (or longer)
-wasted shop days
-On call 7 days a week

Pay does not even come close to matching these demands of destroying a work/life balance. 
Company has more work than they can handle, meaning there is no proper rotation for guaranteed days off- you might literally work 30 days straight, and for a meagre salary at best.

Cute freebies given to employees as "feel good" tokens of appreciation that don't really mean anything at the end of the day- it's all about money. 

Anyone with any real skills, look elsewhere, this is a horrible idea.
Supervisor positions are the carrot dangled in front of the labourers- if you work hard, one day you might get the cushy office seat for a modest raise and not have to do any labour. Still not worth it. 

Well In the start I thought Uls was great and it was during the winter, now that spring/summer hit, it’s gone to no good, The “superintendents” don’t have good communication skills/ lead hands as well, get told to do something and do it/ don’t show u a map of the site, then get Hollered at because you didn’t do the job completely or properly, PORLY COMMUNICATION SKILLS, when it comes to this company, poorly pay as well, stick u on a trimmer all day and the lead hands don’t help barely or at all, feels like slavery, the safety here isn’t that great either, mtgey make you drive your personal vehicle to site from site to site and don’t pay for fuel or if your car isn’t covered threw insurance they don’t care when your clock in in on COMPANY TIME, lots of cons to this company

Miscommunication 24/7, terrible management, corrupt higher ups. Your bonus is your overtime and holiday pay so if you don’t finish the contract, you don’t get paid your overtime and holiday pay. Which is against labor laws. Higher ups use the scare tactic on their employees. They make you do work that isn’t even apart of your job. Paychecks aren't consistent even though you are on a salary. Terrible equipment, etc. Don’t work here unless you love putting up with all that lmao. The money ain’t worth the hassle.

ULS seemed like a ok place to work after being in the industry for a decent while. They told me in the interview that night shift would receive a 20% wage increase or an extra 20% added to your hours do to it being night shifts and that I got to choose which one I preferred. Later they told me me because I was salary it could only be the later one of 20% added to hours worked instead of added hourly wage. This happened along with being denied the only day off a month your allowed having booked it a month in advance and being approved. A lot of politics and and toxicity.

Overall satisfied with the work nature and payments. Was joined as AZ Driver for nightshifts, started on sweeper trucks and later switched to Tri-Axle.
Hourly payment was  good compared to industry.
Work Life balance was very poor because the schedule for the night was informed only by afternoon on that day. Some time it will be got cancelled due to bad weather or some other reasons. No advance schedules and it’s kind of on call job. And there are some senior drivers they tries to eat rookies head.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The only good part were the customers. The employees were brutal and the management was horrible. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Worrying about your every move because management is only looking for a yes man and if that’s not you, you will be aimed at the door. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
As I said in previous responses. The only good thing was the customers. The environment was extremely toxic and uncomfortable. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Working your butt off for nothing in return.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Snow plow operator 19 salaries reported	$25.83 per hour
Préposé à l'aménagement paysager 8 salaries reported	$32.63 per hour
Crew member 1 salary reported	$24.25 per hour
Equipment technician 7 salaries reported	$41.14 per hour
Equipment operator 6 salaries reported	$27.67 per hour

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