laborer

operator

wastewater operator

painter/laborer

water treatment specialist

Aqua America, Inc.

A typical day at Aqua. piggyback with others thru only door in building. Heaven forbid there is a fire there is only one way in/out. Even though there is a keycard to swipe it is rarely used and everybody can come in/out daily. Safety is not high concern of this call center. Your friends or family can come inside and visit at all hours of the day. Anyone will let you in. So join us. You will definitely build up immunity to sickness since there , no fresh air or plants anywhere in room. No career opportunities what-so -ever. If you would like to play  supervisor daily  then Senior Rep position is the perfect for you. But beware it comes with several strings.. learn to kiss ____. so  by all means apply. The pay is extremely low for the industry standards and it doesn't properly mirror talents or contributions. The raises are ghostly and given by pulling a number out a hat. You only know about it when it get a check during raise timeframe or may a slip of paper  that include stern words not to discuss your meager increase (Don't worry about that!) Absolutely no feedback unless they are trying to fire you thru petty childish pranks + reprimands. Constant emails and gossip Culture. This is extremely small room of about 20 people . There is constantly 2-3 people new ones every year. Since nobody with any wits can barely tolerate the unprofessionalism that Aqua Ncc Call Center portrays.

This company is all business and does not have much team building or a fun place to work but it is very organized and a great learning environment. They have continuous training and offer free online classes for most anything that has to do with your field and also offers tuition reimbusement for degreed programs.  Culture is very structured and top down management, but freedom to work unsupervised.  They are open to change and improvement and they have many meetings to keep everyone including the parent company on the same page of what is going on in the company at all times.  Very organized team environment at a state level as well as at a company level.  Everybody helps everybody, even in other states.  Has a tendency to over analyze everything and overload employees as a result.  I did learn most of my most difficult and tecnical skills here.  Very little outside the office interaction.  Raises and bonuses were small.  Raises were around 4% and bonuses were around $500 to $1k for everyone accross the board.  Work at home was normal on top of your 40 hour work week.  Very high paced, time deadline environment.

GENERAL FUNCTIONS: 

Under general supervision, perform the day to day duties associated with the repair and upgrade of water distribution systems, customer service issues, and housekeeping at water facilities, which includes maintenance and painting as needed. Have a working knowledge of required procedures, equipment and operating standards and is able to resolve routine problems. Use hand tools and some power tools.

 

RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES:
 
1.Perform semi skilled installation, maintenance and repair of valves, meters, gauges, pumps, and associated equipment used in water distribution systems. 


2.Operation and routine maintenance of equipment and vehicles; i.e. trucks, digging, trenching equipment, and other equipment as required.


3.Load and unload various equipment, chemicals and supplies at worksites and store areas.


4.Perform ground keeping and custodial work as required.


5.Read meters as required.


6.Perform other duties or special projects as requested related to the area of responsibility.


7.Work overtime and “on call” duty as scheduled


I worked at Aqua for 7 years and I have to admit was a pretty good 7 years. My location, team and co-worker were some of the best I have had.  Although the work was very repetitive the environment was manageable. I was able to lead, grow and develop staff to achieve not just at Aqua but elsewhere.

The biggest concerns I had is that Aqua doesn't focus on the front line staff. They actually look down on the people who serve as the Face, and voice of their company. They didn't take the concerns of the customer service staff seriously but instead fired or made their better employees leave. 

Their customer service department needs to come into the 21st century and develop more online self-serve features and establish online chat support and service.

They would also improve morale if they promoted from within and change their internal hiring criteria. Internal promotions make employees feel that it is more of a career than just a job.

I’m a field service facility operator. I have several water and wastewater systems and I’m responsible for everything besides Monthy meter reads. Daily water production and testing, monthly paperwork, monthly bacteriological testing, weekly DRR testing, all compliance testing, chemical feed, move ins/move outs, shut off for non payment, customer complaints, leak detection, flushing, one-call mark-outs, meter exchanges, bill disputes, everything with wastewater plant operations and collection systems as well, etc. we wear many hats and have a ton of responsibility. The plus side is besides customer appointments we schedule our day as we see fit and we work alone. They are very flexible with time off. Definitely not the job for everyone but it keeps you busy.

If you’re already licensed, find a job with a different company. They do not provide you with the tools you need to complete the job safely and effectively. If you value your time with your family- this company is not for you. Company men don’t give a dang about you, or your quality of life. You are replaceable. Union will take your money and “fight” for you while breaking bread with company men. Company men will tell you all the right things to just barely keep you hanging in there, then will let you down time and time again. Reimbursements take forever. Training is sub par. Turnover rate is incredibly high. Bare bones skeleton crews, not enough man power nor experience. Managers hire their buddies rather than hiring real workers  Benefits are next to nothing. The ratio for manager to worker is about 300:1.  In short, if you don’t know anyone in the company don’t bother applying- the jobs already taken.

This was a fun place to work. Very strong family feel, but also gets down to business. The mornings allways started off slow for the first hour, which allowed time for small talk with co-workers. This is how we built the family type relationships.By the second hour and for the rest of the day, we were busy! I took between 75 and 100 calls per day sometimes more. I also would train the new hires from time to time. By this being a utility company the hardest part of my job was cutting off someones services because they were unable to pay their bills on time, but it was part of my job so i had to do it.the most enjoyable part of my job was working with the customers, sometimes the calls i got would really make my day knowing that I was able to help some one else.

review daily plant goals and objectives with management team
review plant logs,flow charts, and daily lab sheets to decide plant treatment procedures, and process control.
meet with operators to discuss daily work assignments,safety and plant goals.
meet with maintenance dept. to discuss and plan maintenance work orders and prevenitive maintenance.
discuss daily lead and lag pump runtime runtime hours.
review product invoices order plant supplys including disinfection chemicals.
pay all invoices using work order program or visa card.
cordinate pick up's with solid waste hauler
maintain a plant wide cleaning schedule to ensure a clean safe work enviroment.
daily plant walk through and inspection

The top managers at Aqua only care about one thing: making themselves richer at the expense of employees and customers. Customers don't have a choice whether they use Aqua water -- they are stuck and the company knows that.

MANY good employees are looking to get out and probably will once the economy starts to improve.

If you just need a job to carry you over, where you can punch in and punch out, and make an OK living (not great, but OK), with so-so benefits, this might be the place for you.

If you want to work for a company that cares about people, gives you an opportunity to better yourself, offers any kind of modern perks (cafeteria, fitness center, flex time, etc.) look somewhere else.

Co-Workers were great,  union was a joke, management was shady and only cared about profits, safety was seat of your pants, compliance was 100% your responsibility to deal with enforcement, no support from management that always has a  very high turn over rate, there is a reason a position is constantly online. Very hard to get repairs to facilities unless it could not be band-aided anymore.

Management was very sly and HR unresponsive to issues or concerns. When management is proven wrong, they take no responsibility and don't expect an apology. 

If you want to work for an above board organization I would apply to American Water as they are the A-Team and Aqua is B-Team.

My advice is run to American Water a real utility company that values employees and is a career and not a dead end job. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Laborer 2 salaries reported	$18.43 per hour
Operator 2 salaries reported	$26.62 per hour
Wastewater operator 1 salary reported	$25.31 per hour
Painter/laborer 6 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour
Water treatment specialist 3 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour

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