truck driver

laborer

field service technician

facilities technician

technician

Clean Harbors

The turn over rate is extremely high. People are unhappy with the large amount of work loads we get, and some of us are not compensated fairly for the extra work we do. We cannot get or keep enough good people who want to work. Management is completely out of touch with the regular employees that work the hardest and has a hard time keeping control and reprimanding employees who are slackers and do nothing but cause extra work for the ones that come into work and give 100% everyday.  When you are in a lead position management does nothing to make your work easy and more rewarding, especially if you are understaffed. They do not offer adequate support, with the false expectation that you can do it all, and over work you to the bone. At times I find myself doing a job that takes 3 people to do, this in my opinion is modern day slavery. The level of stress can be very overwhelimng. The false expectation of meeting compliance deadlines and offering your support to everyone when you do not have all the resourses is completely unrealistic and ridiculous. All they care about is numbers $$ and contribute nothing to the success of the hardest working employees. There is no opportunity for advancement, or higher learning, just useless conference calls, and power point presentations. If you are in a lead position you are basically stuck, until someone leaves the company. The company continues to make aquistions and doesn't have one clear strategy of doing things, to the point that it causes too much confusion and disorganization. There is no univeral game plan. There are always unexpected surpises and new processes that mostly end up failing, after it is determined that those processes do not work to benefit the branches or the employees. Their technology is outdated. In 2019 the drivers are still using handheld devices that are completely useless and time consuming. Most companies are using IPhone applications and the latest business technologies. I have been extremely loyal to this company for the past 5 years and have not had a raise since then. I am ready to start exploring my options and work for a company that can appreciate and value a person with exceptional work ethic such as myself. Thank you for taking the time to read my review.

The Remediation Division has horrible management that has no leadership skills, people skills, true work ethic, or do care anything about the employees. Your on the road From job to job across the country away from your family several weeks at a time. A project comes that’s close to where you live, logically you should be on that project, not in this division. Somebody from the other side of the country is there while you work next door to their home. You could be out as long as 10 weeks, does anyone say we appreciate that, no. The only thing yo get from this division is yelled at. You get yelled because the mounds of paperwork they require isn’t finished and sent because you’ve been in the field directing the project. Then you get yelled at because you’ve been in the mobile office, if you’re lucky enough to get one, too long getting the mounds of paperwork done and sent instead of out directing the project. Also you’re going to yelled at for your project not making money even though before you were assigned the project the VP cuts the bid by a quarter of a million dollars when everyone knows that the client awarded the project based on the 5% discount on that was being given if we were awarded both the disposal and remediation. That takes another $100,000 from an already too low bid. The division makes up its own rules that the rest of the company do not go by and some of them are rules that go against company policy. The management for this division is incompetent at best, with the exception of the West GM and proposal GM. The division management expects you to stay out on the road away from your family the majority of the year, every year, but they will pay you lower than others across the company in the same position. You can absolutely forget about seeing a raise, the management loses the division too much money for that to happen.

They are all talk about safety ,work home balance . After all the safety talk they tell you just go get it done and if you say something they starve you out with no work . They promote work home balance but call you and want you in within an hour alot of times for overnight  or several nights away from home and if you can't leave town they retaliate with no work . Ask you even if your not a traveling employee to not only travel but then have a cap on their hotels that basically puts you in a crack hotel with bedbugs ( not all the time sometimes you may get lucky and have an ok hotel but rare ) they also do give you $35 a day when out of town but its in your check which is two weeks later so you have to put the money out to eat. , and being that a hotel with a kitchenette is normally above the cap you have to eat out everyday which is not healthy and also extremely expensive so the 35 doesn't cover most of your forced expenses.  Also they want you to sit in these hotels with no transportation so that limits your choices. And they expect you to be available24/7 with no on call pay then tell you well you got no hours this past few days and you are out of town but we gave you $35 perdiam to eat ,like that makes it up.  Then sometimes they ask you to take your vehicle out of town and they do pay mileage but if something happens to your car (damaged on a worksite ,etc ) its on you they wash their hands of it so you may not get any hours and have to fix or replace your car if you can and if you can't then they will say you don't have reliable transportation . Also alot of times you are forced to work long hours with no breaks or lunch . With covid clean harbors  has employees cleaning it up and then if you catch it and it is proven you got it from work they won't even pay you for the time you are forced to quarantine 

You start anytime before 7am could end anytime before 5-6 pm all depends your route. Your routed 8-12 stops must complet them or get questioned why you could make all your stops every stop is different you can get an easy one that takes 15-30 mins or stops that take you 2-4 hours ex switching out a single 30 gal drum is a short stop or you have sites that could have 5-10 plus units ranging from 15 gal - 100 gal tanks that you either swap a drum or pump it out sponge it clean and refill you could also have a waste pick up at some of your stops too usally 55 gal drums weight of them could range from 100lbs-700 lbs a solid or a liquid 1-10 drums. once done with all stops head back to the "branch" end your day turn in all your paper work tally up your services per day and your revenue go home that could be your typical work day all dependes. What i learned honestly was this was even an indestrey its hard work and underpaid managment is a joke they give you false promises from the start of your first interview till you quit around 5-6 month later work place culture felt like i was in highschool all over agian is the best way to put it so much negitive energy and backstabing and fake coworkers the hardest part of the job would be the amount of physical labor you do as an SSR for the pay honestly not worth it its back breaking. Most enjoyable part of the job i cant really say cause most of the time it was miserable working there not just me but the atmosfer nobody is happy and it makes you feel un happy its a vibe you cant really explain unless your there to see it and feel it. Overall they need get real and make changes there people dont stay very long my time there 3+ years ive seen about 15+ guys quit in about 3-6 months

This facility is destined to remain in a constant state of emergency repairs unless the maintenance department is flushed out. Unfortunately, at this time there is no existing system for performance evaluation for employees so under performing employees fly under the radar and over performing employees don’t get recognition. As such, there is no regular employee raise schedule or assessments of any kind outside of disciplinary when HR is contacted. If disciplinary action is taken, it is not a standard progression of verbal warning to written warning to PIP. Anyone can go on a PIP despite no previous disciplinary notice. 

The HR representative overseeing this Clean Harbors facility operates under a ‘whoever complains first is right’ policy. So if you ever get a complaint filed against you start looking for new employment immediately as anything you do afterwards will be used against you. 

As far as the job goes, expect to have continually changing systems as the company does not know what it wants yet for the facilities. There is a directive to implement PSM and reliability programs but only a few people trying to incorporate this for 9 refineries and unknown number of incinerators so they are spread thin. The corporate  engineering group is underwhelming at best and provides little no no help to the facilities. 

Coming from cutting edge technology and research of new products this place was a huge step backwards. 

Also, the place is filthy. Completely covered in oil. No one can be bothered to route a hose to containment and instead lets equipment drain out all over the structures. Very telling of the disdain and little respect employees here have. Will be difficult to change the culture without getting all new staff. 


Management makes 1000 promises and never holds up their end. They are constantly making changes on policy and procedure and forget to inform you and quickly reprimand you for not already knowing it. They say there is raises but you’ll never see them. When you ask about them they say they are sitting on someone’s desk for approval. They charge customers double time and don’t pay the employees double time. If you work a prevailing wage job you won’t see that money for 6-24 months. Management provides zero help with anything and make you feel like you are the problem when they screw up. They changed to a paperless system so you have to hunt down a foreman or supervisor who has a company tablet or computer to enter your times in for you, and if there is an issue with time they don’t correct they just take it out of your total hours. They say there is plenty of work but some of us barely make 20 hours a week and when you call out sick or for a family emergency, supervisors will starve you out on time till you quit or they finally give you a meaningless job. They reward the bad employees and punish the ones that actually go out and do their job. Equipment is always breaking down and when you notify them they say deal with it but when we get a yearly audit we get punished for not having properly running equipment. They constantly send equipment out to other branches then quickly book jobs that we need that equipment for so they sub it out to another company. So management gets their bonuses and the workers get zero. There is no incentives or bonuses for the workers or raises but management is constantly getting yearly and quarterly bonuses and raises for keeping branch cost down and productivity up. Kinda easy to keep cost low when you sub a job out. I fully regret signing on with this joke of a company.

Chances are you are going to work on a site with the likes of the TV show Dirty Jobs. You must be able to work in extreme temperatures and bad smell. You must be able to work on very elevates surfaces and small, dark spaces. You will be liftining, pushing, bending, crawling, and using power tools. Be prepared to sweet perfusely. You must be able to work as part of a team and that is very key.

If you enjoy Safety-is-First kind of jobs this is one for you!

It is extremely important to do your homework before applying for an entry level position as a labor worker. 

**DO NOT** settle for a low ball offer. There are many jobs that will be available for these positions. The demanding, aver changing schedule added to some really hard, and dirty days will combine with bad weather and unpleasant settings to create a perfect storm. That storm not including personal life will send a lot of people flying out. So, unless you secure a good starting hourly rate you wont last. My advise is find out how much you should get paid first.

The company provides great benefits and overtime is often available.

Management in the local offices can be very political and seldom preferential towards friends and family hence the importance of starting on the right foot and that means get your times worth in dollars as you interview. This will keep you grounded because the money you make is your bottom line. You don't have to prove anything to anyone. You must work safely and efficiently that is all.

You will meet people from all walks of life. This means you must be able to interact with and work well with others.  You will have to go to different places in the country and if you are "lucky" even outside the country.

Worst job I ever had unless you don't like to be home most of the time and you don't have any bills to pay then this job is for you. only got good hours during the warm parts of the year but could never use vacation because you would use it all up trying to get a pay check when you sit at home, management would say they are working hard to get jobs but pretty sure they didn't care cause they were on salary so they got paid no matter what they would just tell you that so you wouldn't be looking for another job, thought our office sucked but went to other places to work and would hear the same problems so it was all over clean harbors the common question when working with other offices is "You guys staying busy?" then after the first of the year(2016) clean harbors stopped matching 401k's and there are no bonus's what so ever so no wonder they are a billion dollar company, hardly had any jobs where you could be home with your family or make any plans to be home its was basically when they would call you need to show up for work, then I put in my two weeks they wouldn't even put me on the schedule after I did, I tried talking to higher up management to see if any thing could be done about it and nope I was told I could talk to him about stuff but when it came down to it no help at all, if they ever messed up on your paycheck it took them forever to fix it I'm sure they were hoping that after so long you would forget about it and its so hard to get ahold of anyone to get it fixed, been on many jobs were we don't have the right tools for the job or we would just have to make something work so did some pretty dumb stuff to just get the job done. WOULD NOT RECCOMENED THIS JOB AT ALL, unless you live at home with your parents and don't have bills that are due every month.

The actual job would be enjoyable if it wasn't for the way the business operates. There is this underlying backstabbing culture at this branch and having read others accounts it is a reoccurance nationwide.
A placement (new account, new machine or product in a preexisting account) made by a route rep can be made to look like the in-office sales rep was responsible for said placement taking credit for another's work.
Management is admissible. I have come to believe this as intentional, to be a scape goat for when sales are down or mistakes are made which leads to the biggest issue and that is profit driven antics at the expense of the customer and the route service rep. The pressure placed on management for profits is a folly that has backfired many times. Loss of accounts, some huge, is a big deal as any rep knows gaining the customer's trust back is next to impossible after being gouged and mistreated.
And commission...
So, let say you have a customer 30 minutes out of your way. You pick up 1 item that is 1 point. That one point is $2.50. You have made 14 point for the day. That is $35 for the day. Some days will be better than others and the points multiply after 500+ points by $6 a point.
Also like most there is a base pay as well. That said it is difficult for the best of men to make over the 500 point mark and Clean Harbors could pay a little better for the 700lbs (give or take) barrels picked up on top of hazardous chemicals handled.

Proceed with caution, hopefully this gives insight if you choose to do so.

Most days consisted of conference calls with account managers and general managers to discuss bid opportunities and pricing strategies. For each bid I would review the waste stream constituents, coding, disposal method, destination and cost to dispose of the material. I would compare requested pricing and our costs, and advise any adjustments to the initial pricing as necessary to insure company profitability.
Each day I would log into the quote system and I would review all quotes (in my pricing region) to make sure we were issuing accurate and competitive pricing.
Coming from a lab pack background I learned a lot about bulk streams and disposal methods. I also learned a lot about various pricing strategies that go in to the final quote to the customer.
In all of my years at Clean Harbors I was surrounded by great people. Each position I had required team work and my co workers were always very helpful and reliable. My managers always had an open door and were very helpful in discussing career paths and communicating any advancement opportunities that were available.
The general atmosphere was always inviting, everyone walking by my desk would say hello with a smile.
Each bid opportunity is different and needs to be approached differently. There is no standard formula when issuing disposal pricing, which sometimes could prove difficult, depending on the customers job or bid request.
My team of co-workers were extremely helpful when I took the pricing manager position. They were always willing to take a few minutes out of their busy day to answer any questions I had. I really enjoyed interacting with my team, and winning bids of course.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 900 salaries reported	$27.34 per hour
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Facilities technician 174 salaries reported	$21.43 per hour
Technician 186 salaries reported	$22.37 per hour

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