truck driver

manufacturing operator

production operator

laborer

mechanic

Dyno Nobel

Dyno Nobel is an explosives manufacturer that sells explosives and detonation cords to companies. They also uses explosives in mine shots. Mine shots are controlled underground explosions that break up the soil to get to coal seams.

I ran a pump truck that filled ANFO into predrilled holes that were used in conjunction with explosives.

The job was good. I worked mostly locally. My day would run anywhere between 9-12 hours a day depending on what was going on that day. The job is dirty. If its not muddy because of the rain or you're getting sun burnt, it's cold and wet and you will be wet. Wet boots, wet socks, ---soaking wet.  Although I was a driver most of my work was outside the truck.It is a mildly physical job, climbing towers, checking product, counting product, moving boxes etc.

Te equipment is good and is well maintained.
The mechanics are good and any problems with any of the trucks are fixed immediately.

My bosses and fellow employees were good people. 
It seems that in my area, employees that kissed up to the district manager received favorable treatment. I hope one of them is reading this because they know who I am talking about.. Some of the blasters have to work every weekend or almost every weekend. Some of the blasters have been moved out of the way for younger and less experienced blasters with much less seniority.

What the 'mine thinks' or what the 'mine wants to do' takes precedent over what you want to do. This becomes a problem when they want the blasters working every single weekend. Its a hard, physical and dirty job. Who wants to do that 6 days in a row?

The insurance is nothing special. Its not really expensive and it isn't among the best. The only downside is that the company has started downsizing due to the coal industry taking a back seat currently in the US.

There is no where to move up. I was told there was. It takes 2 years at the least to be a blaster and the blasters make ok money
I would of still been working there had I not been laid off.

                            A TYPICAL DAY AT WORK

I arrive at work conduct shift hand off with out going shift lead. perform daily start-up meeting, assign daily tasks to all producers, maintain pot management, 2 quality audits, 1 tooling audit, 1 vision system audit,maintain hour by hour production log, complete reject log for shift, perform walk through and shift hand off with in coming shift lead, enter all daily information into spreadsheet I designed, update all KPI charts, and finally sign all time cards.

                            WHAT I HAVE LEARNED

I have learned "You'll never know what you are capable of doing if you are not given more than you can do." And so far I have not been given too much.

                                  MANAGEMENT

Upper management at the Wolf Lake plant is like a roller coaster one day they are nice to producers and the next they act like producers have the plague.

                                 MY CO-WORKERS
I enjoy working with all my co-workers I have come to know all of them well and know each of their interests.

                   THE HARDEST PART OF MY JOB

Trying to constantly bridge the gap between upper management and the producers.

              THE MOST ENJOYABLE PART OF MY JOB
Coming in everyday to an awesome crew who truly understands the meaning of teamwork. Having a crew who does not worry about how well the previous shift did or the next will do. My crew is interested in how we are doing as a department, a plant & and how competitive we are with our competition. That is enjoyable and is good feed back telling me I am leading them correctly. 
  

Typical work day consist of Attending BeX meetings (Business excellence program generated from other related programs) 2 per day, Job Planning meeting work scopes of jobs discussed at planning meeting, researching and providing answers and solutions to action items which identify operational issues, Closing out Incident reports which generate the action items, coaching sessions with direct reports, Discussions with operational personnel on issues in the plant for the day. Complete the work completed for the day plan for the next days work generate work permits for the next days jobs.

Lessons learned is to be diligent in completing task at hand, and with amount of work assigned to manage it in manner that is effective for plant operations

With the current programs in place i believe management executed them in a manner that was not effective in providing an efficient work force. These programs have caused discontent and still misunderstanding of the goal other then the safety aspect of the program.

Thru this process co-workers have worked as a team to maintain plant operability and reliability.

Hardest part of the job is the time management of assignment in one day which have to be at time managed into 2 days, This is the task that take scheduling of priorities.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The pay is the highest you will find in the county. They also have great benefits. The company as a whole is geared towards training and compliance.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The inherent dangers of working with so many different hazardous chemicals and explosives.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is often in extreme temperatures and hazardous conditions.  The culture is somewhat toxic and you really have to be in the click to get the help and support you need. Its important to note that you must be cautious in every aspect of this job and keep proper documentation.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You start the day with a pass down meeting,  warm up exercises and work instructions.  You may be wrenching glass, repairing or replacing pumps, replacing motors or gearboxes, replacing fuses, and doing daily boiler checks. All PM's are maintained in CMMS and hand written daily reports are kept in addition to verbal communications. Mandatory computer training is ongoing.

A typical day at work for me would be performing various tasks given to me upon arrival, I was in charge of not only making sure that the trucks were good to go but I was in charge of performing cycle counts at our site. 
I was labeled a "Jack of all trades" meaning that I had a lot of skills but was not proficient in any one skill.
While this job had many different avenues, management changes caused issues. 
From bringing in new managers who knew nothing of the products we sold/distributed to being given tasks to complete by oneself that was too great to do in a single shift alongside other duties.
Upon termination they find ways to label you as either insubordinate or unsafe to prevent the claim of unemployment benefits.
The only thing that I can say I miss about this job is the fellow coworkers that I had interaction with....NOT MANAGEMENT!

As it stands Dyno is not a good place to work right now, too many people in high places don't understand what the work at the bottom is like and refuse to learn. They fired me and several others for no reason simply saying they didn't want to continue my employment after the DMV had an issue with my license (nothing I could've done and took my own personal time to fix the problem as well). The people I worked with and for directly were awesome but anyone above my direct supervisor was basically inept at our work yet still capable of making large decisions about daily operations. They do not listen to employees opinions on how jobs should be done and are not accepting of criticism on safety. If a customer says anything about you the company will jump on you first and maybe hear your side as they put you out the door. There is entirely too much higher up people attempting to save their own skin for someone at entry level to be safe for a long period of time in this company so for a career I cannot recommend it. 

Typically start anywhere from 2:30 am to 7:00 am and work till you are done. Not much room for a family life.  The employees that do the most get treated like they don't matter but employees that don't do much are treated like God's gift to the industry. You are extremely busy working 60 + hours a week and on weekends you are exhausted. You get treated poorly by some of the other companies that you service. There is no real maintenance program with the company so even the new equipment that you get breaks down and the the shop they take the trucks to doesn't have time to fix the truck properly. It's a Customer needs product and that's all that matters. And they will promise u the world and deliver nothing unless u are related to someone higher up in the company! 

A typical day of work would be go into the office and the supervisor would tell us what job we will have to go, the name of the place and how many bore holes to expect. then i would go get the explosives and the powder needed to do the job, once I got all that is needed I would travel to the job which could be in Kentucky or West Virgina, once on the job i would talk to the foreman of the job and get all the details like closest house or any objects close the shot, after that i would load all the bore holes with the right amount of explosives and powder, wire it all up with the right delay to make sure no bore hole goes off at the same time,, once i sound my warning sirens i would blast the shot.. After i did that I would have to do a shot report witch included alot of math and various other stuff i would leave a copy with the foreman and take a copy back to the office.

I would arrive at work at 5 a.m. and head to locker room. Then i would change into my coveralls. Next i would walk down to get my semi tractor out of the garage. Then i would drive across the property to get my tanker trailer and hook up the tractor to the trailer. Then proceed to drive to the scale and check the weight of the semi. After that i would drive to the Mine facility that we were servicing that day. I then would hook up my tanker to a pump truck and off load my contents. Next I would hop in with the  pumper operator and help him fill drilled holes with the product. After we were all done and empty I then would get into a 930 front end loader and stem the holes we filled.Next I would proceed to drive semi rig back to property and fill tanker for the next day. Then unhook trailer and put semi back in garage. Doing all of this with full PPE and as safely as possible.

You get a large sign on bonus before your first paycheck. They take care of meals rental car and hotel to get your MSHA certificate. They pay for uniforms including boots. After a lot of computer training (about two weeks) and MSHA training 2 or 3 days, you get trained on emulsion by another driver and signed off.
You will deliver emulsion to mines in the Gillette area until you’re comfortable with the unloading procedure and then you get sent farther afield.
The work is pretty routine and you’re typically working 11-13 hours 5 or 6 days per week. The management is hands off if you do your job without problems.You start at 1 week of PTO and three weeks vacation.
The hardest part of the job is slip seating trucks and unreliable start times.
The best part of the job is going to mine sites to deliver and not waiting for dockworkers. No backing up as you’re driving doubles most of the time! Great way to get tanker and hazmat experience.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Truck driver 9 salaries reported	$97,222 per year
Manufacturing operator 3 salaries reported	$26.81 per hour
Production operator 3 salaries reported	$22.50 per hour
Laborer 4 salaries reported	$19.00 per hour
Mechanic 14 salaries reported	$30.43 per hour

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