technician

truck driver

monitor technician

environmental technician

equipment operator

HPC Industrial

The company makes so much money with the most delicate old equipment but don’t expect to see what happens with that money. Every day technicians risk their lives using dangerous equipment that should be replaced or fixed... all for low pay and a LOT of stress. You get slapped with paperwork that covers the company’s behind however NOBODY cares about you except the safety person who is usually a super picky individual that nit picks everything you do wrong and then goes and hides somewhere in the plant to make 8 hours. The money hydrochem makes doesn’t go into equipment or repairs. We have 10,000 LB trailers with 14 year old dry rotted tires. Lights don’t usually work on them either. Every vehicle passes inspection magically even though they have major emissions problems and failures. You can be expected to show up “in case” there is work and if not you are told to go home. Supervisors will ask you to do dangerous things like operating equipment in a way it was not designed like moving automated equipment with your bare hands 2 ft from a 10-40k psi nozzle that will kill you. Nosey management will get involved just to tell you to make sure you hit a certain goal so they can get their bonuses. I should not know they make a bonus, should I? Management expenses meals for themselves on a regular basis but when employees start getting disgruntled, management buys everyone a hoodie to make them feel better... right before summer... and not fire retardant so can’t wear it in the plant. When hired, many like myself were told would start at 14 an hour and after 90 days if you were a good employee you would get reviewed and assigned a normal wage between 14-17 an hour. That never happened... many employees were lied to about that. When manager was put on the spot in front of everyone he said that what he meant was he would START you at 14 so that after 90 days he doesn’t have to do paperwork. Apparently the job is supposed to pay 12 an hour. Nobody in their right mind, knowing all of this with safety, stress, fights, drama, bs, etc would take this job for 14 an hour. Unfortunately i was told it was a great company but I have been fooled. The company tries to sell every 2 years so they are constantly trying to prove they can make MORE AND MORE money by cutting your pay during a pandemic even though work continues on AND restricting you from being able to refurbish equipment. Oh, and most of the technicians you work with in the field are criminals, druggies, thugs, etc. I’ve been threatened at work before. Management spends more money on personal lunches and frivolous things for the office than they do for the betterment of the company. 

I spent the majority of my day creating bills on computer based systems called Citrix, OMA, Oracle. I had several locations that I created bills for and along with the programs, I would be sent invoices from companies that we outsourced work to that I would have to manually add to created bills with in the billing program. It was my responsibility to ensure customers received their invoices in a timely fashion and according tho their requirements and ensured processed invoices were paid in a timely matter. In order to keep track of when invoices were scheduled for payment and paid on time, I would research invoices through a customer based payment portal, where I would receive information about early pay discounts, invoice acceptance/rejection, scheduled payment date, and payment status. I maintained Excel spreadsheets to record invoice and track the status of processed invoices. I kept my desk and paperwork very well organized as to not lose any important information I might need.
The office atmosphere was quite laid-back. We were encouraged to interact with our fellow co-workers and management. We were a team and family and would often help each other when someone was over-whelmed from a busy day, whether it just be an ear to listen or helping with work that needed to be done. We all wanted everyone to succeed and would do what it took to make sure that happened. 
The hardest part about my job was processing our month end invoices. We were pushed to get as many bills processed and ready to be invoiced to avoid bills being carried into the next month. This often required extra steps and communication with location managers to ensure items being billed were correct and accurate.

Here are things that are standard practice at HydrochemPSC. Management is dictated and handed out to friends of higher management.  You are constantly told to lie about federally regulated percentages in order to meet quarterly goals. Work place culture is terrible, they need bodies and will only hire that. If you have motivation and want to succeed this is not an applicable place to be. You are constantly double tracking your job because of mistakes done by others. Your work day is the same depending on your supervisors emotions of the day and how they feel towards you (favorites). In my time there I saw them push out employees who were dedicated to making things work correctly in a smooth manor. Daily goals are mostly unreachable and you will constantly be reprimanded. Lunch times are always moved around depending on the day and sometimes no lunch at all but they still always take pay away. If you work from 6am-4pm you better be there at 6am not a second later. but you will almost always be held over to 4:30 or later waiting on management to say you can leave without compensation. Also depending on your position OT is not always given and will be worked out in a fashion that looks good on paper to management instead of actually paying you you 1.5x. While working inside the plant you will be exposed to areas of high levels of H2S, Benzene, and other toxic gases and chemicals on a regular basis and when asked to move or report things are not taken care of properly and swept under the rug. You will also be reprimanded for not reaching your goal because of problems you can not control throughout the day. This is just a scratch on the surface of how things are in the LDAR division of HydrochemPSC. If you are looking just to get a job for plant experience I wouldn't even recommend this company.

HydrochemPSC's safety is bar none one of the best in the industry, the company as a whole has a firm grasp on the type of work its employees do on a daily basis and have had plenty of time to come up with effective safety procedures for the work.  The work is skilled and unskilled in nature based on the job type.  Unskilled labor jobs are generally extremely physically labor intensive requiring one to perform lifting stooping, balancing, and at time fitting into tight spaces under less than ideal climate conditions (hot/cold).  Skilled work such as Vac and Hydro-Blast work require firm understanding of the materials being worked with and equipment safety, the work has a very large set of tools to perform the various job types many of which require skill to use effectively and efficiently.  As a union shop it is clear that Hydrochem's acceptance of Union involvement is entirely as an access to plants that have union requirements for contractors, union benefits are poor in comparison to competitors unions and there is a culture of favoritism throughout.  I often saw employees with very little experience boosted to supervisory roles without properly understanding the work, employees with consistent attendance and performance issues offered raises.  Workers that put in the work and demonstrate above and beyond performance are often overlooked for raises, expanded training, and promotions.  Pay is above average for general labor but well below for skilled labor, and the overtime potential is exceptional.  An inexperienced field technician can in most cases expect to make between $40-50k but at the expense of exceptionally long hours.

At the start of COVID, everyone got a pay cut. For the technicians/blasters at our shop, this put us at less than $14 an hour, to clean chemical tanks. The shop wouldn’t/couldn’t hire anyone new, and our workload did not change with COVID. This meant our shop, working with 8 out of the average 15-20 employees, has to work 7 days a week and most days are 10+ hours. With ample employees, this is normally not the case, or an issue, everyone loves getting hours and you wouldn’t take this job without that mindset. But when the same 3 people, who are paid between 13 - 14.25 an hour, are the only ones to do confined spaces, it gets very old, very fast. Spending 8 hours of your day in full PPE, inside of a Phenol or various acidic tanks, on a 90° day with a hot water pressure washer, 5-7 days a week, for just barely above minimum wage? It is unbelievably unfair for those workers. 

Everything else besides the pay is good. Safety is “top” priority. (Quotes, because some people do not follow safety guidelines. The company encourages you to report them and follow all safety guidelines.. but if you don’t like that they break the rules, they’ll tell you to leave the plant) I personally wouldn’t recommend this job unless you’re applying to be an operator or supervisor. Both of those positions require you to do absolute minimum work. Supervisors have to drive, fill out shift reports, and supervise. Nothing else. Operators have to run various vacuum trucks and hydro blasters, and drive them to the job site. These jobs also start much higher than a Technician, but you can make more money at most gas stations, and not risk your health. 

When I was interviewed to work for PSC I was told so many things that were not true. One example was that I would have consistent work, not be out of work, and to not worry because there is always a project. Not the case, being out of work because there was no project almost every other month.

They informed me that safety was a number 1 priority for this company. The only time you work safe is when you are in training, other than that you can throw safety out the door!!! I have been injured multiply times and although I was able to see the companies doctors, none of my incidents were reported all because they wanted to keep a rating. The inspectors were buddy buddy with the managers so of course they passed with flying colors. 

I was also told after 90 days we receive an evaluation and possibly a small raise, well that evaluation never happened. Its been 4m.

I inquired about the evaluation and got negative reaction from the management. Thus making me feel again, lied to.

The plus side is you meet some really nice folks. I would still consider them as close friends. The down side is that these hard working people have not gotten a raise in nearly 3 years. 

The admin. personnel works from home and the communication is absolutely horrible.

They need to fix their operations and ensure that first of all the safety of the personnel is a priority. 

Will not recommend this company.

PSC WAS a great place to work, the flow of things were great, corporate had a real understanding of how individual branches worked. Since Hydrochem came along it has been a disaster! EVERYTHING and I mean every single thing is micro managed from corporate and the work flow of the branches have become  very stressful and unorganizedl from an operational standpoint. The company is now to big and the only important thing is corporate greed and control.  When you ask a question it takes a week or longer to get an answer and when you do it’s wrong or they don’t know yet. You never know you are doing something wrong until you do it. Practices are constantly changing without communication. You get 5 different answers from different people when you ask a question. HydrochmPSC is now a joke and Unstable. When a location closes their doors they don’t consider their emoloyees livelihoods, all they care about is money!  I would not recommend working for this company.. The only good thing is the pay and weekly pay. The most imporant thing is knowing that they could care less about employees.  They don’t value your work. You’re just another body within the company.  If you work for them, be prepared to be treated with zero respect and to be very stressed out on a daily basis!

Safety guy is constantly threatening to send people home "to watch cartoons" if they disobey his nonsense. Loves to make up rules that are not part of the plants rules or hydrochem rules. Constantly trying to convince the team we'll be kicked out for super small things that he's made up in his head. 

Company does not give raises at all unless you get a CDL, but it's hard to afford a CDL when you can barely pay bills. Most guys have everything valuable they have in the pawn shop so they can keep the lights on. Management loves to make promises they can't keep. Only offer overtime to certain people. Lots of favoritism shown to certain people (ie certain people can blatantly be lazy and nothing is said, but when other employees do it they are written up).
There's an on call list, but the people on it rarely answer their phones so guys that are not on call end up going out anyway. 
Most of the guys are lazy as heck but have really big heads so they think they know it all when they definitely do not. There is no recognition for the guys that work really hard so it's easy to lose motivation.

The health insurance is great, so is vision. Dental is terrible. 
You will always get your 40, they will put you on another job if yours finishes before quitting time.

the job itself is not hard if you don't mind working with dangerous chemicals extreme heat and limited to little to no time off. Management is a joke, they don't care about their employees to them they can have 20 more in a week. The hardest part of the job is putting up with the other employees. This job draws a certain type of person ex cons and would be criminals people who cant find work anywhere else, have people bad attitudes. This was the most unprofessional job I have ever had. The schedule changes daily so you can never make planes. 12 hour shifts 5-7 days a week. Start out at $12 an hour and don't expect a raise after 90 day a year of even two. The only was to get a raise is by getting a cdl or making crew leader, even then management will put off giving it to you for as long as they can. If your sick they make you bring in a drs. note even for just 1 to 2 days. As far as the work goes if your new you get to do all the work the people who have been there the longest will be standing around talking. Management dose not like to order PPE very often so you will be stuck wearing contaminated slickers on multiple jobs. If your are a decent person do not consider working here it will be a huge mistake.

I worked for psc two different times out of the Benicia, ca office. The first time I worked there I was a tech hydro blasting and tank cleaning back then in 2012-2014 you get hired on and they tell you after 90 days you'll get a rasie that doesn't happen. I didn't receive a rasie for over a year also as a tech i didn't have medical, vacation, sick, or holiday pay. I needed up getting my cdl and after working there for over 2 years they offered me less money than the hire new drivers off the street offer was $18. The second time I worked there i was a driver 2 starting pay was $23 but that was only due to me working for the competition where i was making $23.50 clean harbors. As a driver you don't get any vacation time until after a year the 401k is 1% and they just started doing that. You are on call 24 hours and are not compensated for being on call you'll kill yourself 40-80 hours a week. This is a okay job for short timers with no experience as soon as you get 2 years driving you can go anywhere making alot more money and you'll be able to have a life outside of work. Clean Harbors and KM are better companies and better pay.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Technician 1 salary reported	$18.75 per hour
Truck driver 10 salaries reported	$26.54 per hour
Monitor technician 9 salaries reported	$17.31 per hour
Environmental technician 1 salary reported	$21.25 per hour
Equipment operator 5 salaries reported	$22.40 per hour

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