technician

software engineer

equipment manager

cleaner

superintendent

Herzog

Poor management and allocation of job responsibilities. Job expectations are not always clear, and there are no gentle nudges to remind you of something that may have fallen to the wayside. There is just waiting for you to do it, and ultimately blowing up on you later that you didn't do it. Some people are willing to help when you need help, and some are not. Does not always feel like a team effort.

Too many extraneous job responsibilities that should be allocated to other employees. For example, working as an Office/Field Engineer having to constantly break away from your important work to drive long distances in the field and do safety checks (among other tedious tasks), even though there are dedicated safety personell who spend all day in the field. They should hire one or two more safety people instead of tacking on tedious safety checks that spread your other workers too thin. Way too many big and small things to keep track of and stay on top of at any given time.

Everything is your fault when managing a subcontractor's work - a subcontractor who constantly has poor communication, does the exact opposite of what they tell you they're going to do, causes constant issues and headaches, doesn't follow the schedule that you've laid out for them, tells you one thing and then tells somebody else another thing. You have plenty of office work on your plate, but you have to break away and breathe down these guys' necks in the field to get the real story of what they're working on/going to work on. A subcontractor that you're managing screws up and doesn't follow the guidelines that you explicitly laid out for them, and had multiple conversations about (with email chains to prove it)? Guess what, its your fault and you, instead of the subcontractor, face the consequences.

Overall, there is career opportunity here. Valuable experience can be gained. You can learn a lot and build your resume. Compensation and benefits are only okay considering the amount of stress that comes with the job and the fact that you take that stress home with you daily. Expect to work 45 hrs a week (as they advertise in the job interview as a reasonable expectation of your hours) and it still not be enough. Again, this is because they spread you too thin, with too many various responsibilities.

Like my title says, it's a fun job ruined by everything around it. All of the engineers and conductors came to work every day knowing that the likelihood of getting in trouble was very high. The co-workers I worked with were all wonderful people, the management has their rear ends so tight they could birth a diamond. Co-workers were fired left and right for some terrible reasons and there is no union to protect you. Management has a tendency to bend the story to protect themselves. Many companies have heard about Herzog going down since the owner passed away. They are getting a bad reputation that is carrying throughout the railroading world along with the names of the supervisors and managers that run many of the operations. It's a shame, but move on to something better. This will not be worth your time.

You get 2 PTO days to start off and gain a few extra ones over the many years.  It is seniority-based and many of the schedules are terrible even for high seniority and that includes your vacations. You bid on vacation weeks based on your seniority. If you have bad seniority, you have bad time off . The schedules are created by management and even after many complaints for months, they refuse to change them to help the crews. Many high seniority co-workers have been quitting to find other jobs, it is just not worth it.

Working as a GIS Tech, you are expected to bend over backwards and perform the seemingly impossible, by working with broken software and tight deadlines due to technical issues. Just about every day felt like a soul-crushing nightmare. Our processes and software are outdated and held together by digital duct-tape and rubber bands, with little drive to improve these processes. We have expressed to management multiple times on how we need improvements to our processes, but kept getting ignored until these problems became big enough to catch their attention. By this time, we're given the "Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" bit. We have, they just don't care. They never did in the first place. This is further confirmed from a former co-worker who worked on a different team, who said they were told to their face from the boss: "I don't care about the techs." They are out of touch with the teams and employees. There doesn't seem to be any care or concern about any of our well-being at all. 

If you are looking for a GIS job, look elsewhere. This place isn't for you.

Well a typical day at work stwarts at five in the morning and goes all day long...Not a bad place to learn new trades and job skilles just when i started wit them i worked in phoenix az and it was very hot th er but still it was very intersting to work wit the company.I learned how to grind rails and conected junction rails and many other thing to do wit the railroad..Workn in phoenix we got to us a new styel of rail...The management was great and if u didnt understand some thing they would take time to show how its done and how it works.Every body i work wit where awsome ppl to work wit and we all under stood ever other and know what need to get done nevery really have any big problems on the job.Well i think the biggest and hardest thing about the job was the hours but that comes wit every job and it was the facked that it was hard or any thing.The most injoyable part of the job was see it all come to gether and know the fack the u had a part in getn it all done and of the comunity injoyed the new lightrail.....

Management leaves you in the dark about your travel destination until the day prior to leaving. No idea on how long you will be at said destination. You are treated as if you are expendable at any given moment. Some of the senior operators speak to you like you are a lower life form. Do not work here if you have a family as you cannot plan anything due to short notice of leaving. Turn over rate for this place was the highest I have ever seen. And when you do get an answer it is subject to change at any given time (don't plan anything). The upside is you get great insurance just don't plan on using it because they hassle you about going to the Dr.

So if you have no life, no family (you care about), no restrictions and like being treated like a lower form of life this could be the place for employment.

Great company with lots of travel.  Working in the ballast division I had a lot of fun.  I was well prepared for travel based on the interview I had with management.  These are not short hour days and you need to be prepared to work.  If you are not ready to work and travel, then chances are you believe what you were hearing in your interview.  The only real hard time was personal time off.  They did accommodate to how they could, but nothing is going to stop the railroad.  If you want a sense up purpose, take the job, take the travel, be okay with personal time off policy (schedule way out if possible) and keep America running by keeping the the railroad moving.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Opportunities for advancement. Appreciation for the work I do. A company that has passion for their customer. Safety is always a priority. I wish I had found this company 20 years ago. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Deadlines. But very normal for the area I work in and much less than any place I have ever worked. They are organized and plan accordingly. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The atmosphere is professional but comfortable. The culture is focused, positive  and professional and recognizes staff for their achievements.  

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Good balance. Busy and productive. I feel accomplished every day. My contributions and my co-workers contributions ensure productivity.

26 days on with only 9 at home. no training, never doing the same thing long enough or frequent enough to retain specific training. This creates scenarios where you're expected to know something that you've never done, dealt with, or seen on the job and then become chastised and written up for something you were ignorant of due to their own lack of training.
There's no scaling so plan to remain in your position the entire time.
Also very dramatic and high school minded with the social cliques they have in place, if you dont fit in those, good luck.. its just a matter of time.

Terrible place to work!! I was there almost 10 years and just couldn't take it anymore and quit. It was great at first, decent pay good benefits and a union shop but management stepped in and implemented a ton of new rules that had nothing to do with the job requirements or getting the job done. Being union if one gets in trouble the entire shop is now in trouble. They promote the people they want to fire. Once you get into a management position you're out of the union and no longer protected by the union, and usually within a week or 2 weeks they fire the person that just got the promotion. I've seen them do that over 15 times!! Just keep looking and move on from them!!

If you travel your time at home will be very minimal.  Count on your workload increasing constantly without your paycheck increasing to reflect your added work and responsibility.  If you are salaried the feel that they own your life.  Their policy is no compensation for overtime period.  Supervisors have to bend the rules just to try to keep what little employees they have left.  There is a continuous pattern of people quitting and management is doing nothing to help it.  Just spread the load of the employee that quits on everybody else.  They try to make you think they are a family company but I assure you it’s not your family.  Avoid unless you are desperate for a job, then plan on it being temporary.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Technician 6 salaries reported	$29.96 per hour
Software engineer 3 salaries reported	$77,333 per year
Equipment manager 14 salaries reported	$116,362 per year
Cleaner 14 salaries reported	$31.56 per hour
Superintendent 14 salaries reported	$154,336 per year

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