water technician

technician

gas technician

surveillance operator

utility line locator

Hydromax-USA

I loved working here, but as most of these review will illustrate they don't quite have it together yet. There are some amazingly talented managers and supervisors that have no concept of field operations and crew management. For instance you will be sent to projects without the right equipment for the work your going to to be doing because that's when they said they would be there. Tomato soup with fork. They won't understand why it's not happening for them.
 I have several years with them because the money can be very good but not always consistent because no one takes care of the equipment like they should. No accountability on the maintenance whatsoever. Crew members like to complain about things breaking but don't really think about it was there buddy's neglect that caused it and totally preventable by a little management. I keep my equipment in good working order but doesn't matter because you are constantly being switched around on trucks and some are in pretty bad shape when you get them. So yeah they gave you what you needed for this job but your going to have some downtime fixing it so it works. Burnt grilled cheese sandwich.  
They get good projects and they have all the hours you want. Your middle managers and supervisors are 50/50 awful or awesome with no in between. Safety does take a back seat to production for sure sometimes. I won't go into to it but, they will drop a guy in a manhole before they actually do some enforcement and even then only long enough for people to stop talking about it. Safety is a culture and that is a foreign culture here.  
There is a lot of potential here but the company is pretty slow on the uptake on new technologies and getting the equipment for the jobs they work on. They don't adapt very quickly to the changing work dynamics at all. When I started with them much of the work was in the street and access was easy but they were cheap bids for easy work. Now they are getting good money for easement heavy work and investing very little for the mobile equipment required to do the work. Not really sustainable in the long and could likely ruin a good hard won reputation for getting the job done.  


First, let me say that the culture at Hydromax is great. The office has around 50 employees and everyone gets along very well. That isn't to say that everyone is best friends, but there never seems to be any of the problems a person might normally expect in an office this size. The atmosphere is relaxed and fun. The hours are flexible and a person can to a certain extent make their own schedule. 

Now, the reason anyone has a job is because they have bills to pay. This is where Hydromax fails. The pay is quite a bit lower than it should be for the education and skill level of the employees needed to do the work. Some employees in the office have to have a second job just to get by. Raises are few and far between and a person doesn't really know what they should expect. I know this leads to much resentment among the workers, and I have no doubt that much productivity is lost because employees are worried about how they are going to pay their bills. I have overheard several employees talking about finding other jobs because the pay here is not what they need to live. 

Other reviewers have talked about the opportunities for upward mobility, but those opportunities are vague for most of the employees. There is not a clear path for a person looking to advance to follow. Promotions are rare, and there is no real standard that determines what a person needs to do to gain a promotion. It seems some people receive promotions while others in different areas who are doing the same type of work do not. This too leads to frustration and resentment. 

The sad thing is,Hydromax with it's environment and quality people, could be a great place to work and one where people want to stay, but the sub-standard pay will cause most of the employees to quickly look for work elsewhere.

Hydromax USA is a poorly run company. They preach about safety and available work, but throw it out the window as soon as corporate leaves. Advancement is based solely on nepotism, I have witnessed people apply for roles which they have earned and deserved, to be denied an interview because a buddy of theirs applied and they just give them the job. All employees are extremely micromanaged due to the failures of the operations manager, and other office management. Company is not willing to listen to advice or suggestions. People running the show have less experience than field workers. Office staff makes sure they have the best vehicles, and leave all employees who work in the field with poorly maintained equipment, which they also refuse to get repairs on. Office staff has a huge spending problem, (buying needless things for themselves on the company dime. I.E. televisions and lunch daily), as a result employees get reduced hours due to no budget. Equipment routinely fails and employees are told to work with what they have. Same equipment comes into question months later and pretend they never knew about it. The HR department works from home, and cannot complete tasks in a timely fashion, any raise if actually awarded takes months to receive. There is zero accountability from office staff, blame rolls down hill. Any field accomplishments recognized by the companies work is done for is claimed by "the superior ability" of the office staff, no awards, compensation or thanks is given to people who deserved it. This is a great job if your only into getting a paycheck and nothing more. In reality, anyone making any decisions should be let go and replaced with field workers that have proven themselves. This company is an excellent example of why nepotism destroys a work place.

They call all their field techs GIS Technicians just so they can get around unions. There is no GIS involved in these roles.

As for GIS opportunities, these only are in the Louisville office. But there are many individuals who are very hostile to GIS and see it as a threat to their specializations. Because of this GIS growth opportunities are limited and most of the development will be in other programs that do not translate outside the company. 

Management is more interested in being your drinking buddy than actually being managers. After about 2 years of working 60 plus hours a week and getting verbally abused by other team members, I started suffering from depression. Management just shrugged it off and said that 'you can't let work effect your personal life' and 'that the other members just have strong personalities and thats just how they are'. Then after being cussed out by a team member during a meeting one of the managers just laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

Finally after finding out I might have a brain tumor on top of all this, I hit my breaking point and asked to have a reduced role in the company that wouldn't require me to work with these individuals. Instead they used this as an opportunity to fire me by twisting my words. 

I'll admit that my situation is extreme and that there are a lot of decent people in the company. But if you do choose to work here, don't let their friendliness fool you and remember to document and save everything. And if you are interested in GIS, there are so many other better paying and rewarding opportunities out there.

Working st hydromax is a decent experience, the people who work here are very personable and nice. Supervisors work in the same projects as you so you have access to more knowledge quickly. Hydromax also has a great training experience for you if you are unfamiliar with the type of work they do.
My biggest complaints of working here is definitely the pay and benefits. The workforce is woefully underpaid and benefits are bare minimum. If you are sick you have to use your vacation time, and the argument from. Management is that they are willing to let you work from home if you're sick, instead of healing. Since covid the workforce has move to full remote which comes with its Perks and cons as well. We transitioned quickly, but were not supplied with any stipends to make the transitions easier (desks, chairs, or internet stipend). The company doesn't really seem to care much about its workforce which is truly unfortunate, because there is a lot of potential here. Recently they have assigned a team to try and work with management to mitigate the worker fatigue, but I am concerned this will not move quickly enough to prevent another loss of employees. 

Perfect company if you just want to get started in the industry, but the work culture is atrocious. The corporate office and the projects have very little communication and accountability, with policy revisions sometimes coming daily and different old policies being pulled out and applied to the "good old boys" who have been with Hydromax since before the Seattle project. Projects have also veered away from safety and now focus entirely on collecting billable footage versus inspecting for and finding crossbores. I know, my department that I lead was the final word on these. The work culture is cut throat, with management actively pitting employees against each other and promising things to employees that they can not deliver on due to their hands being tied by corporate. Work hours are very long, between 50-60 hours a week. Raises were canceled last year due to lack of funds, although the Seattle project was doing well our budgeted raises went to new hires at the corporate office and company bonuses for management.

When I started at Hydromax, I had hoped that this could be a place to build a career. However, I now see that advancement opportunities are practically non existent for most of the people who work there. The pay is low, although they did start new hires at a higher rate, without giving employees who had been there for years a raise: there is definite resentment in the office amongst the experienced employees over this. They want a bachelor's degree, but the pay is what most jobs pay intern or co-ops. Worst of all, there is no communication from the higher-ups. Last year, no one knew when or if they would get a raise but employees were told in 2020 there would be reviews in a person's anniversary month. That hasn't happened yet and no one has communicated to the employees whether this will happen or not, leading of course to more resentment and uncertainty. 
Turnover in the office is very high. Experience isn't valued. Most people who spend a few months here soon start to look elsewhere once they see what the company is about.

I have worked for this company for almost two years.They have so many management issues both in the office and in the field. They will send you out with no training to do a job that you are not qualified to do. The lie to there employees. They will tell you something and then deny telling it to you to keep them from looking bad. Raise are rare. I was told for 3 months your raise will be on your next check but it never came. If you have issues in the field then you might as well forget about help from mangement. If something tears up then it because you didn't take care of it. The mangers talk bad about other employees behind there back to other employees then deny it. Thé list goes on and on. They have the highest turn over rate I have ever seen. They are so desperate for people they will absolutely hire anybody. They have hired people that have taken there trucks and sold everything on them. So if you get a job here you better watch your back and your personal belongings. Always have a recording device going when you are talking to someone because you will need it.

I’ve been with the company for nearly 5 years now. And throughout my 5 years I’ve had many roles. It took 4 for me to actually get a title change position. But I feel like the time I took learning other portions of the job set me up for success in the long run on how things run at least for the gas operations. 

Management has always been really wonderful and extremely understanding that you have a life outside of work. And they truly seem like they care for their employees. (From my perspective, some other employees would say otherwise, but that hasn’t been my experience.) 

Expectations are clear, and the one thing to know is that it is a production based company. The more you do, the happier your supervisors are going to be. (Overtime is usually encouraged, unless management tells you otherwise) 

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my employment with Hydromax USA and have no plans on leaving. Would highly recommend to anyone who likes to work hard, and likes stability. 

Personally, Hydromax USA has been good to me. With a company vehicle saving my personal vehicle from using miles and a flexible work schedule allowing me to enjoy my weekends and evenings consistently, I'm able to confidently say that I enjoy working for Hydromax. Over time is always welcome giving you the choice to how much you want to make each pay check. Management has grown from my first day to the present day and I couldn't have asked for a better up bringing, or better management to be under. IMO hardest part about the job is extreme weather and customers can be rough but it's very rare. But I feel working outside and being alone 90% of the time completely out weighs any cons about the job. Ultimately flexible hours, minimal supervision, ability to choose when you start in the morning, and having a company car far outweighs any issues one may come across when working with Hydromax USA

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Water technician 125 salaries reported	$20.69 per hour
Technician 94 salaries reported	$22.96 per hour
Gas technician 42 salaries reported	$21.96 per hour
Surveillance operator 25 salaries reported	$27.30 per hour
Utility line locator 21 salaries reported	$21.88 per hour

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