automotive mechanic

heavy equipment mechanic

equipment operator

driver

truck driver

Knife-River

First of all I can only comment on the ready mix driver positions. Other positions in different departments could be far better. 

PROS:    The pay is probably at the upper end of the pay scale for a CDL employee in any industry especially with the overtime. 
Most of the trucks are newer and in good working order. If your a new hire though you’ll be in a tired wore out truck until a better one is found or more new ones are purchased. I’ve noticed it averages one new truck per plant per year. Most of the drivers are nice friendly people and will help guide you along in the training process since there is a lot to learn especially if your new to the industry.  Don’t worry you will be assigned to a trainer too!  There is a new program now that helps reimburse you some of the cost for steel toed boots since they are required PPE.
CONS:  most of the drivers I’ve talked to including myself feel this is a hostile environment to work in.  There are TONS of safety rules and protocols that could easily get you a unpaid three day suspension. Some of these rules are extremely easy to forget for a new hire so watch out!  Fortunately I escaped any suspensions but I sure witnessed others get written up and or suspended for trivial infractions. You will be working an insane amount of hours in the dry months. As a new hire you’ll be more often then not the last one going home for the day. You’ll be assigned to a HOME plant but you’ll be working out of several others on occasion too. I’ve personally worked out of five different batch plants. The company unfortunately does not consider driver fatigue and exhaustion as a safety hazard which to me seems incongruent to all their safety rules.  You’ll be working all kinds of different start times every morning. Starting at 1:00 am is not unheard of so keep that in mind. 
The Insurance benefits are a real disappointment for the size of this company. 
Bottom line:   This is probably the perfect job for a single person with no kids no friends no life and who lives in an apartment.  You’ll be far too tired for yard work anyway.  

Typical day was cleaning up the sites, occasional load-off load of the barge, and helping other sites for maintenance gripes. I learned a lot more about welding, heavy equipment operation. Hardest part of the job is replacing screen decks. Work place is generally kept clean and presentable. Management to new employee relationship is harsh, they never try to solve petty issues at the lower level i.e. instead of your immediate supervisor and co-workers ever talking to you about where you're screwing up and, how you can improve or if you're having problems on the home front. They resort to talking to management about issuing a termination. Because that's what happened to me on 01OCT20 instead of my co-workers and supervisors talking to me about my excessive phone usage as my dad was in the hospital and I was fresh out of the service and I was getting critical phone calls from the VA I could not miss, they used that against me  despite my direct boss knowing of my circumstance via text for my termination. They told me I was terminated also for a lack of willingness to work even thought I was there on time every day but ended up being the guy that hands the person the tools they need and getting no time in the hot seat to generate the skills and experience to get good at what was asked of me. And being that my job title was a jack of all trades guy, I bounced around a lot never staying in one particular site to get good at welding, operating the loader, in addition I admitted I knew nothing about aggregates and knew very little. So when it came to fixing things on the sites and manufacturing parts I made sure I was watching them, because they're the ones that have been doing it for 3-6 years. If I am going to learn anything it was from them. 

Well I was recommended by a friend to come work, pay was supposed to be great pay benefits and raises. Well hired on with promise of a raise in 90 days then when 90 days hit "oh we never said that". Then finally the holidays came and got a $.50 raise for being a yard manager loader operator and scale house man..this equaled to $16.50 per hr and I  havnt been paid that low since I was 18 years old in 2003 .... Then the company party we got a ham and a toothbrush woww what a joke.... Then as time progressed I was required to do maintenance personnel jobs on top of mine whilst the whole time friends aka co workers and upper management friends in other areas of the company told me I was wasting my time there.... Oh and not to mention the manager over me  was a joke I knew more than him and was better liked by coworkers and customers and was told this daily and he had been there years... Then his boss over him I wont even get started... So the whole time I'm getting praise for such a great job but I told them attaboys dont pay Bill's. Then to top it off I was never given the proper tools to do certain jobs and would get in trouble like I didnt order the stuff. Then I would get in constant trouble for actually doing my job I'm not perfect by any means but I did a dam good job. It all boiled down to who kissed butt the most and I'm sorry I'm not the one to put up with incompetence being yelled at talked down to being lied to or kissing butt.. IN THE END THIS  IS NOT A COMPANY TO GROW WITH SUPPORT YOUR FAMILY OR MAKE ANY KIND OF DECENT MONEY WITH ITS A JOKE AND THATS WHY THEY ARE DOING SOO BAD DONT WORK HERE WASTE OF TIME and no I want fired my job site got closed down and oh to mention I found out they would belittle me behind my back as well.

A job is a "mutual agreement" between the employee and the employer. Employee provides their time and skill to help this particular company make money in their respected trade for an agreed upon wage. 
(I personally would expect "some" level of respect for this agreement)

Unfortunatley knife rivers management doesnt respect your commitment and delivers a more aggresive territorial approach.

Example: You dont work for knife river, You work for the management of Knife river. You will be grateful to work here. If you make any mistakes we will gladly fire you and easily replace you!
 Regardless of your skill level and time spent with the company. Regardless if you have a familly, regardless if your mistake was small or big. However we do regard that if you pose a threat due to being intelligent than your margin for error gets smaller. 


Conclusion: In order for management to secure their title and pay they must strike down the up and coming workers through legal means to make sure they dont evolve with the company and rise up to be threatful of their position, rank, and pay grade. 

This is Knife river in the willamette valley.

Typical day is 12 hours 
I learned to listen
Management^
culture^ 
Hardest part of job ^
I did enjoy my coworkers.


Cheers!

This is typical heavy construction. There are many positions available and they try their best to find a good fit for good workers who are willing to work hard. Opportunities to learn are everywhere - advancements are not - pay increases are rare or small. The toughest part of the job is working 70 to 80 hour weeks and living in a overcrowded location with no time for yourself. The best part of the job was the co-workers. I try to imagine being in a prison style work camp and really finding a bond and comraderie with the other prisoners. Pay is good for a young person with no experience. Anyone with experience and knows what prevailing wages are and what type of work rate and productivity that be expected watch out. The pay will not be good to experienced professionals and you will need to produce at maximum for 75 hours a week at the cost of sacrificing project quality. Unless your just that good and willing to work for peanuts.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Many companies say they have a strict safety program, Knife River actually means it. My boss is pretty exceptional, but most of the bosses in the company genuinely care about their employees, pay is good, benefits are good, and work/home life balance is taken into consideration. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
It is construction/materials, and being on the maintenance side requires putting out fires from time to time (emergencies) which leads to unexpected overtime. But if you really can't swing it, they will find another way. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
You're working with real people. The atmosphere is overall very polite, professional, and safe.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Hours are set, work is local, and you make it home every day. Any travel is planned in advance. There is a wide variety in the work itself and while there are some repeat projects it is anything but monotonous. You are given plenty of opportunities to learn, grow, and improve and they want you to succeed. Raises and promotions are (largely) performance based.

I have heard that this was a great outfit to be a part of...WRONG. I secured a position with this company over the phone due to the fact that I was going to be moving my family across 3 states. Promises of 60-70 hour weeks, training, quick raises and advancement is what suckered me in. Never saw a 60 hour week, barely saw a 50 hour week, never received any training on anything other than a shovel, even though I'm an experienced operator and was hired as an operator. This company could literally do NO WORSE when it comes to who they put in management positions (foreman/ superintendent). What I experienced was the absolute worst arrogance and disrespect I have ever seen in a workplace. PERIOD. If you don't mind being treated like dirt, being belittled, being lied to, your superiors talking about you behind your back to other employees, or not being given the opportunity to do the job you were hired to do, then you'll do just fine here. If you are the type of person that will stand up for yourself and what is right, you won't last, that's a promise. Hopefully you didn't make the same mistake I did and use every cent of your savings to move your family to get involved with these snakes.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Co-workers have been great to work with.  The satisfaction of a job well done each and every day.  The fact that it is a decent company that will be around a long time.  They are progressing in many realms.  The money made is better than most other companies.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Poor administration communication and changing their stances.  They do not listen to those of us who work in the field every single day.   They state they are a people first company and that is just not true.  This is a good ol’ boy company at the top.   They do not practice what they preach.   

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Wishy washy.  Watch your back.   Toxic because you never knew where you stood.   You had yearly one on one meetings and nothing positive resulted from the communication.   They preach safety.   Yet I could point out blaring issues to administrators and nothing would get done.   

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It was great to start with.   Now it’s a grind due to the weak leadership and communications.

I don’t know much about other departments within Knife River but the aggregate department is a joke. High turnover. Been with them for 3 years at two different plants. Seen as many as 30 employees come and go. We run crews of 3 to 6 guys. Shotty equipment which includes caterpillar heavy equipment. If something breaks on a piece of equipment you see operating, expect to wait a week or so to get the issue fixed or expect that’ll try and “fix” the problem multiple times. They push for production and a lot of the time you’re either short staffed or don’t have enough experienced people working with you. 12 hour shifts is the schedule but some days you could be working longer to get something done. A lot of maintenance on equipment needs done and it’s never a permanent fix. Bandaids on things that need like open heart surgery. Just enough to get thru the day. Management has got better in the last 3 years but still needs attention. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part is I was a person there.  Not a number. I was new to the area,  having just come off the road as an over the road driver.  They made me feel Welcome and no one there ever had a problem showing me directions,  or,  more then one case,  having a helper truck, lead to me their direct jobsite.  Great people to work for.  If I move back into the area and there's a free truck, they've said in more then Welcome to jump back into a mixer!

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The start time area dictated by the work load.  One day maybe at 07:00, next day might be at 01:15. Just because the plant is listed as having 1200 yards to do,  many times I've half of that might cancel or move to another day

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Easy going.  Most everyone gets along with everyone else there

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Show up,  clock on, pretrip your truck,  be ready fur what comes next. Load, get to the job sight,  unload, wash the truck down,  get back to the plant,  reload, do it again until it's time to go home

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