laborer

truck driver

utility worker

equipment operator

foreman

NPL Construction

What is the best part of working at the company?
hot, dirty work, hostile work crew. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Hostile work crew, non-supportive management, misleading, and condescending. The policies and wording in their safety meetings and general staff meetings do not match on on-site behavior and daily policy. Whistleblowers are ostracized and pushed out of the cruise and clicks to the point that they lose hours. The company is primarily run by a multi-membered family that permeates all levels of the positions and employment. I wish that the company would support its employees as these family members support each other.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It's like working on a road crew while serving time in prison. The culture is superficial and condescending, you really have to watch your back, the latter is often climbed by deceptive practices

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Show up to work early AM, Inspect and prep your vehicle, trailer, and equipment. Pick up fresh material on the way to the job site and arrive at the job. If you were delayed by traffic or by the plants picking up material, you will be ostracized for the delay and may risk retaliatory future scheduling. Driving first two hours a day, manual labor for the rest of the day, and then 1.5 hours at the end of the day, returning to base. Must like to sweat, plan to change entire clothing throughout the day, or risk fungal infections and rashes. Cruz does not make the best use of heavy equipment, Learn as you go at all levels

Management don’t care about workers and over works workers cause he get bonuses if we come in under budget and ahead of schedule if your not a foreman or higher you don’t wanna work here they don’t care about they’re employees and are only in it for themselves to line they’re pockets It’s union but local 616 takes your money and don’t really do anything for you initial plans are always getting changed there is a lot of favoritism and people thinking they’re better than you over worked at times and safety protocols they want you to follow are often ignored like you know your supposed to do it one way and are told to do it the fast/wrong way by supervisor but if your caught or if something happens it’s your a** and your job and they say everyone is a laborer meaning truck driver operator fused and even foreman are all laborer but if your hired on as a actual laborer to the team more often than not you’ll work your a** off and they will sit around and they say you can report this or that to hr or whatever anonymously but don’t do it cause it always goes back to the person you said something and often you get promised a raise or advancement and it don’t happen understaffed over worked and no vacation pay or anything unless your foreman or higher

I will always recommend NPL as an employer. Of course it has challenges similar to other large companies (i.e. communication breakdowns), but they're often due to employees/management being spread too thin, which is not unique to the construction industry right now.

NPL is highly family oriented and makes the effort to be inclusive through avenues like employee resource groups designed for different populations and communities (i.e. women, LGBTQ+, military, etc.).  They also promote mental health awareness. Incentives like shirts and hats circulate throughout the year, but there are also bigger programs like employee assistance, grants/scholarships, discounts at gyms/car dealerships/phone providers, etc. Company insurance isn't as great as the union insurance (I've had both), but neither is bad at all.

Some positions do end with a glass ceiling, but over the years, I've seen so much advancement in the field. Laborers and truck drivers are now foremen and supervisors. If laboring isn't for you, there are administrative, safety and "floating" positions, as well. Put in the work, use the resources and collect the incentives, and NPL will reciprocate your efforts.

As most of the foreman tell you once you get here use this company as a school and then move to other companies. Many of the foreman’s treat you bad and don’t t try to help you since they got no help when they started. They expect you to be a professional at digging from day one and will belittle you for not knowing. The pay is complete trash for manual labor as you will get around $18 an hour when the competition is paying $25. It’s supposed to be a 3 man team including the foreman but it’s usually you and the foreman and more then likely you will do all the manual labor while the foreman just sits in the truck doing nothing and most likely comes out just to talk down on you for not doing the digging  faster and takes credit for your work. They talk about how you can move up the ladder in this company and the steps it takes to get there but they don’t tell you that it’s up to the foreman to recommend to the Superintendant to move you up but the superintendent doesn’t want to give no one a raise. If you get a ride by the company truck you have to be there at 5:30am but you don’t get paid till 7am and you don’t get paid on  the way back. 

In my time with this company, the experience was overwhelmingly negative. I felt that priorities constantly changed without explanation, deadlines were moved with little notice, and expectations were unrealistic from the start. Instead of feeling supported, I often felt set up to fail.

Communication from leadership rarely addressed the real problems employees were dealing with. To me, it came across as disconnected and dismissive, which made it difficult to trust the direction being given. The environment was chaotic and draining, the pace was demanding,  but not in a way that felt productive and I personally experienced more stress and frustration than any sense of accomplishment.

The only positive I can point to was the dedication of a few coworkers, but that wasn’t enough to make up for the lack of structure and genuine support. Overall, working here left me feeling undervalued, overworked, and ready to move on.

If you’re looking for stability, clarity, and a healthy culture, in my opinion this is not the place to find it.


At the time NPL was the primary contractor for a local gas company (the client). Managers and supervisors at NPL first portayed the company as one who cared for their employees wellbeing and safety. After a year of working there I soon came to realize it was all about the numbers and client satisfaction. One issue with the client, even if not caused by you, could make or break you. The clients often had favorite supervisors, office represenatives, and crews, and would often make assumptions on a situation based of a their own employee's or favorited NPL employee's testimony. NPL would then just go off the client's statement and people got warned, written up, or let go. NPL supervisors would often throw people under the bus to avoid issues with the client, or cut corners at other's expense. The client also treated most of the NPL employees like second-class citizens and NPL would let them. So if you do your part to get the projects completed at all levels, get the dollars in, and keep your head down your good.

Was expected to work at a fast out of control pace, which could lead to many mistakes by employees and management.  Good emloyees were the only reason things were staying together. I would travel 2 hours on a Sunday to work only to find out work was canceled the night before.  Safety program is there but production was priority.  Newer non-experienced employees were great to work with.  Older experienced employees had multiple family members working and causing problems. Was promised per-diem to stay out of town but would not receive initial reimbursement for 3 weeks. I did not receive health insurance for 8 months and over 1250 hours worked.
Had 3 work trucks leave me stranded. Each incident cost me 2 days to switch in and out of new tool trucks.
Pay was ok for area but not for industry.  I currently have over 50 job-specific qualifications and a Class ACDL and was in a union but could not receive benefits for 8 months.

A typical work day was spent posting revenue, logging in mail and AP invoice for processing. On Wednesdays the previous week's revenue was balanced and closed out. Thursday consisted of posting the approved AP to be processed by our central office.

I learned a lot about the AP process, the hardest part of the job, was trying to keep everyone happy. Upper management did not think we work hard to keep the paperwork flowing smoothly

Unfortunately the management of this office has gone down, to the point that upper management was not communicating effectively which each other.  The office manager rarely did any work, just complained on how much they were underpaid, in comparison to the other managers 

There was also no room for advancement at this particular office.

NPL is a job that you can either enjoy if your into long hours and not much of a life. Or a job you can dislike because of how its ran and who takes charge of it. I've learned that working at NPL it's more of who's important that gets noticed and who they would rather sweep under the rug rather then keep. NPL is the kind of place that is far more concerned about keeping your mouth shut and do the job at hand. They break rules/laws to getting stuff done and have absolutely no problem throwing people under the bus in getting what they want out of you. I believe there is a time for friendship and understanding, but when your not in that circle, management has no problem in screwing people over. Corporate isn't too bad, they're actually doing what needs to be done. But on site with others, safety really is NOT their 1st priority.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Flexibility,Healthcare and 95% of the work is performed on daylight schedules,it’s a great company to begin with at entry level to get experience for the gas utility industry.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Layoffs every year late November or beginning of December,also there doesn’t seem to be a professional level of criticism for advancement there’s a buddy buddy system there….

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work performed there is very easy if your on a good crew and everyone works as a team to get the job done.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You are either on a service crews installing new infrastructure to a home or business or you are on a mainline crew installing distribution pipe

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Laborer 37 salaries reported	$26.40 per hour
Truck driver 23 salaries reported	$28.50 per hour
Utility worker 13 salaries reported	$27.22 per hour
Equipment operator 22 salaries reported	$36.12 per hour
Foreman 17 salaries reported	$36.58 per hour

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