traffic controller

flagger

safety specialist

operations manager

safety supervisor

Traffic Management Inc.

I'm of two minds regarding my time at TMI. On the one hand, I got to spend time outside, often in quite beautiful places. I got to see more of my local region, and it got me my first job in the construction industry despite having no relevant experience.

On the other hand, the hours were extremely unpredictable most of the time. Often you wouldn't know if you were going to be working at 6 the next morning until 9pm the night before, and you would have no idea if you were going to work 4 hours on a beautiful, quiet, forest road, or spend the next 15 hours flagging on a busy highway with no breaks, and no shoulder, and constantly fearing for your life. There was also a great deal of unpaid labor expected, such as showing up early to load your vehicle, and driving to and from the job sites.

In addition, the workplace culture was dominated by toxic, petty drama. Many of the most entrenched workers fostered negative attitudes towards their coworkers over slights both real and imagined, but always blown out of proportion. I eventually lost my job when caught in the crossfire of one of these beefs, and was never given a satisfactory explanation as to why. I tried to just keep my head down and out of the drama, and just focus on doing my job well, but that was not enough to stay safe.

In short, it'd be better to get a different job that just gives you time to go hiking more or something, if you just want to explore the world around you. TMI was more stress than it was worth.

A typical day I experienced while being employed by Traffic Management Inc., generally started at 7 a.m Monday through Friday while having optional time for weekends depending on work load. Once our shifts began, our manager would hand out our work load for the day (and night in some cases). Our work sheet would describe what we (generally working with partners) would need to do to complete the task at hand. We would generally arrive at the workplace at around 8:30 - 9:00 a.m and meet up with our contractor, mainly D.T.E Energy.  We would then communicate regarding what they would be doing and what they would prefer us to do. This may include flagging, creating safe driving detours and always keeping us and the public safe. 
 I learned quite a bit from this work experience. The most important thing to learn is safety. Keeping us and the public safe were crucial.
 Management was excellent. They treated everyone fairly and made sure everyone felt comfortable. 
 Co-workers were very friendly while also being highly professional. They helped me learn the essentials of what the job included.
 The hardest part about this job was simply the fact that I lost it. The reason for losing this job is lack of work for us and our contractors.
 the most enjoyable part of this job was being able to my progress and taking enjoyment in the finished part.  Feeling proud about work is a very important thing for me.

Some weeks you will work 50 hours, some 30 hours, some 0. The work schedule is terrible. Typical work week: waiting by the phone to receive a dispatch text . The text will give you the start time and location but you don’t know what time you’ll be done.  Some days you’re at the job and expect to be there 8 hours and end up having to stay there 15, other times you expect a long day and only work 4 hours. It’s completely unpredictable so it’s very difficult to organize your life outside of work and hard to manage your finances when you don’t have no guaranteed or consistent income. You’ll get dispatched on weekends, weekdays, morning shifts, night shifts. The manager will even call you at 5am and ask if you could come within a hour. You will never know if you have work till the night before sometimes even an hour before. If you like having no stability whatsoever on your income, sleep schedule, life OR care for your health, mental health, income then this job is for you. Would only recommend this job to my enemies 

When I started I thought I caught a good break. I was working long hours, learning new skills and got to drive to places I haven't been to before. 

But along the months many workers would tell me how it really is once you been there long enough. Sure enough, I knew what they meant.

Everyone basically starts off in minimum wages. The Union is not the Union we need. Because we have that Union we under payed. It's a Labor Union not a Traffic Controlling Union.

The set rules and rules and more rules to make it easier to give out warnings and write-ups. 

While the big shots drive in expensive vehicles they wanna take away the coffee machine because it's too expensive to keep around.

Workers are leaving and heading to other Traffic managing companies. I don't blame them. Once everyone becomes fed up and leave for something better what is to becomes of this company.

Show up, pay attention, do what you are taught, develop more skills and understanding, make friends, be present and care. If you want to work and are ok with being outside and working some long hours here and there and actively care about what is going on, you can be making great money with guaranteed raises on the horizon. It could easily change your life quickly. There is also plenty of opportunity for flexibility when you need it. Work 70+ hours a week if you are willing, or use the resources built into the job description and mold yourself a schedule with excellent work life balance. Management is rarely as good and smart as it should be at ANY company. You can easily out last a bad manager at this company and any other. Just show up, care, learn and be positive it's so easy and you will be happy at TMI. 

I was hired through my full referral union hall at the North Seattle (Marysville) division. The North Seattle division just opened so all of my work was for the Seattle (Auburn) division. Everything was rocky from the start. I left after 4 weeks.

- Strike 1: Reporting your hours is done via an I-pad system. They never set me up from the system so I had to do my hours on a paper ticket. That's fine when the person your working with does the paper ticket! I had two days that were missing 04/05 and 04/10 It took until 05/03 to fix these items.

- Strike 2: With being in a union, I have union dues and benefits. This company has failed to deduct my dues and pay my benefits. I have brought it up over and over again and it's still not fixed.

- Strike 3: They have paid me $15 an hour on certain item's and tried to say it's private non union covered item. Already contacted my local who confirmed that is a big NO NO!

Meet at Job site or shop and meet client, discuss plan of action for day and  set up, with safety in mind and once done, tear down, Learned safety is number one goal, everyone makes it home safely, management was structured flawless, work place culture was enjoyable, yet relaxing, exciting, hardest part job would be lifting the signage, which isn't that bad and only at very beginning of day for 20mins and very end of day for 20mins tear down, in between flip Stop/Slow paddle or hold traffic for client, with safety in mind and radio on walkie talkies to teammates about traffic and what needs done, Really a quite enjoyable employer, very laidback not chaotic with safety as number one goal for clients and ourselves, we all make it home same way we came and make and great income while being happy doing our job.

TMI has great employees but it’s a shame they treat their best employees with zero appreciation. They work their best employees to the bone! If your opinion does not align with management you will be blacklist. Their project management department by far is the worst department with the highest Turn-around. This company is literally at war within their own departments everyday. Their reviews and raises suck. They will sit and focus on all the wrong things you do but don’t take into account how much work that belongs to other people they actually throw at you. For what they pay it is not worth the stress. All this corporation cares about is expanding and opening new branches, hiring people to justify to pay you so low, and taking advantage of their good employees. Get your experience and run! There’s a reason why their best employees are working for their own competitors. 

The pay depends on your yard, it is union but they don’t really do much for you that also depends on your yard. You have no set schedule and you are on call. Sometimes there’s work Monday through Sunday sometimes it’s once a week and some rare events there’s no work the whole week. This company is felon friendly and they claim they are completely against snitching but they’re the first to tell and twist how things really happened. 

Everyday work was to make sure traffic controllers were dispatched to work as much as possible. What I had to learn was their internal systems and how to get along with traffic controllers. Those that were more flexible received jobs more frequently. Although managers are very good at what they do, they are less professional in their speech and conduct which speaks to a decaying professional work culture. The hardest part of the job (to me) is working with people that are half my age - that I'm old enough to be their father. Some are terrible at keeping their private life private. My best part of the job was working on the weekends. The office was closed but because I worked in dispatch the dept was open 24 hrs a day.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Traffic controller 33 salaries reported	$19.75 per hour
Flagger 4 salaries reported	$18.80 per hour
Safety specialist 33 salaries reported	$60,246 per year
Operations manager 26 salaries reported	$69,572 per year
Safety supervisor 12 salaries reported	$63,736 per year

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