USIC Reviews

Pros

Company truck, gas card, freedom, outdoors, crazy homeowners

Cons

Management, promotions, bonuses, PTO, pay

Pros

There weren't any Pros to speak of.

Cons

The management team is utterly disorganized. My manager was fired for poor performance even though his performance as a manager was in the top 10% of the company consistently. In reality, he was fired because the new state manager didn't like him. It was purely a personal thing. He was replaced by someone with less than a year of locator experience who didn't know how to do the job of utility locator.

Pros

-Easy hiring process -Helpful peers -Company vehicle

Cons

-Lack of appreciation for long time employees with proven value -Mostly interested in looking appealing to obtain new employees by increasing starting wages while reducing the value of current employees. Ex; increase of $4 per hour for starting wage of new employees in the last 12 months while only increasing dedicated, proven reliable employee wages $1. -Narrowing the gap; making merit increases over years of service merit-less by not increasing wages of new and established employees equally.

Pros

Working as a utility locator at USIC is a great opportunity to start a career with little or even no industry experience. Utility location is easy to learn, but difficult to master so be ready for a challenge. You work alone, so you set the pace and make decisions, but there is always someone available to consult.

Cons

USIC is a large company so you may feel like your opinion isn't heard. Emergency excavations happen which means at times you will be on call 24 hours a day. Work in ALL types of weather. Peak dig season means very long days.

Pros

Company truck take home Left alone in the field if completed goal for tickets Lots of OT available Learned a lot about every utility

Cons

Pay was low compared to other companies that do less utility locates On call 2 times a month Never got the raises I was promised

Pros

Company truck, can be good co-workers, outdoors, kinda like your own boss. If you can get on a good crew the job is great, if you can get a good supervisor that helps instead of targeting you.

Cons

The way Usic system works is you are set up for failure with everything. There is a lot of favoritism at this company I mean a lot. If a supervisor doesn’t like you. You will have a target on your back and will get no help. The district managers always agree with the supervisor most cases cause they are busy and don’t care enough. In some states they don’t follow one call laws, sometimes higher ups doesn’t even know the law themselves. They would much rather put a damage on your record than fight the utility company or contractors in fear of loosing contracts especially in this economy. The quality system is set up for failure. If you get one damage it’s a quality point most cases. in order to get that point back you have to get multiple audits passed to get single quality point back. And trust me on projects it’s super easy to get a damage. No room for advancement period.

Pros

The potential to make over 40k your first year. Work from home with all equipment supplied by company. Full benefits package. Very little phone work if any. No in office time required. No previous experience required. Paid holidays, vacation time and sick time. Management is understanding of personal situations and will try to work with you.

Cons

Most days you are asked sternly (not mandatory) to work at least 10 hours. You are frowned upon if you can’t do it. That 10 hour day can quickly become a 12 hour day if there is a system failure. Per piece production based pay scale. If you work slow, you will make peanuts. Rules and policies change frequently and without notice. Peer auditing system for work quality and adherence. If your peer does not care for you, you won’t get a pay increase. High volume of work and not enough workers. Low bonuses and lack of appreciation to those that work as asked and have zero home life. Public shaming by senior employees via departments chat. In other words you may get “called out” in front of your coworkers for a number of things. No obvious regard for individual health. Job requires sitting for hours on end. If you take a 30 min lunch (unpaid) you are expected to work 30 min at end of shift to cover it.

Pros

Can be isolated if that’s your thing, outside at all times, company truck you take home and they pay for the gas. A lot of paid training. A lot of people use usic as a stepping stone to get to other high paying positions in the utility field of employment: gas, electric, cable, phone etc

Cons

Outside year round, cold and hot. Can be a lot of hours, during the busy time of year expect 50 hours minimum and up to 60. Could turn into a pro though if you want the OT money and don’t want a personal life.

Pros

There's no boss breathing down your neck

Cons

It could be dangerous at times

Pros

easy job and chill not looking over shoulder by managers is nice

Cons

outside and can be demanding