entry level laborer

landscape technician

laborer

engineering technician

truck driver

TruGreen

Pros:
- Everyone who works at the Durham Branch is extremely friendly and for the most part pretty relaxed.
- The job is really easy and expectations were pretty low (I personally feel this to be more of a con).

Cons: 
- They expect you to work 6 days a week 10+ hours a day without any overtime pay, and they do not tell you about it until you start working.
- You will be spraying chemicals that you do not even know what they are. I mostly sprayed Fiesta which I was told is mainly iron, but I wasn't given an MSDS for it, and it had no pesticide label so I researched it on my own finding out it does contain toxic substances to humans. I had this stuff all over me some days because the equipment was faulty with my spraying wand being held together by duct tape.
- You are expected to sell programs to people about lawn care, which from what I could tell is mainly targeted at old people. They also encourage you to service people's lawns who have not renewed the service so payment can then be demanded from them after. This is extremely uncomfortable and dishonest practice, I had multiple people really mad at me for even showing up to their house because they already tried to cancel multiple times.
- They deduce an hour from your pay for every day worked, which they do not tell you about, and they also over schedule you with work so you literally work for free every day 1 hour because if you take breaks you will not finish your route.
- I worked as a Lawn Technician but did not receive proper training on lawn care at all. I would show up to people's houses and they would ask me questions about how to improve their lawn health, and I couldn't answer because all I knew how to do was spread fertilizer and spray weeds. I "finished training" but couldn't even identify one strain of grass. I sought to educate myself at home outside of work if only to avoid the overwhelming feeling of incompetence this forced upon me.

Summarily, if you're desperate for work this place will probably always be hiring because anyone with a brain wouldn't stay at a place like this. If you have options for work, literally anywhere else would be better because most places will pay you for overtime so you would make more money for your hours. The dishonest practice and sales aggression of this place will make you feel horrible unless you have no conscious. This is a sad deduction because I genuinely liked most of the people I worked with.

Management was awful as were the clientele we serviced in the area. Managment made us tolerate unnecessary hostile behaviours from extremely rude people with nothing better to do but watch their grass grow, and were almost completely intolerant of new ideas or equipment that aided us as drivers who were already dumped upon with a grueling, impossible to fully complete workload each day... So essentially no completion bonus for anyone. In addition, we were trained to only treat the most visible areas for weeds, resulting in repeat visits to properties daily on top of everyone else to be serviced in a day.  Long, brutal workdays and no appreciation or even a life outside of six days a week is a recipe for failure. 

Do yourself a favour and find another job other than with these sheisters. To think that I was optimistic in transferring has transformed me to a pessimist; no thanks to them.

Excellent staff/management, quite easy going, super helpful and supportive. Makes for a great, chill atmosphere. Anyone will take the time to show you what you need to know or answer any questions you may have. I learned quite a bit about lawn care maintenance but more importantly, if I am ever an employer, how I should treat my employees and fellow staff. Before the shift starts and everyone goes on their separate ways for the day, someone is almost always having a good laugh or chuckle. Same goes for the end of the shift. The majority of customers are friendly and quite nice but of course, in the service industry you're gonna have a couple of p&!*k$ along the way hahah no biggie though! When a customer is satisfied with the results you have yielded over time, they are quite generous and grateful. I personally love driving and listening to music, there is a lot of that in this line of work! I find this line of work personally physically demanding but it's worth it! 

The job isn’t bad if you know what you’re getting into as a service technician, you need to understand to the company that you are a number and not a person. You’re only as good as the production number that you bring in. If you do not bring in the right amount you are nothing.  They’re unlimited room for hours so you can make pretty decent pay checks but that’s about the only upside. You’re expected to also make sales along with the work you do or else….. most of the equipment you use will break down but you will be expected to reach your production goal, you will be working most saturdays during the season even if as a branch you have made your goal you will have to make up for other branches in Canada that do not. Sales team lies to customers because they are not trained properly when making sales, so unfortunately the customer is cheated usually out of the right amount of weed spray, fertilizer or lawn seed without them knowing. You openly have to lie to customers and are expected to. Just remember you are a number not a person.

Secure hours, Saturdays are usually available to work if you want them. This is a position where those who go the extra mile are rewarded. 
You gain a lot of experience with their sales training program, and the sales manager is just fantastic and willing to work with you to smooth out the kinks in your sales presentation. 
Throughout the season there are bbq's, contests, etc. 
You have a lot of confidence going into a sale because you know the product and the team are top-quality, it makes it very easy to sell. The people I have met going door-to-door are quite frequently, wonderful individuals who are appreciative of our free analysis... sometimes the interaction can not be so great, but turning around someone's initial sour disposition and brightening up their day can be a unique and rewarding challenge. 
A great position for both the experienced salesperson as well as those just entering the field.

Applying fertilizers and herbicides to lawns according to schedule, safety procedures, and label instructions.
o   Responding on a timely basis to customer requests for telephone and in-person service calls
o   Completing required production forms and customer instructions
o   Performing a daily three-minute, 360-degree inspection of truck and equipment before taking the vehicle out on the road and upon return
o   Completing production reports, new sales forms, customer invoice forms, daily vehicle inspection report, and cancel/skip notices as required daily
o   Driving company vehicle to customer locations.
o   Talking to customers and understanding their needs.
o   Being able to resolve conflict with customers.
o   Assisting in sales to current customers through contact on route
o   Maintaining vehicle and equipment through cleanliness, safety, and general maintenance

For this job there's a lot of driving, a lot of knocking, and a lot of talking to people. Mostly it's fertilization and weed control, the job itself is very simple, however can become very exhausting very quick especially on the hot days. We work rain or shine at least until it starts to thunder and lightning. Management is great to work for, they're very understanding and flexible to make things work out for their employees. The most enjoyable part of the job is to see the results from the start of the season to the end of the season so long as everything is being done to give the grass the nourishment that it needs to survive.

Expect to work 55-60+ hours and receive no overtime pay. Saturdays are mandatory. They will gladly overburden you with stops. You can expect 25-35 stops per day, depending on your area. 

If you’re a hard worker and you’ve finished all of your work for the day, they will likely give you coworkers stops. They’ll paint it as “we need to help the team”. It’s hard not to feel like you’re being used and taken advantage of.

The lack of overtime pay is definitely something to consider when taking this job. The longer you stay with Trugreen, the more money you’ll be losing due to the long, tiring hours and zero overtime pay.

There’s a reason this company has a ridiculously fast turn-around time.   

What is the best part of working at the company?
I would say the best part is the fact ypu are actually on the road by yourself and are able to somewhat self manage.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part is the high demand for you to do at least 35 houses in a 10.5 hour time slot and they still ask you to do extras at the end of the day.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
It was laid back and relaxing my first season, then a new BM came aboard and made everything more complicated than it had to be.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
On the road doing anywhere from 25-40 stops a day. Some stops requiring more than 1 applications.

Work day starts early and is a stressful hustle until the end of day when you are exhausted and dismayed to realize their expectations for performance are the worst ; they expect you to dash about and  ignore customers as you are given about 7 minutes per site to meet their targets ; while it takes 20 minutes minimum to do a good job ; they also send you to sites where the customer has canceled the contract and expect  you to spread fertilizer while the customer is yelling they don't want you there !
Worst job I ever did out of 20 plus labor jobs I have done in Canada.!!

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Entry level laborer 6 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Landscape technician 7 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Laborer 8 salaries reported	$18.13 per hour
Engineering technician 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour
Truck driver 8 salaries reported	$96,250 per year

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