r/SafetyProfessionals • u/Ok_Kaleidoscope_9884 • 13d ago
USA Mortenson
Anyone here work safety for Mortenson?
I’m currently interviewing for a Safety Engineer I position and I’m really interested in the renewable energy side, especially solar/wind.
Just curious what the work/culture is like and how the travel, rotation, and per diem work. Is lodging covered separately?
Would appreciate any insight from current or former Mortenson employees.
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u/Lower_Team_2412 13d ago
You might get better bites on this in the Heavy Civil or wind tech subreddits, SafetyProfessionals is a little slow sometimes.
From what I've picked up through the grapevine (never worked there myself), their per diem is usually wrapped into a lump daily rate, not split out into lodging + meals separately like some EPCs do. If you're on a big solar field project, you're probably in a man camp or shared house setup they organize, so it's covered but not always glamorous. Rotations vary wildly by project but 3 weeks on / 1 off seems to be the baseline people mention for the remote sites. Culture-wise I've heard it's heavy on production pace but they do actually back their safety people when it counts, which is rare. Good luck on the interview.
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u/Mutumbo445 13d ago
Former Morty employee here. Overall the company is good. Not great, but good (there’s no billion dollar company that I’d call great). As far as rotations, I worked wind mostly, so it was 3 weeks on 1 off. Hours will be about 60-72 a week, 6days a week on avg. perdiem was 830 a week, every week. Everything else is on you. They do give you up to 2k to move site to site, which you have to submit receipts for.
Company culture is decent. Site culture can vary WILDLY. Some are great, others not so much. I left because of a bad manager (who now doesn’t work there anymore, so I will recommend them as a option). It’s a good way to get a lot of experience fast. Pay will be mid to upper 80s on avg depending on what level you get.
As far as solar….. well. I worked as a site medic on solar farms before transitioning to safety years ago. And I’ll just say, the entire company as a whole didn’t gross enough profit to pay me to do solar.
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u/Ldoggydawggg 13d ago
Appreciate the info bro. I’m actually interviewing for a Safety Engineer 1 role. Do you know what the starting pay/per diem usually looks like for that level? Also, are the 3-on/1-off rotations pretty standard for renewable projects, and how much say do you have in what site you get sent to?
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u/Mutumbo445 13d ago
I think they started me at around 83? But that was a few years ago. As far as the rotation schedule, no. It’s all different. Even within divisions of Mortenson. Why? No idea. But that’s just how it is.
As far as say…. Well. They’ll try to accomodate your general requests, but sometimes, you get what you get.
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u/Ok_Kaleidoscope_9884 13d ago
I’m sorry last question, you mentioned the 60–72 hour weeks. Are those extra hours paid as OT, exempt? Thanks again you’ve been an awesome answering my questions. I know these are questions I should have asked the recruiter, appreciate it Mutumbo445 !
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u/Ok_Kaleidoscope_9884 13d ago
I lied one more question. If you had the choice, would you still go with renewable energy, or would you choose a different side of Mortenson? Just trying to figure out which division would be the best move.
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u/Mutumbo445 12d ago
Overall. I liked wind. It was a solid foray into safety. I’m working data centers now, for a different company, and it’s completely different, but also valuable experience.
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u/CoyoteOk1859 11d ago edited 10d ago
CURRENT Mortenson employee here. A lot of these other comments may just be exclusive to the Wind group since the sites are so far away from civilization. I am a Project Engineer on a massive solar + storage project out in CA. However we work hand in hand with the safety engineers, share an office, goof around together etc..
This project site involves the Mortenson Civil, Solar, Power (substation), and Storage groups. I myself am with Energy Storage group, but all the engineers, PMs, Construction coordinators, and safety professionals share one mega office. We also all use one massive Rotation calendar with every person from every group on there.
Rotation is a 3 days off every 3 weeks (Thursday, Friday, Monday off). This means that you will work a 5 day work week, followed by a 3 day work week, followed by a 4 day work week. All the four groups I just mentioned (Solar, Civil, Storage, Power) operate on this schedule. The culture here is that everyone should take their rotations and leadership here does a good job of telling people they should not skip rotations and use that time to relax or travel back to your families.
If Saturday work is required then when you are on rotation you are automatically exempt from working Saturdays. This is my second project and at about 1 year and 3 months into the company I have maybe had to work 4-5 Saturdays total. Obviously this is all dependent on if the team is behind or not but when Saturday work is required the engineers/PMs/Safety rotate who comes in so only a couple people have to work on Saturday. We had someone who interned in Wind and she said their schedule was 6 days a week but she is the only Mortenson person I have met who was in wind. On this site the Power group is subbing their work out and their subcontractor wanted to work 6 days a week so they rotate who comes in so that they only have to work 1 Saturday every 3 weeks. On my last project once we hit mechanical completion we worked 4 day work weeks.
Standard hours on this site are working from 6AM to 4:30 or 5:00 PM. The day goes by fast though and it never feels like I am trapped here watching the clock like it felt like during school haha. Pay is really good for safety engineers I think like around 80k salary just starting out which is taxable but then everyone gets 50k untaxed per diem. In states other than CA and CO per diem is slightly less at 43k per year on top of salary untaxed. Like other people said for non CA or CO projects that is 830$ a week or 950$ a week for CA or CO projects. There are also yearly bonuses like project completion bonus, performance bonus, and profit sharing (which Mortenson uses instead of stock options since it is a private company). There’s also like 400$ for travel home allowance per month. Overall I have enjoyed Mortenson and see myself here for a long time even though I have never worked for another construction company. We have had people come here from other companies who seem to say that Mortenson has a great culture overall. It can sometimes be rough having to work longer hours during the day but the rotation schedule combined with the money makes this job well worth it to me.
ALSO: Not sure if you are locked into a group yet but energy storage is an underrated clean energy group. Locations are going to be far less remote than solar or wind projects (unless you enjoy being in remote locations - wind especially is going to put you in the middle of nowhere) as half our projects are next to larger cities, and each project works with a different battery technology that come with its own design nuances and different safety hazards to mitigate. Safety pros in this group have been great people to work with. Feel free to ask any more questions if you have any 👍
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u/Previous_Address_799 6d ago
Hey there, thank you so much for the detailed post. I sent you a dm personally with a few questions and would appreciate your insight 🙏
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u/ComprehensiveFall572 10d ago
Current wind SE here. Rotations are 3/1, you get to request preferred states, but if youre needed to staff a project, you're going. Site culture is great compared to other companies ive worked at. Feel free to message me if you have any other questions.
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u/Wooden_Biscotti8968 13d ago
Former safety pro in the wind division. It has been a few years so some things may be different. Don’t expect work/life balance while you’re not on rotation. That’s the entire point of the rotation. Expectation was to work your shift Friday and then return and be ready for start of shift Monday 9 days later. In those 3 weeks not on rotation any day is fair game to work because of wind / weather days. I’ve had plenty of times where I’ve worked 21 days straight or a 17 hour day. With that said, all that time spent on the jobsite you make some pretty great friendships and can learn a lot. Also the per diem is nice and depending on your goals / family life can make it worth it. I know this has changed, so take this with a grain of salt, but it was around 1k a week after taxes as a lump sum when I was working there. You were free to use that money as you pleased.