Pros
Non-management level ecology staff were friendly and helpful.
Cons
You are made to work very long days (+20 hours overtime a week on average), which can become dangerous when you are driving long distances on minimal sleep. TOIL will be refused during this period. You will become exhausted. You have no autonomy over your own time, with very little opportunity to enjoy a life outside of work during the week. Management have very poor people skills and not particularly good ecologists either. On several occasions they carried out surveys in unsuitable weather conditions because there was no room to rearrange surveys due to being overbooked and under staffed. No expenses/mileage. You are forced to use company vehicles even if that means driving out of your way to pick one up to get to site. They rely on their junior staff not knowing any better. If you complain about working conditions you are told you could have it worse elsewhere, instead of any attempt to improve them. Salary is very low. They will not allow you to take more than 1 day annual leave off during the survey season, even if you request it more than 2 months in advance. Some zero hour workers are treated poorly and paid very little.