🌎 Ecological Landscape Worker @ SymbiOp Landscaping, Worker-owned

3454 Southeast Powell Boulevard, Portland OR

Description

SymbiOp Landscaping is seeking a Part-time Ecological Landscape Worker to join our worker-owned cooperative at around 10-30 hours per week. You will be a part of a landscape crew doing various landscape installation and maintenance projects, under the guidance of our landscape leads and designers. This position will be paid at $17-21 per hour depending on experience. We offer health insurance, paid time off, and retirement account after 90 days. There will be opportunities to be promoted to full-time or lead positions in the future. We are looking to fill this position in the next 4-12 weeks. SymbiOp’s mission is to create landscapes that are good for the people and the planet. We specialize in regenerative ecological landscapes that reverse climate change, restore habitats/wildlife, produce food, and are low maintenance. Ultimately, we want to transform all urban and rural landscapes into food forests and/or native landscapes. We also have a native plant nursery (SymbiOp Garden Shop) that’s mostly separate from the landscaping business. SymbiOp became a worker cooperative at the beginning of 2020 and has been growing steadily ever since. We are proud to say we have a work culture that is the opposite of a corporate job. Our wages are fair. Our workers have a healthy work and life balance. We are accountable to each other. We take care of each other. We constantly strive to be more inclusive and equitable. We are all committed to our mission and values. Feel free to read more about us on website - SymbiOp.com The candidate must have: • At least 1 year of professional landscaping, hardscaping, OR tree services experience. • Knowledge of proper landscaping techniques, pruning, planting, mulching, etc. • Proficiency in common hand tools and power tools. • Ability to lift 50lbs regularly and safely. • Comfortable driving a loaded pickup truck. • Ability to designate 2-3 days open for work per week. And notify the coordinator when your schedule changes. A work day is rarely more than 8 hours. • Attention to details. Client centric. Team player. • Proactive and compassionate communication. • Ability to adapt to unpredictable and fast-changing work requirements. (As a new business it’s nearly impossible to provide a completely stable and stress-free work environment, as much as we strive to do so.) • Eagerness to learn new things. • Commitment to 2 years of working with us. • Alignment with our SymbiOp’s mission and values. • We don’t care if you don't have a degree. • You must attend mandatory monthly all staff meetings. Attending weekly coordination meetings is optional but encouraged. All meetings and training sessions are paid at $15 per hour for everyone. Good to have one or more of these, but not required: • Knowledge of plants that can be used in native landscapes and/or food forests in the Pacific Northwest. • Knowledge of regenerative / ecological / indigenous / permaculture practices. • Experience in carpentry, i.e. building fences, arbors, garden beds, etc. • Skills in cooperative participation such as group decision process, conflict resolution, facilitation, non-violent communication, etc. • Experience founding and operating a new business from the ground up. • Past experience that reflects a commitment to mission and values similar to SymbiOp’s. A bit more about our cooperative: • Our workers have 10+ years of experience cultivating ecological landscapes, and even more years of experience with plant care in general. We come from a multitude of identities and backgrounds.You can learn more about the workers on our website symbiop.com/about • We have a comprehensive value system that informs our ecological practices and equity & inclusion practices. You can learn more our value system on our website symbiop.com/about • Being a worker-owner comes with added perks and responsibilities, financially and emotionally. • The worker-owners can meet and decide on larger issues facing the cooperative such as governance, wages and benefits, profit sharing, bylaws, etc. Each worker-owner has equal voice and equal voting power. We do our best to reach consensus on as many large decisions as possible. • Any worker is eligible to become a worker-owner of the cooperative after going through required training and working at least 2000 hours or a year, whichever is longer. There's also a financial buy-in which we will elaborate during the interview. • The existing worker-owners will approve new worker-owners based on criteria such as work performance, long-term commitment, and alignment of mission and values, etc. • The cooperative reserves the right to terminate a worker if they don’t intend to become a worker-owner, or fail to meet the worker-owner criteria at the end of the 2000 hours or 1 year. This is to ensure that eventually, most workers are committed owners. • We offer all workers paid skill training of all types whenever we can in order to cultivate more expertise and resiliency at an individual and collective level. • All workers enjoy a hefty employee discount when shopping at the SymbiOp Garden Shop. Your next steps: Send us an email with the subject “Landscape Worker for Hire”. Please tell us why you want to work with us, when you can start, how many hours you can work per week, and days and times that you definitely cannot work. Please also attach your resume and at least 2 professional references. Based on your email, we may schedule a phone and/or an in-person interview with you in 2-4 weeks. License #9913