Pros

If you are a SC, GA or NC native and attended Clemson or Tri-County, it is one of the better places to work: very laid back, Southern politeness, access to the mountains and coast. Salaried employees accomodated well: okay for occasional long lunches & flexible work time, especially if pursuing MBA or engineering degree at the University Center in Greenville (75 minutes away). Most of the employees are residents of Oconee County who create a feeling of work-as-community: everyone knows everyone. Company is doing well since utilities and energy is a hot topic for the economy.

Cons

Typical mill-town atmosphere: cheap labor supported by under-prepared technical personnel.

Hourly: people who do not want to move because they have family- and property-ties. Relative to bigger cities like Anderson, Greenville or Atlanta, hourly employees paid better than average, but management uses this as leverage since there are no other large employers nearby. All hourly employees had high school degrees, but little-to-no technical training other than from Itron.

Salaried, Technical Support: local college graduates who are either married to a local or like being near Clemson. Either way, Itron typically was only employer they interviewed with or only employer that extended a reasonable salary.

Salaried, Upper Management: good work experience building older generation electromechanical J5 meter, but had very little technical strength when transitioning to current solid-state technology. Rather than infusing ranks with task-specific talent, upper management decided to remain intact. Thus, problems in circuit board manufacturing and corrosion; ultrasonic vibration welding; measurement fidelity and tolerances; battery life; material selection; insulative powder coating; metal plating; etc., were (are?) problems that never seemed to be resolved.

Salaried, Mid-Level Management: ill-prepared workforce stocked with sycophants of Upper Management. They were docile housewives who were intimidated into results, rather than trained to lead; or men who climbed the company ladder through social connections like golfing (in the fall, it was not uncommon to see mid-level and upper management gone at 1 o'clock to meet tee times).

Design: team meetings with R&D manager and assistant were unproductive: theoretical expertise in Hall Cell technology with little practical knowledge to execute; discussing manufacturing issues with them only led to "wild goose" projects.

Advice to Senior Management

To the "Itron" side of the business: If you have visited Oconee or have met any of the people from Oconee (and many are in Spokane now), you know that this is a very clear portrayal of what you have absorbed as part of the acquisition.