Pros

The benefits at PG&E are great. It is one of the few companies that still offer pensions. The health benefits are very generous as well. The company is also very accomodating to working mothers. It is also a lot more secured than other places. It is also very accepting of diversity and there are plenty of women represented in upper management. Opportunities for advancement are somewhat high due to the aging workforce.

Cons

I worked in the Finance Organization and these are some of the things I have heard from people in other departments regarding my department and their departments.

In the Controller's Organization, RDO was taken away and so was the option to work from home. Morale fell as a result since other departments retained this. The interesting thing is that many divisions in the Controller's Organization worked easy normal hours so it is unknown why this happened.

The Finance/Controller's Organization also kept cutting back on perks such as Christmas parties and other events. Furthermore, cubes were shrunk as PG&E decided to stop paying rent for some buildings and just move workers into the General Office. Morale fell as a result of the shrunken cubes. This organization was just a very very stingy and cheap organization.

Turnover was also quite high. There were often times in which I could not even recognize anyone in some divisions as everyone was new. This often happened in the span of a year. Often, many young employees left due to the low quality work they were given. Growth opportunities just weren't common at PG&E.

Salaries were also below market and raises were also below market. The training was also really really bad and so a lot of people lacked hard skills.

Layoffs were not uncommon at PG&E which is somewhat hard to believe for most people. A department was axed back in 2006 (a time of economic prosperity) and hiring freezes were frequently imposed.

Evaluations were quite unfair at PG&E. It followed a bell curve in which workers were compared. A coworker of mine once told me that he received a midyear evaluation that was almost the complete opposite of his end of the year evaluation. He was rated in the bottom bucket in certain categories but when he switched to a different supervisor, he was rated near the top in those categories. Suffice to say, evaluations didn't really follow a clear cut formula and were often very very very political.

The company also frequently restructured the company in a scheme called the "Service Delivery Model". Whole departments were renamed and moved around frequently. It was chaotic to say the least and morale fell. Supposedly these were common before I joined and left PG&E and all of these restructurings also supposedly ended in low morale and failure.

Departments differed when it came to RDOs and other perks. Previously, PG&E Corporation people qualified for PTOs while PG&E Utility people were given sick days and vacations instead. Sick days could only be used for sick days while PTOs can be used for either. PG&E Corporation people were not given discounts for utility bills while Utility people were. Suffice to say, this was quite confusing.

Politics was also quite a real phenomenon at PG&E. Advancement had more to do with politics than with merit. Also, upper management was also composed primarily of outsiders and this was often an issue at PG&E.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend PG&E. The opportunities for growth are there but only for certain divisions/departments. Supposedly, PG&E was a great company to work for but it seems as if the new upper management changed the whole culture. The morale was low when I left and I doubt that has changed at all.

Advice to Senior Management

You should step aside. Morale was low before I left and from talking to my friends who work there still quite low. There was a lot of drama during my time there and often times, upper management mistreated many employees there. If the issues that were mentioned above aren't fixed, don't expect to be the "Nation's leading utility". There is a reason why turnover was so high.