Energy Future Holdings Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Energy Future Holdings full-time for more than a year

Pros – Nice office, great people, decent benefits, a lot of change in IT.

Cons – Promotions based more on who you know and current favorites - less on actual performance.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop buying into the pretty pictures put in front of you by those wanting to get ahead. Be honest with yourselves about what's really going on and who's really making valuable contributions.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Energy Future Holdings

Pros – decent benefits and time off

Cons – Low pay while Ceo nets millions

Former Employee – worked at Energy Future Holdings full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Pay and benefits are good--above average in some areas. Bonuses are very generous and many there are just nice and enjoyable people with whom to work. If you work in the right areas, you will get experience in power plant operation, energy trading, hedging, nuclear regulatory issues, mining operations and environmental regulations.

Cons – The KKR/TPG leveraged buyout hurt the company. There was an expectation natural gas prices would remain high 8 years ago, and the largely coal fired fleet would make good profits because power is priced on gas generation costs. When TXU was purchased by KKR, coal was a much cheaper fuel (the company reaped the benefits of the fuel cost difference). Without too much detail, the company appears to be heading toward bankruptcy. Financial uncertainty is the biggest Con. The second is a pervasive good ol'boy political network. This did not happen to me, but I witnessed several very good and highly skilled people get passed for promotion or let go in favor of someone's friend in the company. This can play in your favor or against you . . . Just know its a potential problem.

Advice to Senior Management – There are three areas for improvement: 1) Employee development is lacking--senior management does not have a grasp of employee skills or how to use them. There are informal networks utilizing people's skills, but often these employees are never recognized for their contribution. 2) Internal Politics drives decisions and information flow. For a company with high debt where every dollar spent is borrowed, this is a roadblock to success. 3) Employee moral is poor--recent cuts to benefits and headcount reductions have people waiting out the economy to find alternate employment. You need to work on giving people some hope. It's a good company with a long history in Texas. People should be excited about working there.

Former Employee – worked at Energy Future Holdings full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – It is a very good place to gain experience and has many resources available to develop your technical skills. Accountants can transfer between departments and gain invaluable transferable skills.

Cons – The career ladder for Accounting types is limited. Career development still needs more work. I hired on from a major oil company where I got promoted 4 times in 8 years, I worked there for 12 years and never got a promotion. I had very good reviews, but the opportunities were not there. I left this year because the stress level was enormous and went to work for another company at higher pay and benefits.

Advice to Senior Management – Promote from within, start by developing your employees by providing training, career ladder development, etc. My former company rewarded from within and had higher morale and was very competitive.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Energy Future Holdings full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Large company so lots of opportunities to move around. Salaries are decent and there are good ad-hoc programs to network and rotate in and out of jobs. Well established in the communities and the subsidiaries have a good reputation.

Cons – Company is fighting many uphill battles against government regulations with a untenable capital structure.
Moral is low.
High turnover in management over the last 2 years.

Advice to Senior Management – Management needs to do a better about communicating the future plans of the company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Energy Future Holdings

Pros – Great company, values employees.
Recognises and awards employees for thier effort.
Very interesting projects.
Fast paced
Opportunities to grow. Company believes in promoting from internal resources
Great Bonus and Benefits package

Cons – Not very good work and life balance
Can provide flexible hours to employees
Can not think of anything else which can be a Con

Advice to Senior Management – Great Job!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Energy Future Holdings

Pros – Good place to work mostly

Cons – Too much to do too little time

Former Employee – worked at Energy Future Holdings

Pros – The people are amazing to work with. The work challenges you and there is so much to learn. Luminant really wants to build up young engineers. And, the relationship between young and senior engineers is outstanding. Even in meetings with executives as an intern you are encouraged to ask questions and learn.
The absolute best internship I have had!

Cons – After graduation I was excited to see about working with Energy Future Holdings, and felt at home with them. It seemed like the perfect fit, but there were no job openings. Interns were getting hired left and right on the mine side, but they offered no oppurtunities for the plant side interns. Why waste so much time making young engineers fall in love with your company if you arent going to hire then??? Such a wasted effort on both sides!
You have someone that fits perfect, loved their job, and can do it exceptionally well!!! Hire them!!!!

Advice to Senior Management – You guys are great. Just keep treating everyone with respect, and always acknowledge new ideas.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Energy Future Holdings

Pros – Good pay, stable job (even in today's economy), and flexibility for time off. The future of nuclear power (especially operators) looks very bright. New plants will be coming online (2 at my site) in the next 10 years.

Cons – HIgher paying jobs require rotating shiftwork. Career advancement usually means moving to a job with more responsibility and oversight, but the pay raise is small.

Advice to Senior Management – Communicate more with employees. Management does a poor job communicationg about issues, such as company long term goals and strategies, future possibilities, etc.

Current Employee – been working at Energy Future Holdings

Pros – EFH is going through a lot of changes right now and is not currently a great place to work, but the CEO and Board are still working out some of the kinks since the private equity takeover.

Cons – Morale and communication are bad. Some consultants that work with us are inept, but were brought on to smooth the merger transition and have been kept.

Advice to Senior Management – Work harder to compensate top performers in every department. My reviews and metrics have been perfect and I still only receive 3-4% raises "due to company performance." If Senior Management were to recognize that our company is doing well and the financial hardships are a result of the private equity financing, they would compensate employees better.