Pros

The People are very respectful, VY is an excellant plant, runs well, and great teamwork from all departments.

Cons

Middle Managment is so nice that at times when they need to take a hard line, they usually do not. The State of Vermonts government is essentially so inbred it would cut off its own nose to spite its face, it will drive anyone crazy.

Advice to Senior Management

Sometimes, taking a hard line on an issue is necessary.

Pros

Fairly high compensation with respect to other companies. Good amount of time off, is asked for during initial interview. A ton of practical hands-on experience. Lots of knowledge available through older employees.

Cons

Very little training in regards to job. All of the experience in the company is retiring leaving all new engineers with little time for training. Management is continually in meetings. Don't expect to see your supervisor for the same reason. Limited amount of feedback, mostly negative.

Advice to Senior Management

Cut the meetings and get back to what matters - people. If you want to make your engineers do performance indicators, then spend the time to read what they have written. PI's are a benchmark, not something to just make "green."

Pros

Job security
Good pay relative to the industry

Cons

Being a manager at an Entergy plant means you sacrafice your personal life to the plant.
Managers spend most of their time in meetings with other managers. Little time to manage people. This is leading to declining performance trends at the plants.
In nearly 2 decades of working for the company had less than 6 actual performance reviews.
Poor management style and people skills are rewarded by executive management.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide more time for managers to interact with their reports.
Re-alignment of a couple years ago and the upcoming spin-off have been poorly thought out and have not instilled much confidence in your abilities to manage the company.

Pros

The company is at the top of the Nuclear industry. Many employees have been with the company for more than 10 years, so there is a great deal of knowledge available to be tapped. The company operates on an 9/80 work schedule for most employees, so you get every other Friday off.

Cons

Because it is a company of nuclear plants, the environment is highly policy-driven. Work options are not as flexible as in other industries. Telecommuting is not embraced, even for corporate employees who aren't on the plant floor. The pending spinoff has been delayed for some time, leading to employee uncertainty in the Northeast portion of the fleet. Employees who have been with the company for less than 1 year are not eligible for vacation time.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to communicate with the employees, especially on updates regarding the spinoff. Consider changing the vacation policy to allow new employees to start accruing vacation time during the first year. Investigate the feasibility of telecommuting for employees in certain roles. Consider an employee stock purchase plan.

Pros

There is stability in this industry and this is the only plant close to a fun city...i.e. New Orleans!!

Cons

This facility is run like military basic training.

Advice to Senior Management

There needs to be some new blood added to upper management so that fresh new ideas are incorporated.

Pros

Only company with half way decent salaries in Oswego

Cons

Promotions are politically made and not based on competency/ability to perform the work. Senior Management not being held accountable for their actions that have cost this firm litteraly millions of dollars in opportunity costs. Upper Managment is affraid of being challanged either due to their own incompentencies or fear of someone smarter making them look bad.

Advice to Senior Management

Change out Senior Management at more frequent intervals. Have the personal responsibility to admit when you are wrong so as to show proper leadership in running the organization. Request from Corporate HQ the need for additional funding to upgrade equipment that is outdated and continuing to break down.

There are too many VP's and they need to be downsized. They continue to block changes to equipment upgrades costing the company millions of dollars in potential savings in order to meet quarterly goals, have been accused of Sexual Harrasment, chaged with making derogatory remarks to supervisors, (all with documented with no consequences), continue to surround themselves with only a select number of people that they feel they can trust, aligned the company such that senior experienced personnel have left the company and they wonder why we are having continuing problems.

Pros

If you are interested in getting into the Nuclear Power industry, this is a good place to start and get experience. Their salaries are comparable to other companies. The work week is nice because they have a four tens work schedule where you are off every Friday.

Cons

Your ability to grow in the company is a bit restricted. I would not work here if you plan on expanding into other areas of work. The training process take quite a while. You will not be doing any real work at this company until you are properly qualified to do the job.

Advice to Senior Management

Train the new workers faster so that they can actually contribute within the first year of working for the company.

Pros

Good pay and benefits compared to other employers in the area.

Cons

Understaffing results in excessive OT. The sites are centrally managed by the COO. Local site managers are not allowed to make decisions without consulting the COO. Each site must be staffed to standardized levels regardless of plant design. Currently, my site is staffed with approx. one half the number of emplyees that worked at the site 10 years ago. The need for employees is critical. There is little opportunity to move from 1 department to another. The shortage of employees results in higher responsibility positions being filled from outside the company to retain licensed employees in positions that require licenses. This means SROs can't move up because there are not enough SROs to allow it.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more people. Plan for the future, not just the quarterly report.

Pros

Salary is high for this area

Cons

Stressful at times and if a Nuclear Unit goes down (Trips Offline) it can mean long hours of work.

Advice to Senior Management

We need more employees to get all the necessary work done.