Pacific Gas and Electric Reviews

Pros

Location - downtown SF
Supported volunteer work, Habitat for Humanity
good benefits

Cons

Management is totally clueless, long drawn out re-organization so new CIO could put her friends from Kmart in key roles

Advice to Senior Management

When you get rid of layers of management don't just rename the positions and then layoff the people actually doing the work.

Pros

Friendly enviroment of hard working people. Strong focus on ongoing operations with many oppertunities to advance. Great downtown San Francisco location and very accessable to public transportation.

Cons

A large organization that can make communication between groups difficult.

Pros

Cool, exciting projects. Not your typical IT projects

Cons

Huge amounts of mind numbing process to get any work done.

Pros

- The Benefits are excellent
-They provide good work and life balance
-Compensation is reasonably set, but incentives are out of reach due to company performance
-Respectful and kind coworkers and supervisors
-Variation in opportunites and work assignments as well as locations throughout California
-Great personal pride being part of this company with long proud history in service area

Cons

-Physical offices are dreary, dirty, old, and in poor repair creating a somewhat depressing environment
-Little to no incentive pay due to company performance as a whole
-Heavy in Government regulation creates difficulty in agility of decision making by management
-Part of workforce is Unionized and in most cases unmotivated to perform their duties or care about the customers they are to be serving
-Many people, mostly on union side are hiding out and waiting for retirement, they place an undue burden on the others seeking to make PG&E the great company it can be again.

Advice to Senior Management

You must find a way to have departments respect and be willing to work with each other and even know who everyone is in the branch. Most people dont' know the others not in their own department. If possible dispatch of the union, it is a nightmare!

Pros

-pension if you can stick it out long enough (see addendum below under cons)
-competitive benefits and pay (see addendum below under cons)

* the only positive reviews you see on here are from union employees...professional employees please be aware of this if you are evaluating these reviews

Cons

-pension and benefits are competitive...but this adds to reasons why people talk themselves to stick with this terrible company. Everyone is miserable and wishes they could leave, but feel stuck in their job. Less than 70% of PG&E employees are satisfied with their job (this is an actual company-wide statistic from 2010). However, there is low turnover due to high pay in union positions (where most management starts out) and also by the simple fact that most employees have never worked at any other company...so they fear they will not be able to get another job or survive without PG&E
-hostile environment. The people in leadership (executive and middle management) are bullies all around. To prosper in this company, you must be aggressive, opinionated, but others down, and have an unwavering feeling of superiority above everyone else
-working at PG&E is like running in a hamster wheel: you work hard and get nowhere. This company has toxic management from the top down and just doesn't seem to "get it". Every problem is approached with a formulaic, narrow solution (ex: low employee satisfaction scores are resolved by giving the whole department a certificate of appreciation. Never mind the constant negativity, criticism, and no recognition for hard work or results).
-self performance reviews have about 15 facets to them and are 2-3 pages long. Very little weight is given to getting work done, most of it is cultural fit. This gives your supervisor huge latitude to rate you low based upon non-concrete examples (ex: not a "team player", does not support the community outside of company time, does not strive to better the customer experience (in a non-customer facing role)). Company reviews take about 3 months to be approved through the different levels of management, so by the time you receive your "feedback" you have 2 months until the next review...good luck on building evidence you improved during this time!
- a "good old boys" environment- power dominated by old timers who are stuck in their way of doing things because "this is how we always do it" . This leaves zero room for innovation or improvement.
- poor training, poor career advancement. You have to work harder here, get paid less, and have a inferior title at PG&E than you would at a similar professional company.
-management (aka non-union, professional employees) get treated like crap. About 75% of the company is unionized in non professional positions. Upper management only cares about appeasing the union, so any "employee engagement" initiatives are for CSRs, clerks, etc. The happiness of professional employees is completely ignored

Advice to Senior Management

The only way PG&E can truly change is to completely clean house...from executives to lower level management. This company is stuck in its ways and does not understand what significant change is. Any attempts at improvement are short-sighted and there is no true desire to change for the good of employees or customers...only for the bottom line or better media coverage. PG&E puts on a good face of pretending they care about customers, employees, the environment, but it doesn't take long to discover the truth about where its true intentions are.

Pros

Benefits and the people generally care about what they do.

Cons

Large and can be slow to get things accomplished sometimes.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep promoting from within where you can.

Pros

Great benefits and flexibility.
Low expectations are the norm.
Good pay.

Cons

Incompetence has been institutionalized at many levels. You're almost made to feel bad for expecting too much of anyone.

Advice to Senior Management

Remember that the utility is also part of the nation's Critical Infrastructure, which is under attack more than ever. You can't cut staff while adding pet projects to make buddies with the board.

Pros

Pension if there long enough, flexible work schedules, childcare on site in SF, good volunteer/charity events and opportunities, training, tuition refund program

Cons

Paternalistic style of management, not risk takers, culture of fear to speak up, poor pay

Advice to Senior Management

Increase pay and allow team to fail often and fail early to learn and grow without being punished

Pros

I got an opportunity to learn new technology at PGE. Very good colleagues and employees. A very good benefits package.

Cons

Lots of politics, inconsistent rewards and lots of political haggling within ranks. Mid and upper management is incompetent and very distant from employees. Typical 80's organization and almost no perks.

Advice to Senior Management

There is no way of the management to know who are the major contributors. Very few people grow from within. Very slow to recognize and promote talent. Please remove slackers within management.

Pros

Benefits including Pension (which is unheard of in this day and age). Relatively safe place to work with a very good deal of nice people, friendly and fun.
Enjoy the city and good location.

Cons

Compensation for skills and performance is terrible, very gov't structure i.e. high performer pay is limited by all the incompetence especially at higher and senior level management.
Process and best practices are nonexistent. They can always find a reason why not to do the "right" or best, innovative thing. Status quo and hide until you retire, which is insane because they rarely fire anyone.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring in "real world" business people who can focus a company on performance and cost savings. There sooooo... much money laying around it's obscene.