A Great Company with Leadership Challenges and Retention Issues
Pros
AET is among the BEST in the industry in petroleum shipping, ship management and lightening operations in the US Gulf. The company is extremely diverse and employees 3000 folks from a wide swath of nationalities. Bonuses can be good, when the market is up. AET (USA) offers 100% company-paid benefits, which is increasingly uncommon in todays marketplace. They offer 21 days of vacation (+ 2 floating holidays). Business is trying to improve morale through a variety of employee committees, events and outings.
Cons
Leadership is in dyer need of management training and development. There is a strong emphasis on performance at the local levels, but for some reason Executive Leadership Team (ELT) members seem to escape. The business has been asking for 360 feedback initiatives, but the ELT keeps shooting down the idea, because they are underperforming, while collecting huge pay checks. After they've gotten some good pay offs, they get a package and they leave. They fly all over the world while not really doing anything other than collecting airline miles. There are leaders who scream at their employees, use demoralizing language, which all have helped to create an environment where workplace bullying and harassment are common. Instead of reporting it, most employees just start finding another job! AET has a tendency of paying employees at less than market rate, so you should automatically assume that any salary they are giving you is 20% less than the target salary. In the US, they are typically inflexible with the salary, so if they throw out a number, consider it a final offering. Don't look for any counter offer greater than $5K to be accepted. Contract (temporaries) are treated like warm bodies, which ironically is led by the head of HR in Houston (who is a real mean lady). Bonuses have been somewhere between 10-46%.
