Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Reviews

Pros

Great benefits, family atmosphere, great retirement

Cons

Can find yourself working any shift, weekends, and holidays

Advice to Management

Remember where you came from, take time to listen,

Pros

Research-based Great opportunities for growth Remote working option

Cons

the only thing is long working hours

Pros

The Authority has good benefits and dedicated employees.

Cons

The infrastructure is failing and support is needed from riders and taxpayers to continue improvements.

Pros

Metro is at a crossroads. For as much as the organization has made incremental and robust improvements in recent years, a shared strategic vision and underlying objectives remain sorely lacking, and the competitive landscape plus a lack of agility mean the road ahead is far from easy.

Cons

Fundamental issues remain due to legacy processes across every division but specifically within COO, CSCM and IBOP, especially when advancing beyond systems-fare payment, IT (though credit to the under-resourced CIO for leading in a challenging environment), to procurement (where creativity and innovation go to die).

Advice to Management

There’s an epic canyon between management and frontline - understanding and approach, an issue compounded by the ever-growing quantity of four day a week contractors at HQ, the shortsighted drive to outsource operations (looking at you Cinder Bed and Silver 2) and the patronage/systemic non-merit based promotion system across a number of divisions. This is where any hope of a shared vision falls apart - aspiring to... be the region’s mobility provider of choice means nothing unless everyone in this massively siloed organization is able to quantify their actionable results-driven piece of the goal. HR goal setting is schizophrenic, and the process seems to change biannually-another reason we have so much redundancy and duplicity within metro. HR and the commitment to backing up being an ‘employer of choice’ is a real let down, when talented staff don’t feel empowered and leave, or worse yet, are pushed out due to thin skinned and undertrained managers, it keeps metro in the past, not the future. Though metro pays well compared to peers, bad managers are rife across BUS, CSCM, FAIR practices, you name it. The CEO claims to value disruption, but in reality, it’s lip service. Same can be said for internal communications and propaganda from HR about being there to support employees and the goals of accountability and respect falls to the wayside. The number of employees filing complaints and lawsuits against metro should make anyone considering a position think twice about the real commitment to being an employer of choice. Though the work life balance, at least for non-rep and management is actually pretty decent. Internal ethics leave much to be desired, management broadly, much like MREL, is constantly promoting opaqueness over transparency. It’s embarrassing to be in meetings where discussion revolves around how taxpayer money can be spent in a way to avoid PARP request compliance or equity via Title VI obligations. Not releasing survey data is just really poor judgment, just like standing by while Jack Evans eviscerates senior executives. Finally, nobody wants Metro to be an “experience”. This focus is misguided. Customers simply want safe, regular, and reliable service, yet the focus is perennially on the superficial opposed to how can we get our headway’s back to what customers want. And it’s also not ApplePay. How about fostering a culture of real innovation and a straight focus on implementing an account based system as a #BHAG - cut off the legacy Cubic cancer - we’re not going to be able to engineer our legacy systems and manage procurement to get anything customers even remotely want in the next five years without making this a core organizational goal and bucking what we’ve been doing for thirty years. There’s immense talent inside Metro that can be cultivated to make us relevant, and I’m bullish about the future, but it will take more risk taking leadership to success -bold moves, not incremental steps - it will likely get worse before it gets better - so prepare the Authority for that. Be bold, Paul, be bold.

Pros

Raises and benefits are awesome!

Cons

Some buses are not equipped for safe operating procedures.

Advice to Management

Stop allowing management to make rules for drivers if they have not experienced operating a bus.

Pros

I am impressed w/ current GM. He was present at the beginning and end of new hire orientation. He cares and truly wants to move the cultural needle.

Cons

long time employees are apart of the problem. Stale thinking and seat warming.

Pros

The people you work with, the pay and benefits.

Cons

Job seniority is very important there, so starting out you likely won't get the best vacation days, etc.

Pros

Pay, uniforms coworkers benefits opportunities when favoritism isn't shown

Cons

Schedule Management Eating conditions Unreasonable rules Work environment

Advice to Management

Stop micromanaging employees. Management from the Weiderfield down to street supervisors creates a hostile work environment