There are many good things about working at Hydro, but sadly there are many bad things too. For some the pay is great but for others it's not very good. For COPE employees, it takes five years to get to full pay. Be prepared to be paid at a lower group rating than what you are working at. Also be prepared to do someone else's job while they get paid far more. I'm currently supporting a manager who made $100,000 more than I did last year but he only works 15-20 hours per week, I do most of his job because he's incompetent and often not around. There also an expectation that people in certain groups will work unpaid overtime to get the work done, while others the overtime is free flowing.

Favoritism is rampant within BC Hydro, the worst I've ever seen in all of the employers I've worked for. Often qualified employees won't even get an interview yet people that aren't qualified to run lemonade stands will get hired into positions. The security department is a prime example, the manager of that department is loading it full of his ex-RCMP buddies looking to double dip, and coast along doing very little in the way protecting BC Hydro's assets. In other cases rather than hiring qualified employees, they will get passed up for interviews, and friends and relatives will get hired from outside the company even though they lack the experience and skills.

Sadly there is very little accountability within the top heavy management ranks. There are a couple managers who did a lot of damage to the Generation side and are now creating a mess in T&D. I also find that there is this big push for all of these processes that no one ever seems to be accountable for and are created by people that know nothing about the work it involves.

Many positions within Hydro are going unfilled and being posted as temp when they should be posted as regular positions. Also, many positions are now being filled by "consultants" rather than regular employees, at last count I think we are now over 3000 "consultants." Many parts of Hydro have been contracted out with poor results and its been very costly too. When ever Hydro is looking to cut costs they always go after the lowest employees, meter readers, customer services, procurement, finance and the administration staff. They are cutting the hours of Field Service Admins but still expecting the same work to be completed and more duties being added all of the time.

I've also seen a number of high quality long term employees let go while total duds are being promoted.

Lots of training opportunities for some, none for others except for useless QLMS online courses.

HR is not helpful at all and only helps enforce the rampant favoritism that occurs within the company.

What the future holds for BC Hydro is hard to say, some times it appears that the upper management is intentionally trying to sink the company. It is an ok place to work but be prepared to not have a lot of stability. The benefit plans are pretty good and if you know the right people you can be pretty successful within the company.

Posted on 13 July 2014 by Rater #40 | Flag as inappropriate

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