Calpine reviews

4.0

82% would recommend to a friend

(445 total reviews)

Andrew Novotny/Thad Hill

91% approve of CEO

75% positive business outlook

Calpine has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 445 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Calpine employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Energy, Mining & Utilities industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

445 reviews
4.0
Dec 28, 2015

Finance

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The team and my manager I worked with was just amazing and very helpful!! Most individuals are willing to help you throughout your career here and understand everything has a learning curve. The pay is decent and the benefits are pretty good. They match 401K at dollar to dollar up-to 6%, base salary is slightly higher than average, medical and dental is very good. The stock equity program is a decent perk depending on the stock price, but it takes three years to vests. The company in general is a nice place to work with a lot of opportunity to learn and once you are trusted by everyone, there is a lot of flexibility (at-least the team I was in). Overall the manager, the team and the people you work with makes working at Calpine great!

Cons

Senior management is not understanding of the employees' needs at all and all they care about is cutting costs every year, knowing that's not possible. Thad Hill is not the best CEO to lead the company and stock price and investor reviews prove that (they need to bring Jack Fusco back). The HR is very slow on everything and is hard to get anything out of them, they seem to make up random policies and alter them every so often with no real reason. The HR department also does not care about employees' needs and issues (I personally had bad experience every time and from speaking with other colleagues, heard the same). Promotions and salary bumps are minimal at best (all promotions, new position, and internal job changes have to be approved by the CEO). It is a company of 2,000+ employees, I am sure the CEO can focus on better items then reviewing every single position (hence, need a better CEO to focus on moving the company forward rather than beating the employees on little things).

3.0
Oct 26, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefits, bonus and stock options if you were hired before the bankruptcy.

Cons

Advancement is difficult. Work life balance can be difficult if you work at the plant.

2.0
Oct 17, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Started as contract employee-hired as full-time employee after 14 months. Allowed me to take a week off (not paid, of course) for my honeymoon. The company saw the value in non-automated testing.

Cons

Communication between programmers and testers was non-existent. Frequently I would learn that a software build was going offline only by overhearing my manager's phone conversations. When I left, I was informed that my data entry was to be 100% accurate or I was going to be written up.

Viewing 124 - 126 of 445 Reviews

Glassdoor has 523 Calpine reviews submitted anonymously by Calpine employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Calpine is right for you.