In 10 years we have only been fully staffed for maybe 15 months at this site. Even what they consider "fully staffed" is still fewer people than what other generating companies have. We are forever one event away from not even being able to cover all the shifts. This has caused a decline in moral, work/life balance, and all around satisfaction for the majority of the operations staff in the region.
Being forever shorthanded has lead to so many extra shifts that it has masked the massive disparity between pay and cost of living in the area. Housing costs have almost doubled in my time here while my actual takehome pay, per my W-2, has only increased by 1%!!!! We all drive an hour to get to work because we can't afford to live closer, and now even those locations, 50+ miles away, are out of reach for new employees.
The company preaches safety, but the reality is that it only matters if something happens that is recordable. Safety when convenient or not too expensive is a common theme here. They do lots of lip service and window dressing with safety
news letters and safety commitees, but the reality is they do nothing to improve the day to day safety of the plants.
I could continue and write a whole book on the shortcomings but I think this gets the point across.