Anybody listening? - Anonymous American Water Employee Review

2.0
Oct 13, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits and compensation, but this will change as well, due to upcoming reorgs and company wide health plan changes. Work from home options.

Cons

I was told at some point people were proud to be working for American Water. I shall believe that, but I have never experienced it during my time with the company. Employees are unhappy, frustrated and tired, as are customers (ever spoken to your customers in let's say Ocean City, NJ or Coatesville, PA - I doubt it). Exec leadership removed from reality. As long as the shareholders are happy, that's all that counts, right? Check the last stock price and leadership salary/compensation report, it will blow you away. American Water is doing incredibly well, but cost cuttings are still the most important thing. Exec leadership does not care much about employees. Culture surveys that have no follow through are a joke and pretentious (myVoice? Really?). Reading current reports of Best Companies To Work For, or Best IT Organization To Work For almost makes me cry. We could not be any further away from those companies. And oh, remember the times when AW IT was actually on this list? Performance review process is the biggest joke. Reorgs after reorgs after reorgs (or call it people transformation). New CTO: what's wrong with you? You can't waltz into IT, ransack our CIO (your new best friend, right?) make grand and false promises and than be surprised about chaos in IT. Talk about flat hierarchies (Zappo's holacracy anyone?), call us monkeys, diss our technology and expect people to respect and follow you? Can someone please give this guy some leadership training! One of the first IT town halls, CTO response "no, there is nothing left to outsource in IT, no worries". 2 months later, CTO response: "everything but core competencies will be outsourced". But oh, I forgot, he is continuously reminding us "I have done this before". And yes, as many other have mentioned here, these outsourced IT jobs will go to India, which is very disappointing. I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole further, just surprised that exec leadership and the business are ok with this, considering the reputation for these low paid consulting companies. Infosys and Cognizant must be out of their mind happy, since their leaders speak the same (not just technical) language. Hey, at least they made their goal to continue their learning path in the utility industry and disruptive technology, that must count for something, right? Let's see what the business will say when the first Service Desk call is being picked up in India and not in NJ/PA anymore. I understand our technology is partially outdated, processes need improvement...but there has to be a better way to handle this. After all, we are still a UTILITY company. The budget never allowed to play around with new technology, where it came from now, who knows. We don't know what the true agenda here is, it just feels so wrong. Even if leadership doesn't care about the employees, they should care about the financial impacts that this uncertainty and chaos has. It's painful to see how people and their work are impacted by this. You have real good people here that work their behinds off, do you not care?

Explore other reviews about American Water

5.0
Jun 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Everything is really good. I value how much they care about safety. They practice what they preach.

Cons

You have to wait a year in your current position before applying to move up.

3.0
Jul 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits. Affordable health insurance

Cons

Stagnant growth. They only focus on leadership development or licensed trades. Growth is based on friendships. Skills and experience don’t mean much.

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