Good Company, but Cult of Personality - Anonymous employee Loudoun Water Employee Review

I have been with this company for over a year now and this is the first job that I have work, life balance. At least in my department they are very understanding and flexible with me. And your work shows. In less than a year I got salary raise that I have never gotten before in any other company. My manager was really pleased with my work ethic.

A lot of the customers needing construction or engineering questions call the customer service line and they do not have a direct line to reach those other departments. It would be nice that other departments had a listed number where customer could follow up and not have an online enquiry to do. And most of the calls are because they have already done the online enquiry but have not heard back in days and sometimes weeks. The pay/salary is low but as I stated prior, the work life balance is great and that is difficult to find these days.

The pay solid and you learn a lot of new stuff on the job. I didn't have much prior experience in my field prior to the position I was in, so it was nice to have my manager, and my co-worker teach me the ropes. Most of the people are nice and friendly and they have really cool layout of the campus. I love seeing the coy fish in the river after work. Always have projects and things to do. I also really appreciate the level of diversity and inclusivity in their staff. They were understanding of my religious background when I started work and help me out when it comes to having a space of my own for religious obligations. My Manager is understanding of emergency situations and is accommodating and flexable because of that.

If you were to walk into the main admin building, almost completely empty. I'm not kidding, I don't blame them for working remotely or at home most of the time considering how anti-social and socially awkward some people are. I feel like whenever I talk to someone I feel like I'm talking to a robot or an NPC, and they talk about nothing besides work or even engage in any kind of small talk. I thought the division between the white-collar or blue-collar workers was just something that was a figment of my imagination, but it was absolutely 100% real. The white-collar workers are either mute and robotic or super stuck up. Blue-collar workers when I approach or want to talk small talk to them, they look at me like I have 3 heads. Some people legit think in this company a water or wastewater facility will explode if you spend 10 minutes helping another employee out with a non-work-related task. I've worked in multiple water and wastewaters authorities before this place, and I guarantee a multi-million-dollar facility will not self-destruct if someone spends 10 minutes outside. I've literally woken up late nights and early mornings in my previous jobs to answer calls for actual natural disasters. I understand in critical situations why someone might feel this way. Not a regular workday. This type of nonsense that upper management does isn't that deep. Also, idk why people in this company say, "Working at Home is Privilege". So many workers come into the office and get out of bed to take care of the facility and work long hours. If the higher ups are so obsessed with people being in the office, why is majority of the admin building empty and the managers and directors only show up to work when absolutely necessary if they care so much? I commissioned on projects and the PM that was in charge was nowhere for the work that he is in charge of because he was "working from home". Why is it so hard for people to have some compassion and empathy instead of setting a workshop for mental health? Work-life balance is a complete joke and has to be earned. I had to fight and claw for just one day of remote work at home. If you aren't a white-collar employee who's been in the company for a long time, you're not working from home so don't expect it. Also, you got managers and supervisors that say, "I don't communicate through text message only through Microsoft Teams". Is it that hard to communicate to your employees? I feel like my manager cares more about another department besides his own department sometimes. I can't even communicate any of my workplace struggles without being ignored or scrutinized. If someone else has been in the company longer than you, they will always side with them over you. Ever since I got hired it's been extremely frustrating. I understand why the blue-collar workers feel the way they do and feel like they're the only ones with souls in the company and this is coming from someone who is technically a white-collar worker myself. Even contractors, I can tell just by speaking to them when they come on-site, understand how socially awkward the work environment honestly is. I don't blame them when they ask me if I want to work for their company instead of this one. It's even getting to the point, even my family members are strongly suggesting to me to find a position elsewhere because I just seem unhappy where I'm at. I love the work I do but I'm honestly disappointed in the work environment I'm in. There also isn't any career ladder progression either. It's regular worker, then manager/supervisor/superintendent, then directors, then executive directors, and then GMs. Promotion is once a decade. Once the market gets better, I'm strongly considering getting another job in my field either here in the DMV area or elsewhere. I don't recommend if you're a recent graduate or someone that is relatively young in your career field. I wouldn't recommend working here unless you're offered really good pay and a good position because you honestly won't have much support.