BUDGETING - O&M budgets have been completely flat since ~2014 - Not even increases for inflation. You literally can’t afford to do what you did the previous year because labor and material prices increase every year. Because some large industrial accounts did not buy enough electricity from us during the pandemic they cut 2021’s O&M budget (which is really 2014’s budget) another 2-5%. People in the finance group have indicated these cuts may be permanent.
MANPOWER - Directly related to the previous item. One of the ways the company tries to survive in 2021 on 2014’s budget is by eliminating positions when people retire and slowing the hiring process for those that are filled. Pressure to not fill positions has been there the last 5 years, but this year it’s worse than ever. Union jobs require VP approval to be posted. Jobs stay vacant (even after providing months of notice) for 3-6 months before they are even POSTED. Non-union jobs and union jobs with no qualified bids must be approved by Bill Fehrman, the CEO of our parent company, BHE. This means the job won’t be posted for another indefinite length of time. Once the job is posted and you’ve found a candidate you’d like to hire, there is more dragging of feet internally to approve a job offer. During all this time the company is spending to not hire someone, the vacant work load is spread to other employees who already have 40+ hours of their own job to do. In the event that some poor sucker takes another job internally, it is common for that person to do both jobs for several months until their replacement is hired. And when they decide not to fill a position, the work falls on you permanently. Not filling positions is becoming more common. This is what happens when the company has a directive to eliminate ~150 positions this year. Burnout is becoming more frequent due to higher workloads.
