Portland General Electric reviews

They pay lip service to diversity and inclusion but don’t actually live it (the number of black employees that have been "performance managed" out is staggering meanwhile white heterosexual men have repeatedly been appointed to high profile positions with no formal process; women across the company are talking about the rampant “bro culture” that does not appear to be a red flag to leadership; there is much handwringing about how much “risk” to take in making a stand where other local companies have already done so, i.e. whether to hang pride flags). The soul of the organization is being squashed out by a lackluster officer team that appears to be operating from a place of fear of both the CEO and competition. The two newest officers are more competent but the CIO is provocative for the sake of being so demonstrating flagrant toxic behaviors and being celebrated for it. This used to be a place that cared about the people — to a fault. While things need to change and drastically so, they will fail as they are awash with people in leadership that don’t know how to lead. Talented good employees are jumping ship left and right and senior leadership’s response is that they weren’t a good culture fit. Meanwhile, they are maintaining toxic and/or ineffective people in leadership because they are “strategic.” The place is chaos — people frantically trying to do what they’re held accountable to do in the name of competitive threat meanwhile backstabbing coworkers, blaming, not being accountable and creating utter swirl such that very little gets done.

PGE is in the middle of revamping several key areas of their IT ecosystem with decidedly mixed results. I was part of a new data science team that is led by management who believes intimidation, micromanagement, and fear are the best tools to achieve results. Strategy and tactics are often confused, creating an environment where there is a lack of shared vision. Meandering projects with moving goalposts lead to burnout and frustration. There are some outstanding contributors on these teams with great technical skills and thoughtful ideas who, unfortunately, are rarely listened to. Instead, a heavy-handed approach, where employees are distrusted rules. Technical development and documentation is downplayed in favor of endless Powerpoint presentations that will take up 25-50% of your time. I've literally seen managers take control of keyboards from employees at their desks so they can edit docs and emails while the employee helplessly looks on. In short, employees are not trusted to do their jobs and are constantly second guessed leading to an environment of uncertainty and doubt.