Mid- American Power

[warpig]

Any hands out there work for Mid- American? I'd like to compare stories.

[Roy56]

They are a pretty quiet bunch!

[Roy56]

I am assuming you mean Mid American Energy? Or MEHC? Out of Iowa? I hear they don't pay to much and most management is comprised of engineers!:rolleyes:

[warpig]

Sorry, I haven't looked for a while. Your's are the only replies so I guess they don't read this site much or don't care to talk about it. I read the posts by you and patriot answering Ivanoes's question. I've been with them about twenty years and I knew Barry. I had worked with him at another company. I liked him well enough. Don't know where he is now. Thanks for replying.

[Logan H]

What do you want to discuss?

[Im2cocky]

They Are Pleased but Never Satisfied....

[graybeard]

You don't see anyone on here bragging about working there, that should tell you something.

[neil macgregor]

sounds like working in england where all the land s flat and boring
take them north to scotland and they crap they,re pants:) :)

[warpig]

What do you want to discuss?

I work for a recently purchased arm of this company. We have been beaten over the head with the safety issue. It seems to me that this may be directed at a much larger issue. My company is facing a huge labor shortage due to retirement in the next five to ten years. It seems as if they would like to run off as many pension eligible employees as possible. Now I realize this may make good sense if you are only concerned with your shareholder value but the impact on employees who have worked for this outfit for 30 plus is pretty severe. A hand I know with 33 years just got the ax today for a very minor vehicle accident on company property involving only company equipment. He had a letter in his file for some other trivial incident and the combination was enough to merit termination in the companies view. Are you seeing the same attitude in Iowa? Our management had their pensions frozen a couple of years ago and recently one of the locals suffered the same fate. They are proposing the same for our local. New hires don't get pension or medical bennies in retirement. Same for you? Are you required to go through the inquisition for minor vehicle accidents?

[warpig]

They Are Pleased but Never Satisfied....

OK I'll bite. Is this a comment on MEHC or just a comment?

[Logan H]

Just like it is said, Mec management is pushing the safety issue to the top.
If an employee isn't safety conscience or lies, they will get rid of them in a heartbeat. Mgt reads the same mgt manual as the rest of the industry, so there is no original thinking from mgt. Everything is ran from the top, so ALL of the middle and lower mgt are scared for their jobs every minute of every day. It is not unusual for a vp to call a front line supervisor and question them about a minor project decision. On the up side, because you don't hear from the employees on this site may be because the average age is in the 50's for linemen. With 'Uncle' Warren Buffet as the majority owner, they don't have to worry about the paychecks bouncing. Equipment is ok and if it needs fixed, the mechanics get on it fast. A future nuclear plant is being discussed, and Warren is ready to suck up any Company that is a good value. You can do that when you have tens of billions in cash reserves sitting around.

[mainline]

I swear to God that all managment must have a college course on how to alienate your work force. I see the same stuff posted on every thread that discusses companies. Small utilities get bought by bigger holding companies that are devoid of ops people. They then slash their work force through attrition, layoffs, and hiring freezes. They reorganize work managment systems. They try to make different utilities adopt the same work practices that don't necessarily fit the sister utilities. Then they make huge sole vendor contracts that ultimately end up costing the company more. Then when they have gotten as lean as possible, drained all of the equity out of the company and damaged reliablity they shop the company around to larger holding companies. Then the upper managment get golden parachute, and the process restarts itself. I feel for you man because I am going through the end phase of the process right before we get bought by a huge foriegn utility that starts with I. I keep hoping it will get better but I doubt it. On the upside they have yet to find the monkeys they have told us can do our work. Sorry for the rant, but I had a long week of dealing with this very same BS. Good Luck.

[warpig]

I suppose I should find some comfort there . On the upside we were sold by a foreign utility to this one and although everyone thought they were screwed up in retrospect they were great! They were much more focused on employee training and spent a lot on equipment and wages. I hope you have the same experience.