manager

customer service representative

engineer

apprentice mechanic

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Alliant Energy

When I started at Alliant I was impressed with the organization.  Management was professional, knowledgable, and considerate of balancing work with home life.  There was a overall cohesive goal to provide utility service to our customers in a safe, efficient and effective way,   Alliant has since, made a hard left turn to the advancement of Social Engineering goals within the company, to the detriment of all else.  We have scrapped our traditional Core Values in exchange for less restrictive Values.  We began expelling longer tenured employees for more youthful inexperienced ones and couched this in words like "Transformation" with no context given to the actions being taken. With the loss of our instutional knowledge in the wake of shedding all our experienced employees, we have hired outside consultants to come in tell us how to run the utility business.  To go one step further, with the loss of our most seasoned employees, we have lost the Alliant Energy culture.  But no worries, we hired consultants to come in and design a new culture for Alliant, with fancy terminology, posters, and phrases like, "get on the mood elevator".

There are some fantastic and dedicated employees determined to the task of fulfilling our customers utilities needs, effectively, efficiently, and overall, Safely.  Unfortunately, there is an executive level leadership team just as determined to derail, deconstruct, and rebrand into something different, and more inline with progressive values at all costs.  It is deeply disappointing to see what was once a strong respectable company morphing into a more political interest machine, at the cost of our customers and employees.

Alliant Energy has gone down hill fast in the last seven years. Unqualified. inexperienced mid-level managers have ravaged the company. Poor business and hiring/firing decisions have left this place a shadow of what it used to be. There are people without college degrees managing people with masters degrees. Pay isn't competitive. Benefits are mediocre. 

The environment isn't progressive or tolerant of diversity - no matter what HR purports. Female managers often step on the necks of younger female workers to keep them down - going so far as to tell them not to wear certain shades of lipstick, heels or dresses (even professional dresses) to work, as they might be distracting. Non-traditional hair color is discouraged. Open toe shoes discouraged. Jeans on Fridays were recently taken away. 

Depending on the department you are in, your experience will either be good or bad. But you won't know until you are hired. If it's bad, don't expect anyone in HR to come to your aid. Complaints are not resolved, no matter the seriousness. Expect to be watched at all times, your actions reported to your manager (time on your phone, time in the bathroom, etc.). People have been talked to about bathroom time. If you arrive 5 minutes early or leave 5 minutes late, it will be noticed. 

You will be expected to be on your laptop at home and on weekends - they can tell. No matter the profits, the motto is the same: do more with less. Most departments have been whittled down to a skeleton crew. You will be run ragged. And when you finally trip up, you will be fired for failing. 

One last thing - if you are let go for any reason, you will not be allowed to use anyone from Alliant Energy as a reference. It's like being blackballed from the workforce.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Alliant energy is a great place to work and they value their employees.  They offer a wide variety of positions and encourage promotion from within. Employees at Alliant value teamwork as one of the major keys to success and the company fully supports this. As for wages, I feel they are highly competitive and benefits are  very good.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
During certain times of the year the influx of calls can be quite high and demanding but those days also seem to pass by quickly so if you enjoy what you're doing it won't seem like as much.  Also handling emergency calls can be intimidating due to the serious nature of the calls and a demand for 100% accuracy in the handling of the call. Mishandled emergency calls could result in unnecessary property damage, potential injury, or worse.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
My position was a work-from-home position as a customer service agent (CSA)  so most coworker interaction was via internet connection and not much in-person interaction.  It's my opinion that  the culture is very team oriented and accepting of all types of challenges. Communication between workers is friendly and senior leadership is in touch with teams needs and they strive to accommodate when possible. Safety and confidentiality are also at the top of the priority list.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Answering incoming calls and assisting customers with a variety of issues ranging from paying bills to having utility service work scheduled when needed

beware in Burlington location older workers will sell out anyone that doesn't back stab and spread rumors it was a bunch of people in their 50s acting like kids in junior high or high school.  on top of that if there was a complaint it was always the accuser or complainer who was right without even hearing the other side and management was too stupid to realize they were getting played for chumps.  I've never worked at a place that so many games were played, it was totally ridiculous.  i felt like i had to walk on egg shells anytime i was working, it was bad enough that fellow meter readers would lie to management on my location just to elevate themselves.  i worked there for 1 1/2 years with no problems then after there was a management change i was gone within 6 months.  one example is that i was 5 min late one time and got wrote up for it when the day before he gave me a verbal warning on it,  the manager of the meter readers is clueless.  he's never done the job he just goes off of what the head meter reader says, and she's one of the ones to watch out for.  i was even told i was one of if not the best reader we had, it didn't matter once i got a target on me i was toast.

as for the rest of the company anyone else i dealt with was great never had a problem or issue and if you can deal with a whole lot of drama then maybe you can make it.  the money, hours and benefits are very good.

Alliant Energy is a good place to work and I enjoyed my time there. The company is going through a transition period right now to secure the future profitability of the company. This means, as you can assume, there is some amount of layoffs as payroll is one of the greatest operating expenses. It seems that mostly very long term employees tend to be the first to go in these layoff rounds. There also seemed to be some turmoil around the reorganization of the IT department. I left the company before I saw that come to a resolution.

What I did not enjoy was some of the middle management. The director of Supply Chain in particular was a petty tyrant who was allowed to run roughshod over people because it ended in results. It seemed that the means justified the ends in this particular director's case when it came to company leadership. That's not a healthy culture and I chose to leave as a result. Too bad. The company is doing good, interesting work. Just another example of people not quitting a company, they quit people.

The pay was good and the annual bonus for non-bargaining employees was great. Time off was generous. The 401k match was pretty good. The health benefits were pretty bad in my opinion.

I processed monthly billing for large general service customers.  This was a manual priocess as each customer's billing was unique for their operations.  

I also was the the one responsible for non-utility billing, done daily.  The billing for services provided, such as overhead service cabling, underground service cabling, replacement of utility poles, etc., could not be billed on a customer's utility bill, therefore an auxiliary billing system was used.  I also maintained this system for the accounts receivable department; I processed many monthly reports for not only accounting, but for various inter-company departments.

I trained billing representatives for the Billing Department.  I would conduct reviews of the representatives, monthly, to determine the accuracy and timeliness of their duties performed.

I tested and analyzed new and existing billing processes.  Many times would create or modify these process instructions.

I was member of many Lean Six Sigma projects; some of these projects I was the Lead member.  I completed the LSS Green Belt training.

The pay is great for the area I live in and working from home is a major bonus. Great benefits also- good insurance, 401k match, etc. 

A couple of the managers are amazing but some of the others are really horrible. There are often changes in procedures which can be a great thing but they are lousy at relaying information to their employees or following through with said changes. Communication is lacking between upper management and the customer service role for sure.  Peak work hours are very very stressful. Supervisors are supposed to help when calls get crazy- only like 2 do.  Customers are customers. Some are horrible some aren’t so bad, but on the bad days when you’re only getting the bad customers you can definitely feel like you’re drowning with no end in sight. 

Overall, I enjoy my coworkers and my direct supervisor and for the most part what I do in helping customers. But it can be draining. 

During my time at Alliant Energy, I learned many new skills and had a chance to work on some of the industry leading tools. I had no experience working with utilities before joining Alliant but the team was very helpful and supportive to me and they used my skills and knowledge in betterment of both. I had an oppertunity to learn Workforce management tools, GIS, ArcFm and many other tools. I got to learn optimization of ClickSchedule, worked with their system architect, working effectively and efficiently in fast moving and target oriented environment. The hardest past was to satisfy everyone on the project team with their needs but everyone did a great job and both of the projects went live and had great responce from Field techs and CSRs and that was most enjoyable part.

I was sold on the claim of great place to work, longevity and low turn over. But that changed fast. Too many upper management shakeups. That translated into constant anxiety about  jobs security. Two round of layoffs every spring and fall at the worst time. Also was sold on harmony and respect amongst colleagues. Sadly that wasn't the case. People in upper positions do everything in their power to keep their position at the expense of other using back stabbing techniques. Most good people left, got let go, or got demoted. No room for development or progression as upper positions are monopolized towards certain ethnic group, no matter how it sliced and diced. 

Unfortunately became a typical call center environment with cattiness, back-stabbing and overall drama between employees and even management. Lost focus on customer service in favor of getting back all the money they've lost over the years by not being more aggressive with people who don't pay. This became a detriment to good-paying customers who fell on hard times. Emotionally draining position to be in because you're having to hear people's stories of why they can't afford to pay while coming up with a solution limited to the inflexibility of the system. If you are the type of person who can show up every day, do the job and not get involved AT ALL with management, question authority or the decisions upper management makes, or your coworkers then this is a place where you'll thrive.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Manager 4 salaries reported	$133,750 per year
Customer service representative 1 salary reported	$48,500 per year
Engineer 8 salaries reported	$113,125 per year
Apprentice mechanic 1 salary reported	$45.17 per hour
Analyst 2 salaries reported	$78,000 per year

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