electrician

teacher

journeyperson

service technician iii

senior mechanical engineer

Arizona Public Service (APS)

The hours here are very long. Advancement is possible if you're well-liked, but if you have a family, I wouldn’t recommend this job unless you’re in a higher-level management position. The first two levels of management and frontline employees have minimal time off. Many people use YouTube or Netflix to pass the time. Bonuses have decreased, and pay raises are also dependent on being well-liked. Large paychecks come with significant overtime. The working environment here is toxic, with frequent conflicts and poor morale. The negative atmosphere makes it challenging to stay motivated and affects overall job satisfaction. The job is often described as "golden handcuffs"—you earn a high salary, but at the expense of family time and personal life. It’s easy to become complacent, making it difficult to leave despite the personal sacrifices. Confidentiality is a concern; if you share something with one employee, it's likely that everyone will eventually know your business.
You might not realize how miserable working here was until after you leave and gain perspective. People will believe everything they hear of you without knowing you personally or even attempting to know you. Benefits are good. 

If you do choose to work here, know you are valuable regardless of what it may feel like. Opportunities are everywhere. You are never stuck. 

Typical day at work would be to ensure the non-profit agency payments were posted accurately and follow-up with any agency that had not paid their guarantees within the 90 day commitment.

Ensure the Quality audit team was up-to-date on their reviews of call center and credit and collections staff.  Ensure consulting regarding any violations of the Arizona Corporation Commission Rules and Regs. had occurred.

Review field collections staffing, vehicles issues and productivity.  

Always ensuring a safe working environment for the staff whether it's the vehicles or an office environment.

Working with the Computer Services department on any collection issues.

The hardest part of the job is releasing staff.  The other challenge is educating service representatives on the difference of empowerment versus 'giving the store' away.

Co-workers are very dedicated.  

Management no longer seems to be have any focus on enjoying the job.

I learned how:
To perform analysis.
To set budgets and trend analysis.
To read code.
To work with Computer Services and the business to ensure the      needs were met.
To handles customers, take orders and follow through.
To appreciate internal and external customers.

This review is for APS IT only - Project work was good. Interesting environment. Worst management ever. People who are used to regular IT work are amazed at the cluster mess that is APS IT. Changing process or even championing for it will result in people just not responding to you in a work environment. Asking right questions has the same effect. Years and years of wrong decisions have left APS IT with the worse mess I've seen in 20 years of systems engineering. Its easier to bolt on some new solution and support that than actually changing anything up and running to a sensible design. Management, as a whole, is terrible. They don't look out for their employees and will throw you under a bus. I had some really good managers, and I had some of the industries worse. They don't listen to the SME's, the upper mgmt doesn't listen to the managers...its a breakdown from bottom to top. People that have been there awhile are beat down and don't bother to raise issues anymore, they just do the deal. Seriously, its not a career place to go. You will learn some new stuff, and meet great people, and the pay is pretty good. but leave before you drink the koolaid.

My experience at APS was both rewarding and growth-oriented. A typical day involved facilitating training sessions, supporting new hires, and collaborating with leadership to ensure employees were set up for success. I learned how to adapt training for different learning styles, manage virtual classrooms effectively, and tie performance metrics to real business outcomes.

Management was generally supportive and focused on development, though priorities could shift quickly in a fast-paced environment. The workplace culture emphasized accountability, teamwork, and continuous improvement, with a strong focus on delivering results.

The hardest part of the job was navigating constant changes in processes and ensuring training materials stayed current. The most enjoyable part was seeing learners gain confidence and succeed in their roles, knowing I played a part in their development and growth.

Planning Team Meeting with Operation to Prioritizes routine work orders. Then, Planners develop a complete work packages with materials & supplies, manpower, budget and schedule. Department meeting to identify high maintenance equipment and develop project work orders with budget / timelines and show rate of return. The Planners interacts with Maintenance Department, Accounting, Engineering, Operation, Contractors and Supplier to ensure all project work can be schedule without impacting other units or causing load reduction. Workload is heavy and stressful due to under staffing caused by decommission of 3 units, we have to cover each other when someone is out of the office. Planner spent more than 40 hours at work without compensation due to being exempt employees. Management is marching to the Executive Management's drum beat to cut budgets and reduce manpower however, work must continue. Executive Management are marching to please the Environmentalist that are against Coal fired plants.

My direct leader is awesome but the department leader and some of his subordinates are poor leaders.  They accept poor performance and do not hold poor performers accountable.  They do not effectively address concerns that have been raised.  The pay system was changed a couple of years ago which negatively affects personnel working rotating shift work during holiday weeks.  For example, if you are scheduled to work three 12 hour shifts for a 36 hour week, and the holiday falls on a day that you are scheduled to work, you only get paid for 8 hours straight time, so a 36 hour week turns into a 32 hour week for pay.  To be fair, you do receive double time for 12 hours worked on the holiday, but that pay doesn’t go toward your retirement or 401k.  Management doesn’t care; their attitude is that you are not valued and “you can go work somewhere else if you don’t like it here”.  Benefits have steadily decreased in support of reducing operation and maintenance costs, but the Executives still make their millions of dollars.

APS as a whole has pretty good benefits. The insurance is the pretty typical, high deductible plan with about 75% paid by the company. PTO starts at 80 hrs and quickly increases, after 5 years you will have 200 hrs available. The company offers 6 weeks paternity leave for both parents, which is very progressive. Whether you have time to use it depends on your job. This company is very concerned about shareholders, and not about quality of service. This is especially detrimental at the nuclear power plant where resources are needed to perform quality work. Management has continued to reduce money and employee headcount so the frontline has to try to do more with less, with the end goal of increasing shareholder profits.  Over the last few years, the executive management team have voted to reduce bonuses and raises for frontline employees while their salaries have increased by millions. This is a negative and destructive trend and as a result employees are leaving the company very quickly. 

My time in this position was short but informative. Solar was quickly becoming a mandatory product in our industry. I was asked to return to Arizona Public Service after I was offered a severance package to fill in due to an increasing number of customers who installed solar to their homes. I was hired in December of 2008 to bring these customers on line before the December 31st deadline to be eligible for a Federal rebate. It was certainly a challenge to learn the solar installation process. I had a lot of push back from the Union members because of my access to energized equipment. This proved to be an issue and APS decided to fill this position with a licensed electrician. My favorite part of the job was learning much of this one the go. I sought assistance from our Union side to determine proper voltage and was able to work with them to bring these customers on line within the time limit.

Avoid this place like the plague!!!  If you aren’t a robot, have any semblance of ethical or moral obligation to not treat others like a piece of garbage and actually like using your brain at work, this place is not for you.  No matter how strongly you feel about something, by no circumstance should you EVER disagree with managements “vision”. The management team is loaded with people who wouldn’t know how to make change out of a dollar, but they all have PhD’s in corruption and thievery.  Throughout history the company has greased the pockets of regulators so they may remain a regulated monopoly and they aren’t even tricky about it either.  By reading the earnings report or proxy statement it will become abundantly clear the main goal is to take food from the honest people of AZ to buy Brandt new rims for his Bentley and Porsche.

Working in IT at APS can be frustrating. Many areas are becoming understaffed due to pay not being competitive and people leaving. It is taking a long time to fill those positions.

Most of IT's budget is directed to one large bloated project (SCORE) that has rambled on for over 3 years now, and keeps being delayed. 

Many applications are older, and many are home grown. This limits the opportunity to work with newer technologies and grow your skills. APS is not currently developing new home grown applications, so the opportunity to do development isn't there, just support the existing legacy applications.

With around 500 full time IT employees, and around 1,000 IT contractors, it is easy to feel lost in the shuffle.

The benefits are great, as is the PTO. Again, the pay is lacking, and it is questionable if the benefits make up for it. IT management can be hit or miss, as some leaders are great and show empathy, while others lack the skills necessary to effectively run their teams.

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