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NorthWestern Energy

Northwestern Energy has a STRONG tendency to hire and promote relatives as others have said.  In some cases, up to 4 relatives in management.  HOLY conflict batman.  This results in managers that lack experience and skills.  Combine that with low performers that don't receive discipline and you start to imagine the work culture.  

The pay and benefits are good, especially for the area of the country, but the work culture is lacking.  The IT and technology applications are severely behind the curve, and the pace of change is turtle slow.  

There are LOTS of employees grinding it out to retirement because the pay and benefits are good.  By grinding, I mean just do the job - no new ideas, no self imposed challenges, nothing extra, just do the job making as little noise as possible.

Most disturbing to me was fact that the company doesn't make business decisions in the interest of the rate payer - EVER.  All decisions are reflective of the impact to the shareholder.  Most companies have a true drive in decision making to cut expense.  This company makes some feeble attempts at that, but in the end would much rather spend more and add the cost to rates than cause an impact to the shareholder or their stock price.  It makes for good retirement packages I'm sure.  Having worked for 3 utilities, I've seen the difference between those willing to work to control cost and this.  Night and Day.

I'm a big believer in CHARMA, and it will come around eventually.

Anyway, not trying to steer anyone away, but be advised: the job is good for pay and bennies, but you won't be challenged or promoted based on skills and knowledge.

Management is pretty fair at Northwestern depending on where you landed within their system. Most all of the regular working people are good people to work with. The biggest problem is the benefits and time off packages are mediocre for a company of this size if you are a newer employee. You have to pay a much larger chunk of your medical insurance if you have not been an employee long. Pay is less than most mountain region utilities however all overtime is doubletime which adds up pretty quick. Workers comp with NW is TERRIBLE. Do not get hurt working at this company as they use a similar plan to say Target. They are unresponsive and it is difficult to get them to pay claims. HR is ran by a great person but the rank and file HR employees should all be fired and replaced with employees who actually want to help. There is a lot of family that works at this company. NW replaced a proud old company in Montana and most of the people at NW have never been around any other utilities accept small cooperatives within the state. I enjoyed working at NW but you do not have to go far to make a lot more money and keep more of it.

The company used to have a great culture with the former CEO. With the new CEO, the culture has absolutely tanked. Many, many employees now hate their jobs and the company and are making exit strategies. Telework is going away, so don't bother applying if you are looking for a hybrid job with work-life balance. NWE used to be a company that cared about it's employees and their well-being. Now it is just another corporation that puts profits over people. There are so many employees wearing so many hats. Stress is high, workloads are ridiculous, and employees are very unhappy. Don't apply here if you care about your sanity, because they don't. 

I had the non pleasure of working at this company for almost 5 years.  I HATED the fact that they hire family of family consistently.  Almost everyone I knew was hired because there stepfather worked there. Or they knew a manager or a supervisor well.  The red tape and the bureaucracy was amongst some of the worst I have dealt with in my working career.  I learned that they won't fire you no matter how bad you suck as long as you try just a little. I learned that they don't stick to their own policy and procedures.  I learned they are a bunch of hypocrites.  I would run far away and not put my resume in here to work EVER.

NWE is a good company with great benefits. Office management is horrible. Very clickish in the branch offices - if you didn't 'fit' with the current group of ladies working there, you were going down. No full training or explaination for certain tasks, yet expectations of complete competency for them.  Upper management did nothing to resolve issues, just basically backed up the individual who had been there for 20 plus years without actually getting a full account of any problems.

If your not related to someone at the company or formerly at the company who is/was in management you will not advance.  The company is very behind the times in technology and innovation and could never be a technology leader as they are always looking at what other utilities are doing rather than being at the forefront.

Very high tendency to promote inexperience and those who are not technically capable.  If you are capable you are forever going to be the workhorse and will not be promoted.

NorthWestern Energy is an excellent place to work.  With fair compensation, a culture based in safety and excellence and fantastic upper-level management, one can be proud to say that they work for the utility company.  They have fair business practices and are strong supporters of the communities they serve.

I loved working for Northwestern energy's, putting in gas lines, setting up meters, using heavy machinery, even digging customers by hand.

loved it all, I drove a combination of 2 hours a day to get to my home base in Marion SD. It was a great learning experience.

While I worked for NorthWestern Energy I learned so much valuable information. They are by far the best employer i have ever worked for. I am currently trying extremely hard to get hired on with them right now in a different department in which i went to college for. Absolutely my favorite company.

Started working for this company because they offered 50% remote and now they're taking it away "because everyone else is doing it" lol what a joke. 

Everyone is quitting and they just expect you to do the work of your former coworkers without more compensation. Lots of talented people have already left and there will be a lot more

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Construction engineer 12 salaries reported	$99,075 per year
Customer service representative 7 salaries reported	$23.27 per hour
Medical technologist 10 salaries reported	$18.65 per hour
Journeyperson lineperson 3 salaries reported	$57.18 per hour
Warehouse worker 7 salaries reported	$25.61 per hour

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