manager

customer service representative

senior engineer

project manager

analyst

Puget Sound Energy

I was on salary so I worked to get the job done no matter what the hours or days were.  A typical day at work would be to make contact with my external partners confirming our programs were in place and working to their benefit.  Also making sure they were receiving any incentives owed to them in a timely fashion.  I also was always working on internal processes and systems improving their capabilities across programs and with my external partners.  I managed staff to coordinate their schedules to do QA in the field and also set meetings with partners to discuss programs, issues, or any other items they may want.
One of my main focuses was to keep my budgets on track and meeting their savings goals while staying within the budget.  I did daily forecasting based on the marketplace and the state of single family new construction homes and the economy.  My budgets consisted of earning kWh and therm savings and I would be transferring one budget to another if one wasn't meeting its target.  Researching out other means of meeting savings targets such as new products to justify and promote.  Worked heavily with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promote energy efficient appliances and lighting and the ENERGY STAR label.  These efforts in fact won my program 3 years of the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year.  I worked closely with the Master Builders Associations coordinating utility programs with their building classes an seminars.  Made sure we were available for events to promote our programs if there were such events scheduled during the week or on weekends throughout the service territory.  I worked closely with our marketing department to make sure we had the correct marketing mix to promote programs in the most efficient ways, hitting the correct market the home buyers, contractors, builders, and any other partners in the building community.
I also did cost effectiveness research on new products to bring on to the program.  I wrote the program plans that were works in progress and ever changing based on the market.

Executive leadership has strong and sincere aspirations for changing the culture to one of directional transparency, employee engagement and evidence-based/data-driven, customer-centered decision making. Entrenched processes and structures (and people) make it hard. There are waves of blow back, making for a two-steps forward, one-step back cadence. 

Upper management does listen and take feedback from front-line employees seriously. Middle management seems more political and stuck in place.

Ongoing and iterative functional and process changes add pressure to carrying out the daily work. The drive from the top to focus and measure results is a much needed improvement, but also adds a lot of pressure. It's a collective learning curve and a bit of a thrill ride at times.

You can learn a lot about the energy business and about organizational change and process improvement. A lot of organizational growth is happening here right now. Employees are invited to break out and pitch their ideas and be influencers and leaders.

I worked at PSE for 8 years about and the pay was amazing. It is very repetitive answering the phones with the same questions each day however I did learn how to speak with customer's and defuse stressful situations. I learned how to handle each phone call to the best of my ability and making sure the customers didn't have to call back with the same request. The management at PSE was different it seemed each week. So you rarely ever knew who your boss was.  My co-workers however are the main reason I stayed working here for so long. But many employees do not stay as long as I did. Most past employees (manly CSR 1's) were not there for longer then 1-2 years. However CSR 2's had many senior agents that were there before the merger of Washington Natural Gas and Puget Power. The hardest part of my job was having to met unreasonable call times, hold times, wait times. transfer times etc. But I always did. The most enjoyable part of the job was the people I worked with and my customers.

I was proud and pleased to work at PSE and remain so.  Workplace culture was generally pleasant and relaxed.  Productivity and delivery were also quite good; we were providing a high quality service (power and natural gas utility) at a good price, very neatly fulfilling the ethical and business obligations of a utility.  I was given a lot of freedom to find ways to make my projects succeed and was able to do so.  Management was occasionally stressed by the need to balance demands of safety, state and federal oversight, and investor funding; this stress routinely rolled downhill to my level, whereupon I worked 60+ hour weeks until resolved (no OT, natch).  Do I sound whiny?  Well, that stress was usually offset by the freedom to set my own schedule and choose how to make it all work.  There have been many fundamental changes at PSE since I left.  I was exposed to many new learning opportunities at PSE and learned much which I applied to subsequent work.  I would be willing to go back and apply lessons learned since then, so it must be a good place to work.

I loved working for PSE as a temporary helper. I got to replace and maintain a working hydroelectric facility. The work was outdoors, but had company provided raingear and protective equipment. Was able to use a wide array of power tools and run equipment i had never been able to before. Our tasks were planned and well thought out. The pay and benefits was more than enough for a kid my age, but it was the job tasks themselves and the coworkers i was side by side with every day that really made this job shine. Now for the downside. The plant manager at that time was a PSE employee that worked for the natural gas side of the company before he bid the management position and for whatever reason he got placed in it. So he had ZERO knowledge of what we were doing on the daily basis or where any of the important landmarks were on the property. And this was after he had been there multiple years. The one thing he did enjoy doing was putting up saftey signs and making sure everyone was constantly wearing their PPE.

What is the best part of working at the company?
People treated each other with respect and management supported us any way they could. I was able to teach some of the younger techs what I knew with my 40 years of experience. I was respected. Pay was good. Conditions were great. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Commuting to the job sites with all the traffic.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Work environment and culture were very good. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
I would leave my house very early in the morning driving a company provided bucket truck. I would drive through horrible traffic some days over 100 miles to get to the job site. I would then work up to 50 feet out of the bucket truck and then on to the next job. I had many 12-16 hour days. I was paid from the time I left my driveway until I returned home. Double time after 8 hours. One of the Setvicemen made over 400 K in one year he worked so much OT.

The greatest asset Puget Sound Energy has is it's people.  Puget Sound Energy has been a terrific place to work for the past seven years. PSE has a long history of taking care of it's customers and the environment.  Those are important values to preserve.   I have been able to learn and grow and meet some of the most caring and capable people I have ever met.  The work is challenging and interesting.  Employees are empowered and supported to stretch and grow.  The most difficult part of the job would be finding a career path once you have created a new job for yourself.  Sometimes it is easier to develop new processes, however sustaining them can be a challenge.  Change can also be a challenge to navigate as there have been so many reorganizations in the past five years.  I recently graduated from DeVry University thanks to Puget Sound Energy's terrific tuition reimbursement program.  The benefits at PSE are great.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Not only experience I gained over the years, but the customers. I enjoyed my customers daily. I felt their needs and I did my best to meet their needs. I wasn't only there to tell them about their bills and things regarding their bills. I was there for the customer. When I retired, the the hardest part was leaving my customers. Not only are you there to assist them with their bills but you also became part of their daily lives and help them with other things as well. You formed daily relationships with them. You looked forward to them coming in monthly to pay their bills. I missed them deeply. I could go on, I don't think I have enough space.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Not being able to go to your boss about certain problems. You could not trust or depend on them for handling your problems, if you had any.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
My work environment at the time was pretty Pleasant. There were times when it wasn't. Not everybody clicks.

After I settled in at PSE, I realized it was almost the perfect job for me: I was using AutoCAD, working with maps, had non-intrusive supervision, and excellent, weekly paychecks.  Loved it.  Unfortunately, it did not end well.

Despite many great years at PSE, I experienced serious misconduct by a superior near the end of my career. My sex, age, and limited access to management made me a vulnerable target. Increasing severity of misconduct and efforts of predatory conditioning pushed me to a point in which I did not feel safe in the workplace. Evidence of misconduct was provided to HR, a cease and desist was issued. HR failed to share documentation of their policies regarding my privacy and general investigation process upon request. I was not given sufficient confidence that I was taken seriously after my claims. Working with PSE’s HR and reporting details of misconduct were some of the most difficult and traumatic parts of my whole experience. I left the company heartbroken, disappointed in their values, and shocked at their leniency.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Manager 7 salaries reported	$167,386 per year
Customer service representative 6 salaries reported	$23.95 per hour
Senior engineer 5 salaries reported	$136,000 per year
Project manager 8 salaries reported	$105,300 per year
Analyst 8 salaries reported	$79,703 per year

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