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    BC Hydro Reviews

    Updated 17 September, 2017
    129 reviews

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    Full-timePart-time
    3.4
    StarStarStarStarStar
    Rating TrendsRating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
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    Jessica McDonald
    21 Ratings

    129 Employee Reviews

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    Pros
    Cons

    • Decision making high in organization with insufficient delegation (in 7 reviews)

    • A lot of red tape, high volume of work, constant competing priorities between departments (in 6 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. "Excellent Benefits and flexibility - less salary"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Senior Engineer in Vancouver, BC
      Current Employee - Senior Engineer in Vancouver, BC
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook

      I have been working at BC Hydro full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      - very flexible work time
      - excellent benefits
      - good av time

      Cons

      - promotion is not easy
      - salary is good but not great
      - sometimes it is very stressful

      Advice to Management

      try to work on removing the salary freeze on engineers. try to create more fair process in hiring and promotions

    2. "What are you looking for?"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Team Manager in Burnaby, BC
      Current Employee - Team Manager in Burnaby, BC
      Recommends
      Disapproves of CEO

      I have been working at BC Hydro full-time (More than 10 years)

      Pros

      Easy going, pleasant work environment but it can differ from department to department. If you are content with your professional life and have no career aspirations, then you should give this place a try. It offers decent benefits which is what keeps people tied to the job; often for life. Lots of vacation time is also a perk, along with a decent work life balance.

      Cons

      Let me make this clear- You ARE working for the government, and this place rewards mediocrity, sycophants, and political wannabees. The amount of political interference is extreme, especially at the higher levels of management, and the management and leadership is often directionless, and uninspiring. The amount of money spent on useless things is staggering. In my experience with this company is driven by the following:
      -Politics and what their handlers in Victoria want them to do
      -The news media: The company will do anything to avoid getting negative press
      Hydro is dictated and often run by policies around:
      1. Environment
      2. Unions
      3. Safety
      4. Aboriginal Relations

      Generating power and running a profitable business figures way down on their priority list. There have been no salary increases in 5+ years for management and management gets no bonus pay, but the unions and senior executives do.

      Advice to Management

      Management is top heavy and very self centered. They promote friends and relatives to the top and job postings are almost always pre-determined (the top jobs especially). You promote the wrong kind of people and put them in wrong places for the wrong reasons. This company is a political cesspool of inbreeding.

    3. "Specialist Engineer"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I have been working at BC Hydro full-time

      Pros

      Regular paycheck, great co-workers, interesting projects

      Cons

      Bureaucracy, lots of waste of resources and times

      Advice to Management

      Promote the people who are actually doing the work, not the ones who generate useless work.

      4. Is this helpful? The community relies on everyone sharing – Add Anonymous Review

    4. "Great place to work!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at BC Hydro full-time

      Pros

      Great benefits, good work life balance, challenging work, great people.

      Cons

      Can be slow to embrace new ideas.

    5. "The best employer I've ever een"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Administrative
      Current Employee - Administrative
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at BC Hydro full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Everything is great so far. Lots of opport

      Cons

      None at the moment. Everything is fine.

      Advice to Management

      None

    6. "BC Hydro"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Construction Manager in Vancouver, BC
      Current Employee - Construction Manager in Vancouver, BC

      I have been working at BC Hydro full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      Good work/life balance, work with talented professionals from a variety of fields, fair compensation, great benefits

      Cons

      Significant travel or relocation required, job security varies based on political landscape

    7. "BC Hydro"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at BC Hydro full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      Average salary, excellent benefits and vacation package.

      Cons

      A lot of red tape, high volume of work, constant competing priorities between departments.

      Advice to Management

      Ensure managers within the same department are on the same page.

    8. "Hydro"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Journeyman Millwright in Campbell River, BC
      Former Employee - Journeyman Millwright in Campbell River, BC
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      Pros

      Good company to work for.

      Cons

      Not hiring at this time.

    9. "Marketing and Communications"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Communications, Marketing and Training in Burnaby, BC
      Current Employee - Communications, Marketing and Training in Burnaby, BC
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      Pros

      Good benefits and low tolerance for sexual harassment or gender biased decisions.

      Cons

      Easiest to find advancement opportunities for engineers.

      Advice to Management

      .

    10. Helpful (1)

      "Senior Manager"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Senior Manager in Vancouver, BC
      Former Employee - Senior Manager in Vancouver, BC
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at BC Hydro full-time

      Pros

      average training allowances, ample vacation, good dental and health benefits

      Cons

      Management can be very reactionary. A real lack of clear goals in some departments which translates into weak action items. Too many layers of management. Micro-management is prevalent in some areas of the company.

      Advice to Management

      VP and Directors, please start interviewing front-line staff without their direct managers present ...start building a culture of transparency and trust not politics . Don't just manage the "fires" and hope it does not get to your level. You need to scrutinize the decisions of your M3 managers on a regular basis.

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