Decent People, Shrewd Business Tactics, Appalling Work Conditions, and Zero Respect for American Way of Doing Business - Field Engineer Abeinsa Employee Review

1.0
Oct 28, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

* Decent ability to grow if you were willing to sacrifice your integrity and become another "kog in the machine" * Decent pay and benefits when the construction & engineering industries were nearly dead * A lot of very smart individuals with wide range of personalities comprised the team. I still miss them today (I switched to a more healthy industry = IT) * One of the few places where a person with zero experience could actually find a job * Opportunity to learn quite a bit about other cultures, especially Spanish and South American

Cons

Oh God where do I start... * There was a general practice of supervisors blaming the workers below them for anything that went wrong and firing individuals who had not done anything wrong * Employees are constantly pressured to be unfair to contractors & suppliers in a vain attempt to save the project money. Of course the irony is that by burning bridges they won't be saving any money in the long-run. The mentality was "oh well we're one of the few projects that exists so they should be happy to be doing business at all" attitude. *I don't really know if someone could continue to work for their company for a long time yet keep their integrity, and that was ultimately why I left* * Given the nature of their projects, the construction sites are typically out in the middle of nowhere, and often where it either gets super hot or very cold * Employees are often pressured to work on the weekend (or lose their job) * The project is constantly behind schedule without any of the executives taking any responsibility for the delay in the start of the projects * Abengoa is constantly lobbying the government to force end-users (ie your average person) to have to use solar energy to power their home and business. This isn't to save the environment... it's so that they can make a profit and nothing more. * They owed me $500 site pay when I left but even after I contacted them a couple of times they just ignored me. It was a pity because I may have had some equipment with me that I was interested in returning but ultimately decided against it. * There seemed to be slight discrimination against females and non-Spanish speakers. There were hardly any females in manager / director positions, and Americans were paid *a lot* less than Spanish and Uruguayan employees. * Since the Spanish economy was withering away (in part thanks to government spending on projects like solar plants, etc) Abeinsa / Abengoa was sending employees to the USA (where the company could still get projects) and these employees would become your competition. Since there were no jobs back in home in Spain, and they were getting paid a decent amount (per diem) for being in the USA, they were always more willing than you to do even the worst of tasks so a lot of Americans were losing their jobs to these Spaniards *even though* the project had advertised to the government how the projects would create tons of jobs for Americans * Spaniards are first-class citizens in this country, Americans are only second-class citizens **Just do a Google search of "Abengoa green files corruption" and you'll find some additional info that someone (not me) wrote that I found to be very accurate.

Explore other reviews about Abeinsa

5.0
Feb 17, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Something real good in this company: Salary Enviroment Profesionality

Cons

Work-Life-Family time is complicated to fit

3.0
Aug 13, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good atmosphere, a good place to work

Cons

No growth potential if you did not have the right connections.

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