Pros
-The people are great, although given the staff turnover, this may or may not still be the case. -the flexitime is a massive bonus, because it means you can spread hours through the week as needed. Providing that works around customers -IT staff are exceptional
Cons
-atmos are pretending to be a people focussed company. With core values that are more aspirational than grounded in reality, nothing about the company attempts to adhere to those values. -micromanagement from top to bottom. You are required to fill in timesheets to a 15 minute granularity, which then must be approved by management, this makes you feel like all of your time is being monitored constantly. This could be manageable if atmos had paid for a time sheet management software which streamlined the process. But they have instead attempted to develop their own solution which is not fit for purpose as you have to click through several drop downs and write a comment for each entry. Doing your timesheets can take over an hour per week. This is time that I was instructed could not be allocated to a single entry for timesheets. -a number of policies are not in line with the image of a people focussed company that atmos like to present. Firstly and less seriously is the holidays which only recently was raised from 22 to 25 days. Before atmos I had only heard of companies offering 25 days as a minimum. This is an issue that has been raised for at least 6 years and likely many more. I do not believe a people focussed company would be so slow to respond to this kind of criticism. Secondly and more seriously. I’m aware of people who suffered bereavements whilst at atmos during covid. The bereavement policy is 2 days for an immediate family member, 1 day for extended. I cannot imagine how someone in management would consider that 2 days is enough to mourn the loss of an immediate family member. “Passionate about our people” - atmos website -looking through some of the other reviews, I have noticed that a particularly negative review by an engineer will be countered by a positive review made by a senior employee. This is indicative of atmos’ absolute indifference to meaningful improvement. They need only to present the perception of a company interested in the well being of its staff, wanting to improve, not utterly focussed on profit. Another review mentioned “the oil and gas industry is not for the feint of heart”. I would consider this an unacceptable response to genuine criticism. One that attempts to justify poor employee incentives as just part of the business. This is a perfect example of how disconnected the management are from the engineers. -some management lack people skills. As an engineer, you are treated as a resource. Any dip in productivity will be deemed as poor performance. The only concern, or so it feels, amongst management is how squeeze performance out of you. -Training is poor and the software you are expected to learn is difficult to navigate, let alone understand. All software produced by atmos would benefit from some UX design input. -no overtime pay. There is an expectation that when needed, you will donate your time to the company and work longer hours than contracted. I believe that this is an unreasonable way to operate, given the predictability of working longer hours. - push to return to office. Despite no drop in performance over covid, there is a return to office being championed by management, against the wishes of the majority of staff. WFH was then allowed for only some senior staff, but not even considered for regular Project engineers.
