American Water Reviews

Current Employee – been working at American Water full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Great pay, mostly good people

Cons – Rather not say, depends on your position

Advice to Senior Management – Must have knowledge in water and waste water and regulatory compliancy.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Water full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good Benefits, pay, nice work from home days

Cons – Lack of communication, people are promoted to management or leadership position who have NO people skills. No clear direction on projects or requests.

Advice to Senior Management – Communicate better. Make sure managers are qualified to "manage" or "lead" others.

Former Employee – worked at American Water full-time

Pros – Balance really enjoyed working here

Cons – Lot of change dealt with it well

Advice to Senior Management – Keep the course

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Water full-time

Pros – Work life balance, hours, benefits and work
environment.

Cons – job security, company president, corporate financial decisions.

Advice to Senior Management – Do a better job considering the costs to the company and the effects on employees when making major changes. i.e opening,. closing and moving offices.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at American Water full-time

Pros – The salaries and benefits are comparable, if not slightly superior, to other utility companies that are privately owned. There is a culture that encourages and gives access to further education in the field. The higher-ups in the organization are reachable and encourage feedback even at the lowest levels.

Cons – Many programs are instituted before proper beta testing is completed and the effects on the lower workforce is taken into account. While there is talk about adopting best practices within the company, there is often more homogenization of processes without seeing if a new procedure truly can benefit the company more. When there is a structural reorganization that requires sizable layoffs, often too many jobs are cut and the remaining employees are expected to pick up the slack until the company rightsizes again.

Advice to Senior Management – When introducing a new system-wide computer program, there needs to be more user documentation made available and more "super-users" to be trained at a district level.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at American Water part-time for less than a year

Pros – Hours are good, good people to work with

Cons – micro-management, inability to move up in the company

Advice to Senior Management – Empower your work force.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at American Water full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Health care above average, though that is changing

Executive management may finally be understanding there's problems with the company and middle management.

Cons – If you want advancement, you'd better be a WASP male. If you're a minority then you may get hired, but your chances of training and advancement are non existent.

Chances of your pay increasing above what you hire in at very low - If you get an increase in line with inflation you'll be doing well.

Corporate policies are largely lip service ignored outside NJ

Advice to Senior Management – Middle management will tell you what they think you want to hear. Dont bank the farm on it being true and accurate.

Accept that there are issues and that they need ti be fixed. Being the only game in town isn't a good reason for mismanagement and apathy.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Water full-time for more than a year

Pros – Benefits are amazing and above many other organizations

Cons – Untimely reorganization was detrimental to departments and selection processes for remaining centers was not thought through completely.

Advice to Senior Management – Handle out placement process with more sensitivity

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at American Water

Pros – Pay, Benefits, Culture, Career Opportunity if willing to relocate (often)

Cons – Stress, job security, disconnect between corporate leadership and state leadership

Advice to Senior Management – Senior Management should engage employee's in discussions about how best meet business needs. Most decisions are made by executive leadership and then handed down.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at American Water full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Good benefits
Competent, experienced rank and file employees who have excellent work ethic

Cons – Sad environment since so many reorganizations. When I first came to the company, the customer's needs were a priority and a part of every conversation. Now, you hardly ever hear about feedback from customers. Problems were discussed openly. Now, the only topic allowed for discussion is operating efficiently. This approach doesn't balance other important factors of a good work environment such as safety, employee-supervisor relationships, sustainability and growth and career paths for employees. There is no structured plan for training people and opportunities for women seem limited.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't just focus on the shareholder. Customers and employees will suffer.
Break down glass ceiling for women.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend