Calpine Reviews

Good salary and good jobs

Where do I even start??? 1 - This place does not care about the employees at all! There is no loyalty to hard-working people who have been dedicated employees. We've had more surprise layoffs in the last 18 months then we have had all-hands meetings (and seeing as how they love to stroke their egos, we have a lot of all hands meetings so that is saying something. 2 - They put unqualified and undeserving people in positions of power because they are either "yes men/women", or, to be blunt, are too incompetent to know better. They took a guy and put him in a Senior Director role even though many people advised against it because of what a poor job he did in his last role! 3 - Executive management is a joke. Jack Fusco leaving and turning the company over to Thad Hill was the worst mistake Calpine has had to endure, and it is because of his poor leadership that this company is in the state that it is in. He has driven Calpine away from its core business (IPP) and is getting waist deep into retail, while the money makers (the plants) pay the price for it. 4 - The executive rotation program is just pathetic. The CAO has very effectively, efficiently, and expeditiously ran HR and IT/IS into the ground! Going back to being unqualified, she has no idea what she is doing, and it shows in the morale and culture of every department and person she manages. 5 - Instead of promoting good employees who are qualified, they like to throw salt on your wounds by allowing you to apply and then hiring external candidates...THAT YOU THEN HAVE TO HELP TRAIN. 6 - They refuse to allow mid level managers to do their job. Several of my former managers apologized to me during my reviews - each of them claimed that when they submitted my reviews to HR, they were kicked back and told to lower my rating because it was too high. 7 - They like to put things on paper to make themselves look good but you find that it takes a lot of "pencil-whipping" and bad behavior to get it done. The constraints at the plant level on meeting forecast every month is beyond ridiculous. For fear of retaliation or punishment, a lot of plants will hold or push transactions, or make a receipt early just to show they were within variance. 8 - If you want to be successful, just be an executive pet that does whatever they are told. That's how the head of supply chain, IT, and one of the new leaders in asset management got their gigs. If you're reading this thinking this person is fired up, you would be right. This USED to be an amazing place to work...and the unqualified fools sitting atop the ivory tower have been very strategic in destroying it.