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    Downer Reviews

    Updated 28 January 2019
    117 reviews

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    3.1
    StarStarStarStarStar
    Rating TrendsRating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
    Downer Managing Director and CEO Grant Fenn
    Grant Fenn
    38 Ratings

    Employee Reviews

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    Pros
    Cons

    • "Not female friendly - lack of understanding how work/life balance improves performance" (in 3 reviews)

    • "There is a blame culture, no accountability, responsibility or ownership" (in 4 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. "Engineer"

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

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

      Pros

      Strong leadership and vision from senior management. Reasonable level of autonomy to deliver in role. Expectations of role made clear and support in delivering

      Cons

      Typically government contracts and very difficult clients to accept progressive change and development of product and practice. Strongly unionised workforce that slow progress too

      Advice to Management

      Greater clarity and effort in career progression planning, need to put names in boxes and commit to succession planning. Continue with vision and strong leadership as industry leaders in asset management

    2. "Good company"

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

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

      Pros

      They seem to have lots of work.

      Cons

      Pay is not so good.

      Advice to Management

      None

      3. Join the Downer team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. "Master Data"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at Downer full-time

      Pros

      Good hours and work life balance

      Cons

      Not much room for cross training

    4. "Work environment"

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

      I have been working at Downer full-time

      Pros

      Friendly people but lovely environment

      Cons

      Blame others if anything goes bad instead of resolving the issue

    5. "It's ok"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Current Employee - Data Cable Installer in Sydney
      Current Employee - Data Cable Installer in Sydney
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

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

      Pros

      Good pay and benefits. Plenty of time off

      Cons

      Depressing culture, lots of back stabbing

    6. "Former Corporate IT staff member - tossed out with 60% of Downer Corporate IT"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend

      I worked at Downer full-time

      Pros

      Safety culture (obviously an executive KPI)

      Cons

      No development of staff - even well before outsourcing - hopefully those left get a better deal
      Separate businesses with budgets bypass Corporate IT to create the next IT mess

      Advice to Management

      1) Read your own surveys and note the difference in satisfaction between Corporate IT (even well before outsourcing) and the rest of the business.

      2) If you're going to have a "Corporate IT" then enforce it and make it work, rather than have IT pretenders such as those in the former Rail Division having an IT spending frenzy, with no IT discipline e.g. the latest condition based maintenance system, which is attempt number 4. I can't wait for number 5.

    7. "Decent company"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at Downer full-time

      Pros

      Large reach - plenty of internal opportunity

      Cons

      If you are on a smaller contract - there is not much focus placed by senior leadership team

    8. Helpful (1)

      "Good job"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at Downer full-time

      Pros

      Was a good job, lots to learn, good wage

      Cons

      Had to work very hard, was located in bad locations

    9. "manager"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - PManger in Upper Coomera
      Former Employee - PManger in Upper Coomera
      Recommends
      Negative Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I worked at Downer (More than a year)

      Pros

      was sick blad it was well good init

      Cons

      fully sick bru, everyone was fully loaded aye

      Advice to Management

      sick as

    10. "Procurement Engineer"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at Downer full-time

      Pros

      There are many formal processes and procedures to follow.

      Cons

      Too much politics in the working environment.

      Advice to Management

      Get staff to focus more on things rather than relationships between people.