A company labouring under managers who are out of their depth. - Anonymous employee Contact Energy Employee Review

1.0
12 Aug 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Operational staff are usually great people to work with. The company is committed to health and safety. The work environment in Wellington is very nice. Work is fairly relaxed

Cons

A complete inability to translate strategy statements into specific behavours to be exhibited by the various parts of the business. Upper managers and upper middle managers primarily concerned with managing upward. A number of managers who do not understand how parts of their business units deliver their capabilities. Poor or no career development. Little opportunity unless you are one of the chosen few. Deep divisions/silos between business units and within groups within business units (driven mostly by the lack of strategy implementation.). A management team that lacks authenticity (don't walk the talk). Inept implemention of SAP driven by an apparent Origin agenda. An HR department mostly focused on protecting the company from its own employees An IT department containing a complete breakdown of trust between those few remaining staff with technical capability and a set of naive IT managers to do not understand technology. A company struggling with the challenge of delivering a sustainable business.

Explore other reviews about Contact Energy

1.0
20 Aug 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

free fruit, health insurance, EAP, power discount

Cons

arrogant and entitled management, lack of internal communication, no support, disjointed

2
2.0
14 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Genuine work-life balance — reasonable hours, low pressure to overextend • Stable environment if you’re looking for predictability over progression • Decent for someone early in their career wanting exposure without burnout

Cons

Upper management is old-school and resistant to change. Constructive feedback and modern ways of working are routinely ignored, and there’s a noticeable arrogance in how decisions are made top-down. • A clear in-group culture exists. A small circle of “yes people” sit close to leadership, and recognition tends to flow within that circle rather than being based on actual contribution. If your thinking doesn’t align with the dominant voices, your growth quietly stalls. • Recognition feels performative rather than meaningful. • Salary increases are minimal and promotions are rare — there’s no real career progression framework, particularly for QA. • Significant pay disparity between developers and testers. Developers are well-compensated; testers are not, and there’s little pathway to close that gap regardless of skill or impact. • Comfort-zone culture. People stay because it’s easy, not because they’re growing. If you have ambition, you’ll feel it pulling you backward over time. • Strongly developer-centric. QA is treated as a support function rather than an engineering discipline, which limits the kind of work, tooling, and influence testers can have. Bottom line If you want a calm, predictable job and value work-life balance above all, this can work for you. If you’re a tester with career ambition — looking for growth, fair pay, modern practices, or a path into automation/SDET/leadership — look elsewhere. You’ll plateau here.

2
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