Thread regarding AES Corp. layoffs

The way they laid off people in our group felt very targeted and very wrong. I can't say I'm surprised because this is just the way it goes in corporate America. There is a lot of uncertainty ahead, so I am grateful to get out now with my severance, but I am still extremely disappointed in this company. Shame on them for letting talented people take the fall for their poor business decisions, and shame on them for not taking responsibility for their mistakes.

Wait until Trump gets his hands on the IRA and eliminates the PTC and ITC. That will be the end of the Boulder, CO office once and for all.

Middle manager here that somehow survived (don't hate me please, I'm trying i do my best). 3.5% was the standard, no one got more. They even prorated the 2024 new employees merit raise, that's despicable IMO and unheard of. But 130% KPIs. WTF? Sorry for those that are gone, it should have been the VP and up. They sc--wed the pooch, not you guys.

Standard was 3.5. If you got less, then you obviously didn’t meet you expectations and goals . Pretty simple.

3. 5% raise here as well

I got 3.5% and heard that there were no annual raises over that.

I got a "standard 3.5%" raise. Can anyone else confirm if that's really "standard"?

anyone else seeing a yearly "raise" of 2%?

Hopefully the new COO from the IBU will assess his groups at the utilities and perform overdue lower level management demotions.

The CEO is having an all hands. I wonder what he would say if someone asked him why no elt was fired.

Also ask him if he, HR, and Elin Musk compared notes on how to cut without a plan. Who had the idea first? Why does he hate republicans so much if he does the same thing?

Also ask him what kind of golden parachute he and the cronies get when this company is broken up and sold. Do we get the same thing?

I used to work for AES Corporation in the Philippines when they owned the Masinloc coal power plant. It was a great company to work for, and I really valued the culture and teamwork. But after they sold the plant, things changed. I didn’t like how management treated dedicated employees, and honestly, I think selling income-generating assets is a bad decision. They’re starting to feel more like just an investment company rather than a true power-generating company. That’s when I knew it was time to move on.

AES true value is zero as reflected in the stock price and the zero value people at the top shown on the homepage who have been here for over a decade. You know who you are and no one cares what you have to say any longer. The BOD should have fired all of you years ago. Your words are empty. Let’s find some true leaders so we can try and resurrect the shards of what is left of this poorly managed ship.

AES is one of the most responsible company in case in guys are not aware
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aes_aes-corporateresponsibility-newsweek-activity-7290428549713330176-4zbK?utm_so

The day my manager and I got laid off, the head of our team was no where to be found. It’s sad to see such lack of empathy, even in the middle management. The culture is indeed rotten.

Senior people in charge of deciding whom to lay off seem to have protected their own teams. Even when some were clearly not that productive or valuable in the changed strategy environment. Over the years one could see many such teams bubbling up in AES wasting money. Some were there just to duplicate work already done by other teams and these teams are still there, so we can tell how well the ship will be doing in the near term. It’s so unfair for the talented and hard working folks who joined AES thinking this will be the best place for them.

Everyone knows it’s the thermal side of the house picking up the slack and financing the DEI unqualified tree huggers in non-thermal. This is why we are failing. We just need to clean house meaning close the Boulder, CO office which has been empty for 4 years anyway put Woody in retirement and get back to our roots. All of the debt and constant losses are because of the DEI unqualified tree huggers in Boulder, CO. Trump will put wind permanently out of business so why we didn’t get rid of that lame duck crew is beyond me but their services should no longer be required in about 60 more days. Natural gas is the future.

Its never a good time to be let go but 45 days, bonus and severance, with the looming 5 day RTO I sort of wish I had been let go from this sinking ship.

Everyone knows the utilities are the cash cow of aes, funding the failed business. These layoffs impacted people in Indiana and Ohio with decades of utility experience. How are no news outlets reporting on the layoffs? Didn’t aes have to submit a WARN?

Agree with other comments to post on Glassdoor. However, I’ve seen many reviews posted there get removed within a week or two. If you do post, follow the guidelines and make sure it actually stays live.

I was part of the AES layoffs this past Thursday. My manager wasn't even informed and was only made aware when I called to inform him my position was cut.

They're sending my job to Argentina. The folks there barely speak English and now will be responsible for interacting with solely American stakeholders.

Oh by the way, per my research the average employee in my role in Argentina will be making $7K a year.

Fu-k management, fu-k outsourcing and above all fu-k Trump.

Where are you guys getting the information that they don’t have real education? It says online that Bernard has a bachelor’s and a master's degree.

How significant is my bonus and 2 months of salary compared to what Andres, Bernard, Ricardo? (Bernard and Ricardo has no real education)

I also think it's important to remember that severance is paid because (a) it's going to be hard to attract top-tier people if you make a habit of laying people off with no safety net and (b) to stop employees who weren't affected from cutting and running. If AES didn't pay out bonuses and severance the best employees who can easily find new positions would all run for the doors. I anticipate there will already be a lot of voluntary attrition in the next few months.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that a company operates as a business. While total transparency is unattainable, the fact that they continue to distribute bonuses and severance pay indicates that they care about their employees. They could have chosen to implement layoffs without any compensation, but they opted for a different approach.

Remember to review on Glassdoor, the C levels used to ask for reviews, but not this year, to be fair, they need a review now more than ever
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/AES-Corporation-Reviews-E291.htm

After many years at AES, I have serious concerns regarding the leadership of Andres and Bernard. I have observed what I perceive to be consistent misrepresentations of information. Furthermore, I have significant doubts about the company's current renewable energy strategy, which appears to be repeatedly failing to meet its objectives. The lack of transparent communication regarding potential layoffs, particularly the misleading suggestion that budget adjustments will suffice, is deeply troubling. I no longer recommend AES as a place of employment.

"lose more people" that is exactly what they want, they announce the RTO hoping people can leave without paying severance.

Haven't heard a peep about RTO mandate exceptions and what will happen to remote employees who don't receive one. Seems like AES will lose more people come April 1st.

I'm honestly disappointed by this restructuring. We're all reeling with these questions:

1. How can the company justify those lavish dinners and glowing speeches when this was apparently coming?

2. Hiring new people in the last months, especially those hired remotely and the ones brought in from other countries, only to do this?

3. The selection process for the new structure was a black box. No transparency at all, just a bunch of rumblings and subjectivity.

4. Leadership is just washing their hands of this and walking unscathed? Blaming 'elections' ? Wow! That's some low accountability

My heart goes out to everyone affected.

Could someone who is knowledgeable in techs, regularly keep a copy of this thread and upload it anonymously somewhere, in case this website deleted this thread for whatever reason?

AES is the only publicly held company to have executives in their ranks who only have high school diplomas over college educated employees. They can’t even spell shareholder value.

Too many non-technial people in management roles running the show and trying to make technical decisions that requires industry experience, knowledge, and vision. Today's sad result (laying off) shouldn't be too much of a surprise...

Nothing quite as distopian as watching them announce ~1000 people lost their livelihoods and watching the stock price jump up. Great reminder that no matter how long or hard you work or care you are a disposable number on a spreadsheet that can be thrown away at any second and we pay the price for the mistakes made by those in power who suffer no consequences.

Stock is the same price it was in 2015 and Andres is still CEO. Yikes

The fact that Andres is still in his role as CEO should make everyone realize that it is a criminal enterprise controlled by the Venezuelan Mafia. He will eventually be arrested for fraud, but anyone d-mb enough to continue working at this disaster is a fool. There will be another round of layoffs because Trump will not allow any wind projects to be developed by preventing the FAA from issuing Determinations of No Hazard. This will terminate all wind projects and the clowns in Boulder, CO will finally pay the price for their ineptitude. How about that DEI logo. $7M for that disaster. It won't be long now. Credit rating is BBB-. One more tick down and it is junk. That is when the real fun begins and the spiral of death.

$7 million over budget alone in travel last year. 50 to 60 executives traveling and staying in 5 star resorts to talk budget in Panama. But it's the election results that drove this decision. The folks at the top keep their roles. The rest of us fall on the sword. Too many great people to list got let go of, no reflection of the amazing work and collaboration that went on daily. Let this be a point in time where we all look back on how blessed we were to find a great company and position in the near future.

Those at the top failed us. The excuses stop there.

Absolutely agree that this company LOVES to pat themselves on the back. Be it spending $100k+ for a ribbing cutting in Hawaii to Bernerd announcing on the local news that we are going to turn an AES coal plant into a renewable project before we even have sufficient site control. At least we got our 15 minutes of fame on the news that day. FYI, we lost that coal plant site due to leadership incompetence. This is all on SLT and not the people who actually bust their a-s to get projects approved and built. Hope those who lost their jobs land on their feet in a better situation. I’m sure the empty suits don’t even care.

Layoffs hit many teams hard. The IT group, the team in Panama, parts of finance. They say 10% of total workforce, but many parts of the business were much harder impacted.

One group that was not hit hard was the senior leadership team. They had 0% impact. But you would think it was 100% yesterday when we were cutting. none of them were anywhere to be found. I am in the finance team, and our big boss was upstairs. He couldn't bother to walk down one flight of stairs to check on the team--either we are his lowest priority or he was scared to face us. I'm so disappointed in him.

The Venezuelan mafia is still strong and protected.

Ultimately, this is a feature of putting all of our cash into a business that has bad returns. In our earnings call today they announced less growth and the stock went up. I think the stock owners figured something that the c suite has not. It's just a bad business--but the only thing our senior leaders do is blame trump and badmouth republicans. Again disappointing.

To the reporter in this thread, if you can get an interview, ask why we still own coal. They said it's for system requirements, but we know that is just a lie. We need the cash otherwise we would just sell the plants and let someone else keep them up. You can also ask why we let our coal plant in puerto rico pollute against epa rules.

The current self inflicted economic climate caused by horrible government decisions do have an impact. There's no denying that despite what some other folks on here are trying to say. But...AES leadership sc--wed up. No one can deny that the renewables Dev team burned through millions for no good reason. Constantly patting themselves on the back for writing a report or speaking at a hearing. Their nonsense and frivolous team meets lead to us needing to do more detailed time sheets and "tightening our belts". Useless. It's all BS.

Any laid off AES employees that want to talk confidentially with PeakLoad: please contact tips at peakload dot com