Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories reviews

I'm writing this in response to some of the very long, very rant-like "reviews" below. Folks, this place is as good as it gets. The guys at the top are smart. We don't have a weird business cycle (aka layoffs) that many companies do. The president cares about the place and is smart, even if you don't always agree with him. Do you get that employee ownership means that the company is putting free money into your retirement account? It's not matched, it's yours no matter what. You just need to work hard so that you make SEL better instead of worse, which by some of your reviews below, I wonder about. Take some ownership and think on your feet. Let the little things pass. And by little things, I mean a lame supervisor, a desk in a location you don't like, some decision about benefits that you would have chosen differently, all that stuff. You can control your attitude and how you react to what happens around you. Do that, and SEL is as fine a place to work as you'll find. It's not perfect, but neither are we. It's a business not a self actualization society.

I loved my co-workers at SEL. My supervisor was a smart and kind person who really helped me grow in new areas at the company. I was not sure at first what to think of the employee ownership model but over time realized that it's as good a model as is out there for a company. After a few years I left (my husband transferred to another city and I didn't have a choice) with a healthy nest egg. The CEO is smart (really smart), talented and pushes hard. He's not going to just roll over if quality isn't right, if we didn't do something right by a customer, and so on. It's that pushing that is part of what has made SEL what it is today. I wouldn't say that it was ever over the top, either, and once you learn why he pushes, it's a very inspiring organization. If you're a whiner, a "my way or the road" person, don't like to work hard, or can't take direction sometimes this isn't the place for you. But if you want to understand problems and be part of working together to improve electric power, I can't think of a better place. I joke with my husband that I'll leave him some day to go back to SEL. It's the best place I've worked, and I'm not a spring chicken these days.