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      Opower

      Now known as Oracle

      Is this your company?

      Opower Reviews

      3.7

      67% would recommend to a friend

      (169 total reviews)
      avatar

      Daniel Yates

      74% approve of CEO

      51% positive business outlook

      Opower has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 169 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Opower employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      169 reviews
      1.0
      9 Apr 2016

      Was it worth it?

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Food. Chair massages. Dogs. Smart coworkers. Casual workplace. Product was revolutionary in the market.... Until everyone started doing it and it became commoditized.

      Cons

      Where to even begin? How to even describe the disappointment in realizing the smoke and mirrors designed now to try to maintain opower's former glory? Opower is an example of what happens when a company rests on its laurels and gets a head bigger than its actual impact. Yeah the product was good, but it stopped being cool years ago. Since then, the company has only innovated only when it was forced to- can you even call that innovation? Because of the impact and success of their energy efficiency product, they found it somehow acceptable to treat people like crap. And this included the company's own customers and prospects. In what world is it ever acceptable to tell your customers' teams that they're outdated and stupid? Perhaps in Opower's world, where the CMO has 0 marketing background and saw it fit to fire anyone whose actual marketing experience threatened him. And don't even get me started on the middle managers. Arrogant chauvinistic middle managers who tell their female employees they have to be "nicer" while rewarding equally aggressive male employees. Middle managers who tell subordinates to be bottlenecks when processes don't go the way they envision. Underutilizing highly talented, high educated lower level staff because the first priority at opower is catering to senior managers' ego- not actually getting business done and producing better products. The free food and perks can only smoke and mirror so long. You forget, Opower, that your employees are extremely smart and eventually they see right through the shiny distractions But you know the most heartbreaking thing about all this? You could have been so good. You had all the right people. All the right momentum. And then you thought you were smarter than having to play by the basic business rules and threw it all away.

      avatar
      Opower Response
      10y
      We appreciate the feedback. Management feels very good about Opower’s product and business strategy. 2015 represented the best year in company history both in the size and scope of deals we signed with key utility partners, many of whom made major investments in our new Customer Care products. Given Opower’s considerable success in 2015—along with our $500 million revenue backlog, $100 million cash on hand, and zero debt—current and future Oployees have a lot of reasons to be excited about the future.
      1.0
      5 Jun 2016

      Oracle acquisition destroyed morale, ethos, culture

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Prior to acquisition -- striving (so we thought) to build a sustainable business with a social and environmental mission. Working with intelligent people who wanted to harness the power of technology to address important problems. A refreshing break from vapid tech culture and priorities. Was easily one of the best DC-area technology companies. Again, this is all prior to the acquisition announcement.

      Cons

      The Oracle acquisition (and the events leading up to it) destroyed the soul of this company. Bumps over the past few months were tolerated, because we were told these adjustments were necessary as we strove to build a sustainable, profitable business. In retrospect, it seems very likely that the adjustments were to groom Opower for a sale. And not just any sale -- a sale to Oracle, which is the antithesis of everything we stand for. Morale is at an all-time low. Employees spend their days searching for new jobs and lamenting whatever the latest awful Oracle thing in the news happens to be, if they come to work at all. Opower was founded with an environmental mission: to encourage everyone to conserve energy. Oracle does not share this mission, and they have a history of deceptive business practices and ethically-dubious corporate goals. They will not be a responsible steward of Opower's clients, culture, or technology.

      1.0
      7 Apr 2016

      Downhill would be an understatement

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      There used to be some interesting problems to work on and there are still some very smart people who work there. Base comp is decent and benefits are standard for a tech company.

      Cons

      The entire company is dysfunctional and morale is at an all time low. The stock price continues to nose dive and upper management is panicking as they watch their net worth disappear into thin air. The recent changes to the company's mission and goals has been poorly executed and caused significant damage across the company. They continue to lose their most talented employees and refuse to hire the most necessary positions. Instead, upper management chooses to hire and promote their friends into useless positions that add no value to the company. They then sit there and wonder why they can't deliver to their clients on time. Career advancement and opportunities are a joke unless you're buddies with the management team. Certain managers continually get promoted with less than a year in their current position while individual workers actually getting stuff done don't receive any recognition for the hard work they do. All you have to do is look at the LinkedIn profiles of some of the managers to see how ridiculous their progression through the career ladder has been. Upper management blatantly lies to their employees and does exactly the opposite of what they tell them. I love how Dan sends a damage control email after the stock price drops over 30% in a single day firmly stating that the company finances are fine and that it is a Wall St overreaction. Before that, he had also stated there wouldn't be anymore lay offs in the near future. Of course, that all ends up being a lie as apparently the finances are not great and they had to lay off a significant portion of their employees. That's less than 6 months after a previous round of layoffs. Thanks, Dan! If you're thinking about joining this company, do yourself a favor and don't. There is really no reason to get aboard this sinking ship.

      avatar
      Opower Response
      10y
      Thank you for the feedback. When you step back, Opower is in the strongest position the company has ever been, both strategically and financially. 2015 marked a record year for our sales team, with massive renewals and expansions by Opower’s biggest clients. In Q4 alone, we closed the two largest deals in company history. In addition to strong renewals and new business wins, Opower also successfully launched a series of new products including NextWeb and Bill Advisor; and completed the rollout of its software platform. Opower is positioned extremely well for continued success. We entered 2016 with a revenue backlog of nearly half a billion dollars, $100 million cash on hand, and no debt. For more on Opower’s financials - see our public investor center website. In the midst of all this success, we’ve taken significant steps to ensure that Opower remains one of the best places to work in the world. Opower recently announced a dramatically expanded parental leave policy—increasing total parental leave to 16 weeks. We also announced an unlimited PTO policy, building on Opower’s already generous time off.
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      Glassdoor has 180 Opower reviews submitted anonymously by Opower employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Opower is right for you.