Change may be inevitable but it can make us very uneasy. At present, Reliant Energy HL&P is a company soon to be renamed CenterPoint Energy is in the midst of massive change because of deregulation of the electric industry. Employees that found complacency within the organization now experience a risk environment because of uncertainty of the future. The reduction in workforce is evident at all levels. For one, supervisors are placing greater demands on their staffs and have very high expectations. Employees are trying to adjust to major reorganizations, including downsizing, increased hours, cross training and survivor guilt for those who were retained. Reliant Energy HL&P and Reliant Energy Entex have merged their call centers into one. At the present time, only a few employees from the electric side have been cross-trained for both gas and electric inquiries. The explanation for this is that these employees were picked because they have the skills, knowledge, and ability. This decision has placed an undue burden on these employees resulting in feelings of being overworked and burned out. The rest of the employees are resisting the training and do not want to change the status quo. The top management is positioning the company and empowering the employees to be flexible and quickly adapt to change, explore new ideas, increase their skills, and be productive. However, this has not been communicated well. All the employees hear the whole day is complaints from unhappy customers. Most of the time they are caught between what the customers wants and company policy. They are not sure whom they are supposed to keep happy. Misinterpretation in the midst of changes in the company has been a major cause of employee dissatisfaction and customers have been inconvenienced due to the transmittal of inaccurate information. The manager will have an enormous challenge motivating the employees with all the immediate concerns not resolved. A large pa...
