It's slave labor. Administrative tasks were never given enough hours. When I started you were expected to work 40 hour for your client and then do proposals on nights, weekends, holidays as "personal development". Even when total time reporting came in, manager were under incredible pressure to find ways to not record time.
The way they calculate billability is flawed. Billability should be based on percentage of hours out of 40 hours that you bill not percent of total hours worked. If you worked 40 hours for a client and 40 hours for Booz (on assessments, etc.) they consider you 50% billable despite the fact that on most contracts they can't bill the government for more than 40 anyway!
The paradox is: Very high ethical standard framed in a system to discourage the application of same.
Reviews are all about perception. My boss worked very hard at it. He usually started 3 month before the review was due. Sadly he tended to present the evidence that best supported his initial impression rather than the totality. Other managers dashed off the assessments very quickly with no better or worse results.
9 holidays is a joke. I worked so many I lost count, and never got a day in lieu or cash for what was supposed to be a paid day off.
