One of the worst places to work on the face of the Earth! - Mechanical Technician Black & Veatch Employee Review

1.0
Jul 12, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They will hire you right out of school. A good place to get 3 years of experience and then move on. That is the only positive I can think of at this time.

Cons

Where do I begin? B&V is without a doubt the most incompently run company in America. Senior (Mis-)Management has no clue how to run a business. If I could have given Morale a negative number, I would have done so. They are very good at locking a person down at a certain level and marooning them there. I tried on several occasions to bring up suggestions that I thought could help and I was listed as a trouble maker. Once you are "on the list", you can forget about any promotions. I wish I had know about that before I tried to talk to "leadership". As a designer you like to work with software that is generally available. However, B&V has a home-grown program that is very difficult to use. Everyone knows about it and it is a big joke around town. I can sum up B&V in one quote from a former co-worker of mine: Nothing is impossible to the person that doesn't know how it done. This is the person that makes the schedule.

Explore other reviews about Black & Veatch

5.0
Jul 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great culture, flexibility, benefits and pay.

Cons

I do not have any. Great place to work.

1.0
Jul 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fair starting compensation, the team I lead is very dedicated, the onboarding process is very smooth, there are opportunities to mentor and be mentored.

Cons

The current performance management process is deeply flawed. Leaders collect ratings from managers and supervisors, then gather in a room with peers to “calibrate.” During this meeting, a predetermined percentage of employees must receive low ratings. At one point, someone referred to this as “forced ratings,” and the IT leader became visibly upset, insisting that it was not. However, I was present for the discussion: we lowered ratings, checked the spreadsheet, lowered more ratings, checked the spreadsheet again, and repeated this cycle until we hit the percentage the IT leader said had to be met. From conversations with peers outside of IT, this appears to be a common practice across the organization. Unfortunately, the approach often results in employees receiving ratings that do not accurately reflect their actual performance. These artificially lowered ratings directly affect merit increases and bonuses—even if the bonuses are relatively small—creating consequences that feel at best unfair. Regardless of what label is used, the experience felt undeniably forced.

1
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All