From first to worst in one week - Anonymous employee Black & Veatch Employee Review

2.0
Dec 8, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Competitive benefits - really strong parental leave for non-birthing parents, didn't have to agonize over health insurance last month with an option to have the exact same plan and price. Strong teams with an intentional approach to team-building among remote employees - frequent communication, formal and informal. Very well-supported in my team and by immediate levels of management. Until last week I was extremely happy in my job, having been hired as a remote (permanently, allegedly) employee, it was as close to a dream job as I can imagine.

Cons

Absolutely shady action by new CEO in an employee-owned company. I haven't been here long but it seemed like we had a very different culture than the publicly-traded firm I left. Then an absolute top-down edict on return-to-office, reversing course on MANY employees such as myself who were hired to remote positions (not COVID remote, but allegedly permanently remote) or had successfully transitioned to such a position in the last two years - though some have been with the firm since before the remote flexibility was greatly increased, those who opted in did so with assurance and expectation of permanence. And during his transition into the CEO position, he further reassured employees that he would not change the spectrum of virtual options! Even if this course is reversed, and even if you are an in-the-office (or the field) kind of person, there has been a real breakdown in trust and I would look elsewhere until this dust has settled. More time is needed to see how this CEO responds and acts over the next several months, at least, and how it shakes out down at the employee level as well. I don't think anyone wants to join a new company at the start of a major exodus of long-term employees so wait and see what happens.

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Black & Veatch Response
3y
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We recognize our new hybrid policy is a change for our professionals and we are continuing to listen and take your feedback into consideration.

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5.0
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Pros

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Cons

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1.0
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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.

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