Pros
Great health coverage, sabbatical every four years, annual holiday * Every interaction that I’ve had with the Partners has been positive. I’m convinced they want to foster the best work environment possible, and I enjoyed their insight on the company, philosophies for growth/retention, and general demeanor. * The health benefits are solid. The Partners cover the premiums, so there’s a little extra cash on each check you get from that saved deduction. * Once a year, there’s a company vacation. Due to Covid, 2020 and 2021 were cancelled, but that certainly isn’t the company’s fault. * For every four years you spend with the company, you earn a four-week sabbatical, which is pretty cool.
Cons
Lack of advancement opportunities, toxic culture, poor leadership * Although the Partners are fantastic, they don’t really control company culture for the majority of Fast’s employees. Instead, that is the responsibility of each project site’s leadership, and results will vary. Your experience with Fast will be heavily dictated by your site’s leadership, or lack thereof. * You will probably be working a lot of overtime, and it will be calculated as straight time, not time and a half. You will be fed the illusion that putting in extra hours is a privilege, and the effort is referred to as Bonus Time. In one meeting on site, our manager told us “we care about your mental health, but overtime is mandatory,” without a hint of self-awareness. Morale on the site I worked on was/is incredibly low. * HR is there to protect the company, not the employees. While on my project site, the wife of a coworker sexually harassed me for about six weeks through various social media channels. I reported it to my manager, who assured me I did the right thing by reporting the interaction, and that the grievance was elevated to HR. Two months later, I found out my manager had lied to me and never informed HR. I talked to HR about the initial grievance, and they didn’t seem to care that my manager acted the way he did - I had to work for that manager for another year and a half, knowing how little he respected me. * The bonus structure is needlessly over-complicated, and it’s essentially designed to give you smaller and smaller bonuses as your salary progresses, effectively lessening the overall impact your raises have upon your take-home amount. (The over-complication of processes is also felt in the annual review system).