Pros
Lots of office support- I had access to very well trained admin assistants, dedicated CAD people, estimating, and a slick purchasing department. Great training systems where you learn their (ultra strict) processes as well as internally run soft skill training. Very inclusive culture were women and members or visible/nonvisible minorities were hired and treated equally in social settings. Well respected in the industry.
Cons
Lots of attitude problems and huge morale issues among new (0-5 year) and junior employees. You would often be told that compensation was intentionally low but that senior staff had to suffer through the same thing and you should to. This was a very backwards mentality and basically told you to try less because they paid you on ideology not merit. Too much faith in their superintendents. The district line was that supers were the most important people in the company, and this definitely went to their heads. Supers were very difficult to work with and would make strange/unreasonable demands that were far beyond their work scope. Nobody seemed willing to reign a super in, and I would put the supers that I worked with as the #1 money losers on the project. Supers would often challenge you in front of an audience, then use their backing in the company to override whatever position you hold... regardless of what contracts or construction documents would say... then hide from the issue or throw you under the bus again when their mistakes came to light. This was always toxic and really hurt my desire to work hard in the company. Promotions were based somewhat on years of services (quasi union mentality) where you would do well in reviews but promotions were based on years of service. I would challenge this and ask for construction feedback to help me grow, but would usually get watered down generic feedback from a manager who couldn't be bothered to ask the people I actually work with. The people I worked with found promotions were best obtained through threatening to leave. Bonuses were arbitrarily calculated- in interviews they said bonuses were based on safety, performance, and overtime hours that were served but not compensated for. I always received top reviews yet my bonuses would account for less than 20% of my overtime alone. Honesty could have prevented a lot of frustration.
