Middle of the Road - Environmental Planner Stantec Employee Review

Great work environment and team

Work load can fluctuate and you may feel like you're drowning in work sometimes

Some of the projects were very interesting. Compensation and benefits were competitive.

I worked at the downtown Houston Page office (later acquired by Stantec) for one full year. During my time there, I personally witnessed significant turnover, including approximately 11 engineers and 4 Architects/Interior Designers leaving the company. I ultimately decided to resign because of what I experienced as a bullying management style. Although the former Engineering Director had been moved out of that role, he remained responsible for project deadlines. On one project, a delivery date was committed to the client without consulting me or confirming the amount of work required. I was told there would be consequences if the project was not submitted on time and that I would be responsible for damaging the client relationship, even though I had not been involved in setting the deadline. I was pressured to work six consecutive 12-hour days to meet that deadline, but based on the amount of work required, I did not believe it was realistically achievable. I ultimately submitted my two-week notice. What was especially frustrating was that I had previously sent eight Microsoft Teams messages to the new Engineering Director expressing concerns about how the project was being managed. None of those messages received a response. This was not an isolated experience. I observed similarly aggressive scheduling practices on another project, where unrealistic deadlines resulted in excessive overtime for other engineers. Based on my experience, I cannot recommend this company to professionals seeking a healthy work-life balance. While overtime was paid, the repeated expectation of long hours came at the expense of employee well-being. Ultimately, that was the primary reason I chose to leave.