Most staff across levels are severely overworked and underpaid for what they contribute, especially for levels 1-3. They have a "figure it out" culture where they rely greatly on younger staff to step up, and provide very little help on tasks, especially if you are not entry-level. Sometimes, people can step up, but it's not very forgiving even tho it's said you're allowed to fail and learn from it. The disorganization and lack of coordination across teams was something I had never experienced before. I witnessed someone get placed on a project where their role was to fulfill the responsibilities of 2 staff members who had left the year before, and the manager, who was the only/main institutional knowledge of the project, went on long-term leave just after they started without appropriately backfilling the team to respond to client demands. Many projects have a 48h or less turn-around expectation either due to client or management's expectations, most of which probably did not actually have to be turned that quickly with a more inclusive conversation and patient project management structure. There was a lot of manufactured urgency and deference to the client instead of protecting employees, which led to a detriment in work/life balance and culture. Middle/senior managers will make mistakes, but not be held accountable (or hold themselves accountable) for them, and new/younger employees are heavily scrutinized. It felt like I was gossiped about constantly by my manager colleagues behind the scenes/my back, which didn't feel great or help me improve. The matrixed project environment and limited budgets make you feel like you are constantly staying afloat with billability, and it's your responsibility to keep billable targets as is the case in consulting. My feedback/recommendations to change things fell on deaf ears. I had both heavy micromanagement and a severe lack of management across projects. In my interviews, they said they had hoped to resolve their long-standing issues with retention. Unfortunately, they are ignoring the root cause of that issue and, allegedly, have been for years.
