SBM Combines the Worst Aspects of Corporate, Blue-Collar Work Cultures
Pros
-Ability to be promoted through levels of management quickly, if you're willing to fight for it. -Be able to work as a vendor for many of the world's top companies and get to manage dynamic campus environments -Fast-paced work environment, diverse workforce (a huge plus if you're fluent in Spanish) Lots of opportunity for growth. If you're looking for a career in facilities management, you may find what you're looking for here...
Cons
....if you're willing to work 70 hour weeks forever, be chained to your Blackberry 24 hours a day, and tolerate a generally toxic mix of 1950's style corporatism and blue-collar construction type work environment. SBM has a long way to go to become a good employer to work for. Things that should have made me run screaming for the door: 1. Formal Dress Code - what West Coast-based company still requires dress shirts and slacks? Even for employees working in the field and on night shifts? 2. 1950's Style Conservatism - do not even think of trying to become a manager here if you are gay/lesbian or female. Sexism and homophobia are rampant here. I encountered many instances of blatant homphobic remarks here that in more mainstream companies would get a senior manager fired. I made the mistake of coming out to several of my coworkers in a casual manner while I worked here, and I sincerely regret doing so as it was not well-received. Women in management, even talented women with Masters degrees, are generally given sub-standard assignments and treated condescendingly as if they were mere secretaries. 3. Total Lack of Work Life Balance - As another commenter wrote, you will work 60-70 hour weeks here or you will be fired, point blank. Ironic given that one of SBM's 'core values' is a work-life balance which does not exist here. You will be in meetings, audits, and site walks during your mornings, swamped with SBM's endless internal paperwork in the afternoons, and then need to transition into night shift operations starting around 6-7pm. So your total work day will stretch on average from 9am-8pm every day at minimum. Add to this the numerous safety incidents or escalations you'll inevitably encounter during the night shift and your work life will become an unavoidable, all-consuming 24 hour hell. On many SBM sites, you will not have support staff so the cycle described above will be truly inevitable, with no one to turn to if you need a sick day or (God forbid) a vacation. 4. Insane Turnover - the line-level employees have a running joke when they meet you as a new manager on-site, as if to say "wonder how long he'll last". Senior management at SBM loves to hire and fire, you will see many management employees get the axe even if you work there for a short time. SBM brags about its 40% (!!!) turnover rate as "the best in the industry" like that's something to be proud of. This level of turnover makes it very difficult to maintain good relationships with your customers and makes morale very low overall. 5. Incompetent Senior Management - SBM's upper management is full of people who know how to under-bid their competitors and little else. When a serious problem is presented to them on safety, environmental, or other compliance issue, they are reactionary. They will not give you the resources (time, budget) to actually solve the problem and then will punish you and your site harshly for not solving it. If you are a site manager, you will learn to fear your Regional Manager and CRM's like the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse. They are empowered to do little but shuttle from account to account, slashing budgets, laying off employees, and undercutting your projects at every turn. You will have to work very, very hard to have a relationship with them that isn't deeply antagonistic.
