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.
