Trending downward. Top heavy and getting fatter.
Pros
Technically rewarding industry. Very honest and ethical people doing their best in an uphill current of red tape and bureaucratic mazes.
Cons
Never before have I seen what was a great company become so bloated and bureaucratic. There are more administrative layers than ever. For a technically based company, there are more non-technical, non-value added positions than ever. We have production planners, issue trackers, project managers, change order coordinators, field action coordinators, site managers, field change planners, ethics officers, safety coordinators, field log entry staff, safety advocates, meeting coordinators, facilitators, etc. All who do not spend a single hour trying to make a better and more competitive product. We have multiple people on a job site (with full expenses and per-diem) that do nothing but attend meetings, update gantt charts and demand more on-site help. This company is about to collapse from the weight of all the corner offices and double-wide cubes above the glass ceiling. These people do not add value to a project, simply keep score on how well the project is doing down to the 5th significant digit. They catch a 2 hour billing error and beat their chests (cc 15 people) by telling everyone how much money they are saving the company. Then the executives wonder why our margins are shrinking. Their solution? Make 50 hour weeks the new norm and closely monitor it. Uncompensated, but factored during performance reviews. Every entrance/exit is badge access and automatically compared to time records to check/verify your working those extra 2 unpaid hours per day. Despite 10 free hours per week to the company, layoffs are rumored to be approaching. Every previous round of layoffs had no effect on the layers of administrators and middle managers, only the 'worker bees'. It's very disheartening to work for something you no longer believe in.
