CDM Smith reviews

Upper management is inept at best. More recently the company has resembled a dumpster fire. Recently busted by Justice Department for giving bribes to officials in India, resulting in a forfeiture of profits. CEO is retiring, future CEO does not even have his PE. Total lack of engagement of corporate with local employees. Many mid-level employees are fleeing/retiring in droves; those that remain were treated to a layoff of approximately 5% of the company workforce. Insane focus on utilization; your fate is determined by how your number looks. Morale of local employees could not be lower. Management does not plan well. A few years ago, with much fanfare, corporate announced a plan to double transportation work in the US. However, two years later, we learned that they did not actually create a strategic plan to do so. Switch away from land line phones, combined with downgrades in internet service (less than mobile 4G speeds) results in frequent VoIP problems, which isn't great for client relations.

Drive by numbers to correct mistakes made by bad eggs ... then driving out the good eggs who are punished by the new procedures/standards. Currently losing a lot of good, hard working technical staff at various levels due to layoffs and folks needing reprieve from the numbers games. Sales staff are becoming handcuffed by standards that are nearly impossible to meet when chasing work. A militaristic-like push to meet utilization goals is breaking down the collaboration between sales and technical staff to win new work. Then when sales are down and less work is coming in, staff is laid off to keep profits higher across the year. Need better career paths for staff of all levels in all departments. Right now, there's only a focus on those who transition to sales or project management. Need better training and mentorship when folks move up - especially for those moving from project management to sales. Too often they are set up to fail as management just assumes they'll pick up the skills along the way or already know what they're doing. Work/life balance is rough in some positions. When there's a lot of work, it tends to fall on those who are best to do it, but instead of sharing the load, it's dumped on a select few to fix/figure it out/drive it forward.