Work Life Balance, Who? - Designer Henderson Engineers Employee Review

Henderson Engineers sells themself on being a company that offers work life balance, but reality is they are a work hard play none company. Working overtime is the norm and depending on what program and discipline you’re in, expect long days and weekend work. They bid on so many projects when being severely understaffed. Managements favorite word at the moment is efficiency, ever since becoming an ESOP. It’s truly a juxtaposition; they want you to work as much as possible to meet unrealistic deadlines, but you get looked down on if you go over budget. Managers once said hiring more people is not the solution, yet one person is expected to do the work of 2-3. The insistence on efficiency and lack of hiring is so that the ESOP share pool is bigger. Its understandable that as a company you’d like to have bigger profit margins, but it’s at the expense of its employees. Pay is not great either, lower than other MEP firms in the area. Benefits are not good, insurance coverage is expensive and 401k match is at best 3%. Advancement has nothing to do with performance. As an engineer I/designer I you get paid your hourly base pay as overtime. Promotion to engineer II/designer II happens around your fourth year in which you are switched over to salary. Even with the pay raise, you will not be making more because the amount of hours you work will increase exponentially. Do not be surprised if you make less per hour than when you were an engineer I. Micromanagement is also rampant. So many people have so much time off accrued, yet they are unable to use it because the workload is so great and are guilted by uppers to not take time off. If you do take time off, be prepared to work a lot leading up to your absence and when you return. Makes your time off so less enjoyable knowing you will come back to a dumpster fire.