Used to be a good company, and still has potential if major changes happen
Pros
I worked at Kleinfelder for many years and since the early days it was a people oriented company. That has changed now, but if you are entrepreneurial then you may still do well there. The people at the firm are great, at least the ones you work with day to day, and there is some potential for career growth if you play your cards right.
Cons
About 3 years ago there was a decision to remake Kleinfelder into a design firm. Almost none of senior managment had ever worked at at a good design firm. Progress to that goal is very slow, and company growth has really only been by buying other companies, while the core company experiences layoffs. There has been a major exodus of many of the most talented people, particularly in the senior ranks of the firm, a number of whom have been there 20 years or more. Everytime a key person leaves most of what we hear is why it is good they are gone, not anything about the reasons they left and how there may be something to pay attention to and changes to be made. The core of the firm has been basically left to molder and the result is the firm is no longer people oriented like it used to be. What was a great people-oriented culture going back to the 1960s has been pretty much destroyed in just a few years. Employees are treated like lines on a spread sheet, nothing more, certainly not like professionals. Pay and benefits are quite poor. Senior managment will even admit this off the record, but are doing essentially nothing about it. The CEO just continually gives out the excuse about how the economy is just not that strong, but other firms are doing very well and their stock prices are shooting up. When it comes to medical benefits, which continually erode adn get more expensive, they keep blaming Obamacare. There is no 401(k) match and the ESOP, so called profit sharing plan, pays at best a paltry sum to emplyees accounts when it pays at all. When I left my compensation went up in every way at a different firm. Basically what this company needs desparately is a change in senior managment, before the company value drops any more, like the massive drop a year ago. The CEO turned the reins of the company over to the COO and seems to like running around giving speeches outside the company. I really think he is over his head, or just too lazy to do what he should and actually pay attention to running and growing the company. The COO has made the company very bureaucratic and sticking to processes are more important than actually doing the work. Everything has to be tracked and put in the right category or bucket. Employees are no longer treated respectively. Senior managment do not listen to ideas from employees, when what they are doing so obviously does not work, as evidenced by the significant drop in stock value. The Board of Directors is stacked by the COO and CEO so they won't do anything to change things either. It is really too bad to see such a good company sink down, but I guess it is not the first to do so.
