Mortenson is accounting driven and not a process driven company. That can make the day to day on project sites particularly stressful due to the lack of procedures and low cost inexperienced work force they hire. I spent long hours on sites reworking and fixing remedial issues created by inexperienced teams. That is why the job satisfaction is low and burnout high for mid level team members. There is little to no mentoring or training for new hires and no accountability for the work they do or don’t do. The environment can feel disrespectful at times due to the confusion and lack of accountability within the teams. It’s very difficult to make an impact on any project across business groups.
The company overall and the solar group particularly is suffering from high overhead cost because of high margins made in the past that allowed for unchecked excessive spending. The group thrived for years in this environment but now with more competition in the market they are having to deal with their bad habits. The group is bloated, combined with inefficient processes and too many disconnected executives and staff in Minneapolis that are not adding value to the projects. Margins are shrinking, they have lost huge sums of money on risky projects and this is forcing them to take on larger more risky projects to keep revenue coming in. That is why I think the outlook for the group is bleak for the next few years. A hard road lies ahead of them. They are not competitive and this is limiting wage growth, promotions and pushing bonuses down below what other employers are paying. Aside from that the company has been rocked by a public ethics scandal in Denver and has laid off people because of shrinking market share.
Oh and when you quit they have an intern call you two weeks after your last day to do an exit interview.
