Whiting-Turner Reviews

Pros

Very stable working environment. Don't have the fear of being let go. Management treats you well. Once you've been there a while and proven yourself, you are given freedom.

Cons

High pressure environment. Could be asked to relocate to a job site anywhere in country at anytime. Have to deal with clients, many of which who are jerks.

Pros

Knowledgeable and experienced people who know the construction business in and out. Are one of the few contractors who are honest, fair, and upfront with owners and subcontractors.

Cons

Annual compensation is well below the average. The company tries to leverage this with the fact that they have profit sharing, stock options and a pension plan. The profit sharing is not for part time employees, and full time employees cannot start receiving profit sharing until they have been with the company for over two years. Stock options are also not available until employees are 'vested' for two years. And once they finally received the stock options, employees cannot cash in the stock until after 15 years. All the employees refer to the stock options as the golden handcuffs. If you quit or are fired before the 15 year period, you give up all your rights to the stock. Overall the benefits are ALL long term. Very few short term benefits for younger employees. Whiting-Turner has been around for over 100 years and the benefit package probably has not changed since day one.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay newer employees what they are worth. Consider offering more short term financial benefits for employees including more vacation days. This will attract younger and intelligent talent. PRAISE. Dont be afraid to praise someone for something good they have done. Whether that be a bonus, whiting-turner merchandise, golf lessons, awards, email recognition, or just a verbal THANK YOU!

Pros

Experience of being trained in multiple areas (bidding, estimating, scheduling, managing subcontractors, etc.) give you the overall picture of a how to run a job from soup to nuts- much different than competitors who pigeon hole you into just being an "estimator" or "scheduler".
The people you work with are generally pretty good people (both in and out of work), assuming they are not the dead weight in the company or trying to climb the company ladder and stepping on anyone and everyone on their way to do it. Working for the company 5 years ago was actually pretty decent. Now? I don't think they realize how many employees are half way out the door...and we do nothing to stop the good ones from leaving. We practically hold the door open for them to leave because the mindset from upper management is "You won't find better than us". Actually, we can and we slowly are.

Cons

Management is very old school- "live to work" went out about 20 years ago. Yes- construction has never been a 9 to 5 job, but when your protocol is inefficient and requires employees to triplicate information in various databases or generate multiple reports on a monthly basis because Sr. management won't look it up in said database, who is left to actually run the construction project we didn't have enough GCs to man in the first place? Efficiency, although preached, is never something the company is aggressive about resolving- especially if there is a cost associated with it. The ability to make quick, efficient decisions doesn't happen- we can build buildings quicker than we can resolve internal inefficiencies. There is a huge gap between levels of PE's to APMs to PM and in the higher PM levels (3+ to senior) as well. We make a better chorus line than a cheerleading pyramid with our hierarchy. Those who work hard and have stuck with the company are pushed to work longer hours, travel (unless you are one of the "lucky ones" who've never travelled for the company), and give up all semblance of a personal life with either no or minimal compensation, bonuses, profit sharing, etc. When it comes to hiring- again- our inability to make quick decisions means we are hiring the "B Team" because the "A Team" has already been scooped up by competitors. We wait too long to hire PEs and then stick them on a project and expect them to run the whole thing their 2nd week of work. We should have been hiring and training them 2 years ago so we could have them ready to work when needed. Quality of some employees is way below par. Throughout the recession, the company declared they "would not layoff any good people", we didn't lay off the bad ones either. Approval for reimbursement of classes, certifications, etc. takes an army. What once was the company standard of training falls by the way side with the cancelled training sessions month after month (although we still use our "monthly training" schpeel as a selling point in presentations). Advocate program has gone by the way side since there were costs associated with it. The focus has become to maintain the relationship, but pretty much at your own cost, unless you fight and make a stink about it. Who has time to fight these smaller battles when your project is a 60 hour a week job plus you're travelling 2 hours to work one way each day and you want to have a personal life? Travel packages for those out of town no longer take care of the employees for their sacrifice. I shouldn't be paying the company to work out of town, nor should it take months to reimburse employees for out of pocket costs associated with a temporary relocation.

Advice to Senior Management

Say "Thank You" to your employees and come out of your offices once in awhile. We've helped you get to where you are, so it goes a long way for the employees to see that their work and sacrifice is appreciated, especially when no other compensation is given to them- at least try and keep the morale up by recognizing and (gasp!) becoming more involved in the projects to at least know employee names (first and last) and status of the work (which may also eliminate us having to generate at least 1 weekly report?). Doing it once a year at the annual business meeting isn't acceptable. Get out and visit the job sites, not just when there are issues. Maybe check out the quiet employees- the ones that aren't in your office everyday giving you "face time". If they are in your office, who is actually running the project? I think it goes without saying that if they have that much time, why aren't they out networking and going after the next job? Much of the networking and job finding is left to those of us with the 60 hour work week. If you give reviews to employees, then thats how their raises and promotions should be issued. Telling the employees they are doing great and ultimately having their fate decided by a secretive process doesn't help the company improve the performance of its employees- isn't that the ultimate goal? To actually HAVE the best employees in the world and not just say it? When the company does make the decisions to promote, let their coworkers know. They deserved it, right!?!? Getting promoted is something people should be recognized for, especially since they earned it. Instead its all secretive as to who got promoted. If there are people who disagree with who got promoted (let's face it, there are ALWAYS those people) it doesn't matter whether you announce the promotions or they find out through water cooler chat- they are still going to have an issue. Take the dead weight to task- perhaps get an HR department to help deal with dead weight/ inadequate performance issues if being sued is slowing you down. Just think- less dead weight means more stock for you, right? The rest of us are starting to have back issues from carrying all that dead weight. If safety is the # 1 priority of the company (aside from making money), why not look into having a vision and dental plan as a part of the medical insurance? You can't spot safety issues with bum eyes...

Pros

This company will take new engineers or new employees and put them into a full fledged role immediately. You are thrown right into the action and are forced to learn very quickly. As you move from project to project, you realize that the learning curve is incredible and makes you incredibly valuable.

Cons

There seems to be a challenge to determine who is most valuable to the company. There sometimes can be a disconnect between who has been working there longer and who is performing better.

Advice to Senior Management

The blocking of internet sites for the employees is an unnecessary measure that creates a negative feeling towards management. With the amount of time some employees spend on the job site, they deserve the right to navigate the web freely during breaks.

Pros

They provide great benefits and keep rewarding you the longer you stay with the company. Also they employees Whiting-Turner employes are smart, motivated, and willing to do what it takes to get the job complete. Also they have great company culture which makes you feel like your part of the team the moment you get there. Lastly they are a great nationally recognized company to work for which allows you to learn a lot from the whole experience.

Cons

The starting salary is not as high as other companies within the industry. Also they don't offer housing reimbursement for entry level positions if you have to relocate.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work. The company has strong leadership and explains why Whiting-Turner keeps growing larger each year. Also it has great company culture so don't change anything that can damage such a great reputation.

Pros

Good benefits and retirement package. The company tries to develop the future leaders in the company from the ground up.

Cons

Salary is not competitive. The company also keeps its employees in the dark about how profit sharing is determined. You kind of get the feeling that the large portions of profit sharing are going to the senior level managers that have constant access to the vice presidents and up. Employee performance in some cases is misrepresented to the vice presidents by the higher level managers to make them look like they are always having to clean up after you.

Working 50+ hours is expected as the norm. Even longer hours are expected on projects and there is no reward for your time. Upper management makes you feel guilty when you take vacation. It is expected that you keep in touch during vacation.

The company is very inconsistent in how it issues project bonuses, which is also a secret on how they are calculated. Some groups get them on every project and other groups don't do any.

Advice to Senior Management

Publish how the bonus structure and stock issuance is determined. Right now it feels likes whoever is the biggest brown nose get the most. The secrecy surrounding these things is archaic and leads to dissatisfaction in your employees, especially the ones who work the hardest and see little reward.

A lot of house cleaning needs to be done to get rid of dead weight. Pay your good employees the market rate and get rid of those who are just along for the ride.

Pros

If you are competant enough, your job is fairly autonomous. Plenty of good benefits, and the job security is better than any other company that I've seen out there.

Cons

The only downside to Whiting-Turner is sometimes the overall pay scale seems to be a little behind other similar companies, but there still is a solid pension plan which is good.

Advice to Senior Management

We need a stronger willingness to try new technology - it's becoming very apparent on projects that Whiting-Turner is a little behind on using newer technology - there needs to be someone to push for better tools (computers, software, etc.) for the employees to use.

Pros

big company with a small company operation. access to upper level management. flexible with time off.

Cons

change is slow, old dogs don't want to learn new tricks. work long hours and DC traffic stinks. so much more but why bore everyone with the details.

Advice to Senior Management

reward good empolyees get rid of the bad, this is something that needs to change.
 seems everyone is viewed with a blind eye.

Pros

Whiting-Turner will never fire you. No matter if you are the biggest dead weight on the team. They will carry you but it will be known that your presence is not welcomed.

This is a large company and as long as your follow basic procedure there is a lot of flexibility as how YOU want to run a job or what YOU want to bid.

There are a lot of great employees who will put you under their wing.
You have the ability to run all aspects of the project from scheduling, financials, quality control, bidding, contract management to field management.
They will, at the best of their ability, keep you local.
Profit sharing is a nice company "bonus" but only available for valued employees.

Cons

Company experience is all based on your PM you are assigned to. Some are great guys others not so much. This will determine how well you advance within the company.
They company will at times work you until your "burnt out". It is common to work 60 hour work weeks and there is no compensation - its expected.
Bonuses are minimal. (see comment about profit sharing)
You can be treated like a playing card - getting traded and passed onto groups like a pawn.

Advice to Senior Management

Management does a decent job on trying to show face time and visiting jobsites. Some VP's are great people persons however many act as though they need to hold information as a secret. I believe all employees should be kept in the loop.

Pros

Job security. If you are career minded, with no questions asked, this would be a quality employer.

Decent pay, but lower than the industry median. Benefits are standard, with flex spending.

Promote from within.

Cons

No merit based promotions, or raises.

Ask not what the company can do for you, ask what you can do for the company ideology.

Long hours. A lot of out of town work (worked for them for 4 years, out of town jobs for the duration). Per diems and out of town assistance varies by employee, and is rather poor.

Little guidance from the start. Jobs are usually poorly manned (completed 15 million over the past year - 2 men; 1 Super, and myself). Man power is shuffled continuously.

Upper management takes little interest in the job.

It is a popularity contest of who you work for, or who you know. A lot of poor employees, but no pink slips. This causes dead weight, and cause the lack of promotions.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to retain quality young employees, do some house cleaning. There are so many poor Superintendents, and PM's. All I hear about is how lazy the younger generation is, no commitment to the company. You must show some commitment to these employees. Otherwise, WT is just another company with the same rhetoric.

Don't "pigeon hole" your employees. Allow flexibility within groups, and on projects. Balance out of town projects with other offices.

Communication, communication, communication. We're in an industry where this is critical, yet there is no communication from the top down.