Burns & McDonnell Employee Reviews about "work life balance"

Pros

ESOP and accountability as a truly employee owned company is beyond impressive, ESOP dividends and annual rate of return are unheard of, work with very talented and very driven people, compensation is top of industry within a few years, can excel if willing to spend all of your waking hours working

Cons

Most departments are not diverse, work life balance is a very low priority, you are expected to live a lifestyle that allows you to work a lot (have a house wife, hire someone to maintain your home), unnecessary and constant fear of staying billable/profitable even during record sales years, working with value engineering overseas leads fo working starting at 6 am and ending at 930 pm, managers are not afraid to push you to burnout to get results and are not held accountable when they do it

Pros

- Compensation is really nice with the bonus, though it would be nice to just have the same competitive pay guaranteed in regular pay - Everyone is really willing to reach out and help if they're not too slammed. I always feel like someone can help me if I'm stuck.

Cons

- Hours can be and are often over 40hrs a week. Stress is super high and there are few managers both on the staff and project side that can behave without seeming stressed all the time. Tip: managers that can keep cool in times of stress are doing a huge service to their teams. Mental health is an absolute challenge here. - This company is so old fashioned. Dress code is strict business casual which is pretty ridiculous in 2020. Most of our competitors allow jeans daily, where Burns employees get to donate a couple bucks to charity every few months to wear jeans on a Friday. Really? - Employees here work M-F when much of the industry is trending towards 9-80 schedules at a minimum. Provide employees with a more relaxed work schedule. We pride ourselves on being able to respond to our clients at all times of day but we should be focusing on work life balance. Seriously, employees are lauded for replying to client issues at 1am on weekends... That would be discouraged in an otherwise healthy workplace.

Pros

ESOP - the only reason to work for Burns and McDonnell and the only reason employees stick around. If the ESOP went away there would be no reason for employees to continue to work here. Annual December bonus - they take a majority of your salary away to pay for this - so it's not that special but it is a little something but they dangle it in front of you all year to give up work/life balance for the company. The managers want to give your bonus to you in person so they can make you feel like you matter and encourage their cheese dangling trick on you for many years.

Cons

Travel - You could be sent away for months or even years on a project with little to no notice. Once you are sent away and work many hours and give up your life, you will never be congratulated or acknowledged for it. All managers will see is that you finished the project so they will give you more work and responsibilities until you've gone off the deep end and your brain stops working. Managers tell you they care, but they don't care at all. Like all businesses all that matters is money, but when Burns and Mac endangers the lives of its employees on daily basis (making them work 80+ hours a week for years, away from family is just 1 example of many), employees can't recover and they just sort of fizzle out. Employees develop health issues and long term issues they can't recover from easily. They can't sustain this too long. Workaholics - most people are workaholics that put work in front of family. Family always takes a backseat at this company. They will tell you family is more important but it never truly is. Their actions display this on a daily basis. You are looked down upon for wanting to spend time with family. You are told that 40 hours is never good enough and if you only work 40 then you work at the wrong company. They tell you to use your Vacation time to take a break but then look down upon you for taking your vacation time. They encourage you to sell your Vacation time back to the company at the end of the year so they can squeeze every last drop of work they can. Then they tell you work life balance is important...Their actions speak louder than words. Rumors/Gossip and Performance Reviews - If you make a small mistake, employees will spread that news to everyone they can to create a sense of their own importance. They create an atmosphere of anger and competitiveness instead of one of teamwork. Performance Reviews reward a select few while the others dangle on for dear life hoping to continue their beloved ESOP contributions for another year. Teamwork is not built into the company atmosphere. They will tell you teamwork is important but they don't really care. You are a number on a computer screen that completes A, B, C or task within a specific period of time. Nothing more. Managers - Managers are capable of running technical projects but they are not capable of managing people. They have too much on their plate. Managers are told to manage people, sell work, make proposals, expand the business, be a company cheerleader, and also manage their own projects full-time. They need managers that understand and listen to employees. If I send an email to my manager and don't get a response for a week that's a real problem. If I send an out of office email to my boss that I'm at the hospital and then one week later they ask where I'm at, that's a problem...They had an employee in the hospital for a week and didn't know. Managers are over-worked to the point they can't manage people in their own group. COVID - they want you to be working from the office. They think that employees can't be trusted to work from home and employees can only be productive with a face to face environment. They will make you feel like an awful guilty human being if you work from home during COVID. They do not trust their employees so they make you sign a document saying you will remain productive at home. They pretend COVID isn't really happening and expect business travel to continue to support clients even while COVID cases are on a huge rise and thousands are dying daily. Burns and McDonnell is a two-faced company. They will tell you this is a great place to work, we care about you, we want you to love it here but all they care about is working employees to death so they will fizzle out and leave and new fish can join the pond and repeat cycle then die earlier from another heart attack.

Pros

Employee owned, great people, benefits

Cons

Work life balance, too focused on growth

Pros

Good learning experience and co-workers

Cons

Long hours, no Ot, management, Pyramid scheme, benefits, low wages, no work-life balance, racial discrimination, same people getting promoted every year.