Hatch reviews

This was easily one of the most disorganized and chaotic company i have worked in my long career in this business. They are basically a Canadian company that serves mining/metals clients principally, but pretends to be a global Engineering company. Outside of Canada most of its operations are in remote third world/developing countries; they have been attempting to grow the US market for years and failing miserably mostly due to inept leadership that does not understand the US market (e.g. Canadians). Further they have been laying off staff widespread and hiring freezes and cost cutting company wide; the rumor is that the current leadership is doing this to push up the stock price as most of them plan to retire in the next 1-2 yrs and take with them huge windfall profits selling their shares when they exit. Further because of their adamant 'work from office' policy many of the staff (esp. at junior levels) have been quitting left and right. You will be bombarded with their Mainfesto Driver Leadership (MDL) at EVERY turn, which will get quite nauseating; and funny enough they all get thrown out the window when things get tough. There are no clear Org Lines/reporting structure which results in total chaos, confusion, lack of accountability across the organization. Strangely this company takes pride in it! This is by design as the executive leadership promotes this pervasive "dog-eat-dog" Darwinian culture underneath them so they can enrich off of it. You will often notice your direct reports going behind your back and holding critical meetings and discussions with your bosses; and your bosses holding conversations with your staff behind your back and not even bother to include/clue you in on key decisions that impact your group. Yet you will still be held responsible for delivering the results for your group with all this meddling behind your back. Gossip, backstabbing and turf wars are rampant; and Good ol' native (English speaking) Canadian boys rule the roost; you have to be a native Canadian to get anywhere in this company. Fundamentally this company exists solely to enrich the ~ 50 or so MDs and GMDs at the expense of the ~ 10,000 staff company wide. Nearly much/all of the company profits stays with them; EVERY key decision will be made by them incl purchasing paper clips; even hiring a entry level Engr had to be approved by the CEO!. Their base salary is so low it is laughable (esp. by US Standards). The annual cash bonus (if any) is in the low single digits. They tend to dangle the carrot of ownership in company stock which is on an invitation only basis (usual wait time is 5 yrs); and sadly much of the addnl compensation for mid-senior staff is via these stock dividends. But the catch is that you will have to pony up your own money to purchase these shares..so not only are you investing your life/career to this company but also have to reinvest your savings from your salary to partake in this, which is the main/sole form of additional comp for mid-senior level staff. So what this means is you will end up being totally and completely vested in this company lock stock and barrel for years to come to see any real tangible economic benefit out of it. Thus the staff that ends up remaining there takes on a cult like personality and a cult like atmosphere prevails esp. at senior levels, drinking the cool aid and all. If you are fresh Engr graduate then it would make sense for you to join and make your entire career here or join soon thereafter and spend the next 20-30 yrs here with the hope/prayer you will get somewhere in the company; but if you are mid-career or senior staff this is NOT the place for you for reasons described above; AND if you are US based this is not the company for you regardless, wherein you have plenty of other REAL options for your career/financial future (eg US firms). I sincerely hope that this feedback helps others that may consider joining this company and not make the same mistake i did joining them.

The corporate culture in Canada really didn't translate to the US branches. Jobs are regularly underbid and it always feels that money is tight. Managers have a habit of taking out their frustrations on their employees. (One in particular was known to be so bad, that after a yelling session, other people from other departments would come over to check in on the unfortunate victim.)