- Large amounts of unpaid overtime are the standard. This is because of two things: 1 - they classify most employees (even low level engineers) as exempt and 2 - they purposefully understaff the offices and projects (RMF openly admits this) which results in workloads that consistently can't be completed on time without unpaid overtime. It would be better if they allowed comp time (meaning if you work additional hours one day, you could then work less hours another day to make up for it) but they don't allow that. They are fine with you working unlimited unpaid overtime hours to meet deadlines, but don't allow you to work less than 8 hours per day in return. They even like to remind the office every now and then that comp time not allowed. It's a one way street. To be fair, they claim you are compensated for overtime in your bonus. But if you do receive a bonus, the resulting compensation will likely be very low considering the amount of extra hours you put in. Even if they did compensate fairly in their bonuses, this is still a very nontransparent way to compensate overtime, they are almost asking for employees to be suspicious about this.
- It's business first, employees second. This really comes out during times of emergency. Whether it's a state ordered mandatory hurricane evacuation or a pandemic virus sweeping the country, RMF management refuses to close the office until they absolutely have to. Sometimes it seems they honestly might think they know more than the leading experts in these fields. To be fair, RMF gives a few extra paid days a year for these types of situations; however, they seem to do everything in their power to prevent these days from being used, and if you go over the limit, you will be forced to use your vacation or sick time (which isn't a lot to begin with).
- This all leads to high turnover in the office. You quickly become one of the more experienced people in the office in a short amount of time. This is really highlighted when vendors come in to pitch their services to the engineers and they say to the group "wow, I don't recognize most of you and I was just here a few years ago". I don't know if management is purposefully treating their employees this way to maximize the profits of the shareholders or if the company is honestly struggling and this is all they can do to make ends meet. What I do know is that the management will talk about how they came up working in these conditions, as if to justify their reasoning to keep the conditions the way they are, but that is not an acceptable excuse. Just because they were taken advantage of does mean it's OK for them to do the same to their current employees. Regardless of the reason, any potential hire should be aware of these issues before they make the decision to join.
