Top design firm plagued corporate structure issues & bloat - Recensione dipendente - Project Manager presso BKF Engineers

Future planning/business forecasting is non-existent, at least on the non executive level. Firm doesn't provide sense of ownership/stake in the firm's success for employees at all levels. Executives + Principals function as independent profit centers. This leads to lots of infighting/competing for projects and resources as their bonuses depend more on group performance than firm wide metrics. In slow times, this results in production & design level staff suffering and going home with less than full 40 hours of pay. Shifting to other profit centers is almost impossible. This is because another principal must give up his teams available work to another team, which affects the individual profit center bonus structure. Staff were encouraged to use vacation time during the COVID pandemic after the PPP loan program was mysteriously cut off after a couple weeks. Turns out these funds were used to buyout retiring Principals company shares because of favorable interest rates rather than used for existing staff. Individual team structures decreases opportunities for advancement for younger staff. Established teams with lots of senior staff mean you need to wait for people ahead of you to leave the team/firm to advance rather than having the room to grow at your appropriate pace. End of year "chart bonuses" feel like a slap in the face if you know the bonuses of senior + executive staff. E1-E3 receive ~2,800 PRE tax bonuses, which is essentially in lieu pay for the shutdown week between Christmas and New Years. PM bonuses were a bit better at 15k-30k, Associate and Principal bonuses range from the low 6 figures to over 500k for CEO and more senior level Principals. CEO lacks charisma and his attempts to inspire during "Lunch with Greg" fall flat when the audience feels so disconnected from internal business practices and decision making. Bloated overhead staffing, lots of marketing, grant writers, HR folks, & project assistants. This drives up billing rates to cover their costs, making the firm less competitive than more efficiently run businesses. Most of these overhead roles can be consolidated.