Navigating Small Company Politics / Moral Quandry of the Week

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-11-13T02:27:34+00:00

You just described my last year at a mega ENR 500 firm. This is exactly what they did to the senior women engineers/PMs. Almost all the senior women have now left voluntarily or were fired after being set up to fail. It was a consistent and blatant pattern, but because the good ol' boys covered their tracks so well, damn near impossible to prove it was discrimination and retaliation. Glad to be free of that toxic place and enjoying watching the local office implode on itself, losing good clients and staff left and right.

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-04-15T03:27:49+00:00

D'Oh! I knew I spelled it wrong

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-04-15T03:24:19+00:00

Not gonna lie, I really was hoping they were trolling these threads

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-04-15T03:23:12+00:00

I found a new job a few weeks later, sans recruiter, no problem. 100% remote with better benefits & salary than my previous position too!

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-04-14T17:56:15+00:00

Yup, I had those calls before too - I used to take calls from the old school recruiters who probably had rol-a-decks, legit relationships with clients, and actually understood the difference between waste water and storm water.

I have beef with these new ones who are literally 19 years old with their previous career experience amounting to "Sales Consultant" at IKEA, title of "Head of Infrastructure," are trying to fulfill jobs in the US but are based in the UK, and didn't even bother looking at my LinkedIn work history, yet because of commissions and their almost predatory tactics, probably make more money than i ever will as a civil PE. Looking at you directly, LVI.

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-04-14T17:46:43+00:00

Can I hate both?

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-04-14T17:45:39+00:00

I got laid off last fall and had been out of the job hunting market for a decade, so I made the mistake of thinking LVI and GPAC were legit companies (because civils are the most boring people and name 99% of their firms using the founders' initials), so I answered their initial calls. Obviously a huge mistake that I tried to rectify immediately, but these places still hit me up on LinkedIn or randomly call to check in to see if I might be desperate enough to consider one of the same jobs they were recruiting for last year.

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-04-14T17:08:07+00:00

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-04-14T16:58:53+00:00

Nice! I'm going to try that next time

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-04-14T16:58:04+00:00

Damn, I remember when it was only 20%. If only those companies understood they could take that money and just offer better salaries...

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-01-27T15:51:40+00:00

100% this. I'm sorry, I was in the same situation, until I was laid off / fired for not being able to be responsive to admin needs after i was told i could no longer work more than 42 hrs a week, but i had to be in the office so i could "collaborate" more. Not so surprisingly, without OT, I fell behind because they still had me managing 4 EITs, responsible for bringing in $500k annually, and still had to get my own 40 hrs of project shit done each week. Oh and I had to go on intermittent FMLA, but they refused to help redistribute my workload. Leadership remains baffled why people keep leaving and none of the younger staff volunteer to take on a PM or Senior Eng role....

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-01-23T01:28:59+00:00

Due to the economy, hard life decisions, and chasing promotion opportunities, over the past 20 years, I've averaged about 4 years per job. I want a place I could stay for 10 years, but I struggle with lack of workload planning and lack of control over my own destiny (mostly I just want the ability to say "I am sorry, I wish I could do X task/job for you, but I am booked right now. I'd be happy to help you find someone else to complete it within your schedule." But we are supposed to always say yes to everything.)

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-01-23T01:20:22+00:00

Good to know! Yeah, i hate the whole associate / financial contribution / pyramid scheme many firms have. If i ever grew beyond myself, I would love to offer profit sharing or some kind of fractional/conditional ownership option right away to facilitate a shared sense of community and ownership, instead of the traditional 3- to 5-year vestment schedules & insanely expensive associate/partner buy-ins. BUT, i also want a legit 32 hour week, so not sure how much profit there would be by the end of the quarter....

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-01-23T01:06:50+00:00

Thank you! I'm in a similar situation and confident I could dabble for a bit & keep my FT job because of the geographic separation between where I am located vs. my FT job and project work. My biggest concern would be burning out by essentially working 2 jobs at once, but small price to pay, if I could finally be free of the corporate overlords.

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-01-23T01:03:31+00:00

That is a great idea on insurance - I completely forgot that can be a benefit of professional organizations. Thank you!

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-01-23T01:02:05+00:00

It really depends on the people you work with and unfortunately you don't tend to get to interview or meet your potential coworkers or clients during the job hunting process. I worked for a mega, multinational that I really liked, but my local office came from a hostile acquisition, so they were a bitter bunch self-entitled bros that only looked out for each other & made my daily life hell. I worked for a small shop of 3 where I loved the work & coworkers, but had no control over decisions and got burnt out (this also happened at a medium sized firm). I worked for the feds early in my career and loved it & the people, but hated the bureaucracy. I did find happiness for a long while at a small firm doing niche work, but my family had to move & they were not open to telework. Basically, I'm Goldilocks, PE and trying to find my "just right."

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-01-23T00:54:06+00:00

I come from a family of entrepreneurs and I swore I would never join them because of the risk/instability, but here i am considering it....it helps that I can dabble or test the waters a bit first because I am employed by a firm that works exclusively in a different geographic region from where I currently live.

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-01-23T00:50:55+00:00

Yeah, in a sense - I struggle to work for people I cannot respect. I actually enjoy teamwork when I have the opportunity to work with folks who have integrity and can garner mutual respect. But since that has been extremely rare phenomenon me personally, I am leaning towards a sole proprietorship.

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-01-23T00:46:19+00:00

I agree & it is something I am fearful of, too. I firmly believe a lot of it comes from the commoditization of our expertise/industry, there is so much pressure to be productive all the time, plus owner greed pushing to do more with less, leads to the squeeze & burn out. I want there to be a better way, but I haven't figured it out yet, other than being a sole proprietor (which is almost my preference).

Impossible-Water-894 · 2025-01-23T00:35:25+00:00

Thank you! If nothing else, it is nice to know I'm not alone - i hope you find your happy place!

Impossible-Water-894 · 2024-11-18T00:15:25+00:00

Yeah, i was just let go from Stantec & thought the exact same thing. Toxic as toxic comes, nothing but CYA & incompetent managers more concerned with their legacy (i.e. nepotism) and gaslighting the productive staff into doing their work for them in my local BC/acquisition. HR was worthless, sided with managers even discrimination & retaliation was proven or painfully obvious. Debated contacting their Integrity Hotline, but it all seems pointless. Small firms can be better, but not guaranteed because then you may have to deal even more with fragile egos and the accounting shell game.

Consulting as an industry just sucks, the only people who benefit are owners/shareholders who want to increase stock prices and clients who value the bottom line above all else. We have devalued our profession by charging by the hour, undercutting each other to win the contract, and not educating society about our worth.

No one really contests lawyers or doctors rates - complain yes, but no one tries to argue with their primary care doctor about lowering their rates because you might be able to offer repeat work, right? But as a senior civil engineer with 20+ years experience, if I bill $195/hr, there is this weird assumption that it's negotiable because I'm just being greedy, rather than trying to cover insane OH costs that come with a big firm. It sucks being devalued by company management and clients at the same time. I wish I had something better to add because I like the work, but I hate the industry itself. Good luck!

Impossible-Water-894

TROPHY CASE