Needs to kill the favouritism - QLD AECOM Employee Review

2.0
2 Sept 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Mostly good people, interesting variety of projects, generally positive atmosphere.

Cons

Generally, not a bad company however there are some serious personnel problems that are killing the business. Favouritism is rife. Impossible to get promoted or a salary increase unless you're part of the 'boy's club'. Far too many Directors and not nearly enough boots on the ground. Every week a new raft of Directorships seems to be announced, with other Directors supporting them and Directors supporting them. So many tiers of 'Leadership' that it's impossible to keep up. All of them costing at least $250k a year and producing hardly any billable work - this responsibility falls to the lower tiers (in addition to actually doing that work). Also, the Directors confuse Management for Leadership. They are not the same thing. Leaders should inspire team members to follow them or to do what's needed - hardly any of the arrogant, self-serving and finger-pointing Directors at this company could be called Leaders in any sense of the word. The true leaders in the 'Director's Circle' are marginalised and eventually made redundant for trumped-up reasons for daring to think outside the box, refusing to toe the (quite often unethical and illogical) line and for not being a good corporate bootlick. Far too much back-patting and secretive plotting goes on that I'm sure the true heads of the business don't know about. There's a lot of doublespeak where they talk about communicating openly but actually keep everything secret until the last possible minute, where they talk about innovation but have zero interest in it. It's a toxic environment where Director's salaries are protected at all costs and the day-to-day running of the business, the activities that actually bring in revenue like engineering, design and project management, fall completely by the wayside to the extent that they are almost an afterthought. Team Leaders have no idea what their seconded employees are doing, and when told about it, don't understand it. The incompetence is so breathtaking that it would be funny if it wasn't so unfair.

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Pros

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Cons

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Pros

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Cons

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