Worst company I have ever worked for - Senior Urban Planner Ethos Urban Employee Review

The cons greatly outweigh the positive and include the following: - There's a boys club culture, with more men than women in the urban planning division. It's not uncommon for male managers to be mates with more junior male staff but yet be their direct line manager at the same time. These direct line managers play a huge role in determining who gets promoted and project allocation. This is a conflict of interest. In turn, these guys are elevated quickly through the corporate ladder, receive more mentoring, larger projects and are given special treatment. - The office culture is burdened by sexism. Large interesting projects are typically allocated to men within the 'boys club'. Generally, women are allocated smaller projects or things like CPTED reports. As such, their career progression and learning and development is constrained relative to their male counterparts. - Some men are also disrespectful towards women in the way they talk in everyday conversations. In some instances, managers were privy to these conversations and did absolutely nothing. - Most directors are incredibly rude to Junior Planners both to their face and behind their back. I was a witness to bullying as well as sexual harassment at social events. On another occasion I was privy to homophobic comments directed from an Associate to a Senior. - Fixed fee budgets are often unreasonably low relative to the high charge out rates so Directors can win the work against other firms with more reasonable charge out rates. For example, senior planner’s charge out rates are commensurate with the charge out rates of Associate Directors / Directors at other top competing firms. In turn, junior planners have to produce huge outputs within small and unreasonable budgets. - During my tenure it was not uncommon for Directors to instruct juniors to hide their time / not record their hours in their timesheets. Multiple juniors reported this to management. - Junior Urban Planners are expected to work excessive hours despite most having uni commitments. It is arguable that these hours are illegal under the Fair Work Act. When juniors complained about the hours, management blamed them for their excessive workloads and argue they were inefficient or unable to manage expectations. This is done despite the absence of sufficient evidence to suggest that these staff were actually inefficient (i.e. evidence of substantial cost overruns, monitoring progress, internet activity, or them not working during work hours). I know this has occurred with several juniors. This is unreasonable as staff shortages, poor distribution of work, and Director’s poor management of their client's expectations are the real problem contributing to Junior’s workloads. One Director acknowledged that juniors work excessive overtime and actually referred to the firm as an ‘intern sweatshop’. - Good employees tend to be allocated disproportionately high amounts of work whilst those who struggle receive very little and in turn find it difficult to fill out their timesheets. This is an unfair system that disadvantages high performers. - There's a high staff turn over amongst women and newish staff. Staff retention is only strong amongst Directors and a few select long serving staff who are in what employees across the firm call the 'inner circle'. There are few female role models. - The pay is bad and usually remains stagnant across your tenure within your consultant bracket type (i.e. senior, junior) unless you really push hard to receive more. There is no bonus system either, so you are not rewarded financially for working overtime. - HR is more of an admin function. During my tenure there was no training with respect to sexual harassment, bullying etc.. Directors are the ones who will benefit most from this training. - The culture is cliquey and exclusionary and benefits men who are in the boys club. - It was recognised by a senior female director that select men would mistreat women in meetings in front of clients (i.e. cut them off, talk over the top of them, be dismissive of their input etc..). - Directors and Associate Directors are rarely accountable for their own sub-standard performance. They tend to blame juniors where they can, particularly with regards to cost overruns. Few provide briefings and most have poor project management skills and don’t know how to train staff. - Directors encouraged unhealthy competition amongst Juniors / Interns. One Director informed a group of us that as interns we were in competition with one another for a permanent role in the company and noted that not all will receive a permanent contract.