GHD Reviews

GHD banked heavily on CRA's oil/gas sector client revenue base when the two firms merged in 2015. When petroleum prices tanked in 2016, the "merger made in heaven" rapidly morphed into an all-out acquisition by GHD, and everything fell apart. The place is a sweat-shop geared to bleed junior- and mid-level staff dry. I'd never work there again, even if they begged.

Where to start......First, I can say that I've only worked in one office (in the southern US) and I can say that I don't believe all offices are run in the same manner. That being said, I am giving my review based on my experience in this office, as a female, where I was employed for over a year. This GHD office runs on complete dysfunction. There is no collaboration between groups, which leads to an overwhelming sense and need for employees to hoard work, in order to maintain billable hours (so you won't get fired/laid off). One group will spend hours, if not a week or more, trying to solve a problem that could have been solved in a very short amount of time, had they gone to people in the office that actually has expertise in the area of interest. This creates a chain of events that results in said worker over-billing their time to the client (which I'm sure they wouldn't be happy about if they knew that) and leaving the others in the office with actual expertise in a particular area bored to death with nothing to do. In addition to this dysfunction, there are employees there that I'm pretty sure actually do nothing, except delegate work to others because they literally know nothing about what they are supposed to be working on. The work environment is horrendous, and at times seems like a fraternity house at best. I have seen two employees throwing things at each other laughing in the break room and employees telling on other employees about when they took their lunch break to their boss. It is completely unprofessional and childish. In addition, I have seen and experienced multiple instances of sexism in this office by many of the male employees in this office. Sure, this is nothing new in the south in general, but this is 2016 and it is supposed to be a professional work environment. Many of the females in this office (which compromised nearly 50% of the office employees) were treated as secretaries, regardless of their educational background. I have been asked to take notes for a meeting and have been excluded from team meetings multiple times. Additionally, a client was allowed (or not prevented from) to ask me at a meeting (where I was the only female) if I attended college, which is completely unprofessional. Recently, the majority of employees that have left GHD have been female....this is not surprising. As far as the actual "work" itself, GHD doesn't actually DO anything except arrange for work to be done by someone else. Essentially, this employer makes billions of dollars by kissing butt to clients and scheduling third party companies for on-site work, while the GHD employee generally just watches this work be completed. There is no actual science to be done here, nor does the company care about the environment. The clients are always large oil companies (think Chevron, Shell, etc.) or other similar clients. Majority of the time, GHDs solution for an accusation of environmental contamination is that it is less harmful to just leave it as is than to clean it up. So, if you have a degree in engineering, environmental science, biology, etc.....you WILL NOT being doing any science. It doesn't matter if you have a BS, MS or PhD, everyone does the same boring paperwork that doesn't require anymore than a high school education to complete. Imagine your day spent in a grey cube, sitting on the phone asking someone how much it will cost for X truckloads of dirt to be removed, putting that number into a 3X4 spreadsheet, then having your boss giving you a form to fill out that basically has you manually input a bunch of stuff that you could just use google maps for. You then revel at the time you can leave this wasteland for an hour for lunch, and then you come back to more of the same. Do this everyday.....paperwork after unnecessary paperwork. Don't even get me started on the storing/filing system......it is the most unorganized thing I have ever seen. You will also get volunteered to go to the middle of west Texas (notice I said volunteered, not asked.....that's how it works here) for 3 weeks, "working" 10-15 hour days, where you will be watching other people work in 100 degree weather wearing pants, long sleeves and boots. Isn't that what you went to school for? I didn't think so..... The thing that is so depressing, is that the people in this office that have been there for awhile, think that this "work" is exciting or difficult.....or they have been there so long that have convinced themselves into thinking that is true. Nothing I have seen in this office is difficult or challenging or actually uses your brain/education. It is completely mind-numbing and includes mounds of unnecessary paperwork. I can say that I went into this job with some optimism and was job searching in less then 3 mo of having been employed. I wasted over a year of my career here and learned nothing towards my advancement. Principals here will tell you everything you want to hear, but they will not follow through with their word. You will become completely disillusioned and depressed. The pay is also not even competitive. You will not make significantly more money here than anywhere else. I have since left and accepted a job that is known to the be the lowest paying sector in my field and I am making more money now than with GHD, with fewer hours and more benefits. At one point, there was a massive layoff within this office (over 25% of the layoffs for the entire company, which in itself is concerning). The rationale for those that were asked to leave was based upon billable hours, to my knowledge. One included a pregnant women and another included a woman on the first day back from medical leave. Those women were essentially a target for being laid off, unknowingly. This shows that GHD does not care about their employees. I have seen employees being shoved out the door the day they gave their two week notice. To GHD, you are just a warm body that can be replaced by another victim. As soon as they know you are leaving, you're gone and they're looking for a replacement. I was shoved out the door and my boss didn't even bother to tell me goodbye. They DO NOT care about you or your personal life. DO NOT take a job here unless you are completely desperate and just need a paycheck to buy you time until you can get a real job. GHD is NOT a real job.