Bounteous Reviews

I'll start by saying that I think upper management is reasonably solid and that my score of 1 star isn't necessarily a reflection of the overall experience of most people. -Inexperienced lower level management: Due to Bounteous growing rapidly, there's growing pains with new managers. My career coach was extremely inexperienced to the point where I'd argue it was career sabotage. A feedback report was supposed to be completed within the first few months, which was delayed until my departure. There was feedback which would have been instrumental in myself making changes to how I approach all aspects of my projects which was delayed by two months. By the time it was given to me, it was too late. The report was obviously biased between my two projects, where I was receiving 3-4 stars out of 5, and the other being 1 and 2 stars. I was able to disprove a lot of the 1-2 stars, by the information just being incorrect (things not being completed, which were, or communication that "didn't" happen and did) and retaliatory. My supervisor was too disenfranchised by that point to even listen to the conversation. Every previous meeting I'd asked if there was any feedback or things I should work on and the response would be "No, everything is fine." -Bounteous will set you up for failure: During all my projects, resources would regularly be taken for other pressing matters and there was zero notice to the PM. I would be talking to a client and would routinely let them know resources were swapping, which they'd ask why and I was unable to response because I just didn't know. My first resourced project was one of the biggest in the company, it ultimately required 2 senior PM's on BNTS side and 1 on the client side. It was first resourced with a single junior PM at 50% capacity. That person was setup for failure and was taken off the project. -Account Managers: Over worked and the vast majority wouldn't reach out or be transparent with communication regarding the project. -Team members: Most of the team members would be very professional and exceedingly good at their job. There were some though that were very pushy, avoided responsibility and didn't understand their roles, or the roles within the project. -A culture of avoiding confrontation: On more than one occasion minor feedback would be pushed through my career coach instead of those individuals speaking to myself directly. It could be something minor like a misunderstanding or maybe an email wasn't sent as quickly as someone thought it should be. Instead of speaking to me, there was this passive aggressive culture of funneling it through my coach, which included AM's+. There wasn't any reason to, speak to your team member first, if that doesn't fix the problem then go that route. It just makes people look bad and builds resentment within the team. Also when I would ask my coach about specifics, there weren't any so the issue ultimately wouldn't be resolved because I didn't truly understand the problem or my shortcomings. I was then told not to speak to that person directly who had the issue. -Under resourcing and bending to clients demands: Ultimately the project that lead to my dismissal was mainly due to an upset client. The resourcing originally was for 20+ PM hours / week. The AM / Resourcing team was under pressure due to budget issues and cut the hours to 10 / week. I'd estimate 30hrs were required. I was told by the AM to push back and have the PM on the client side do most of the work. I did that. When the client complained due to a lack of production, I was let go due to "Inability to resource on projects". The only way I could have kept my job would to have worked 10-15 hours unpaid or un-billed per week to meet those demands, which I was told not to. -Over working: My role was to approve hours, and I was able to see how many hours people were working. You are expected to bill a minimum of 40 hours a week, + un-billed work like training, 1:1's, town hall, etc. The absolute minimum most people work is 45 hours per week, which isn't that bad. Most are working 50-60+ hours per week and not paid over time. -Conclusion: Fast growth means new managers, who hide or are unable to pass on important information and have difficult conversations. The culture is to talk behind your back and not to your face. Resourcing projects by bending to client demands means a lack of resources and setting up projects and PM's for failure. A growing client base means lots of new, inexperienced people who don't understand their roles and leads to being over worked by staffing constraints.