Building & Earth Reviews

4.0

72% would recommend to a friend

(312 total reviews)

Deepa Bhate

73% approve of CEO

73% positive business outlook

Building & Earth has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 312 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Building & Earth employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Construction, repair and maintenance industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

312 reviews
2.0
May 14, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Get to see large projects be built.

Cons

Overall was an awful experience. As field engineer, I was held to higher standards and worked 60+hr weeks. Expected to be there before anyone else, as well as being required to take on all responsibilities within the project, while getting paid the least amount. Don't waste your time and trust the reviews.

1.0
Jan 7, 2018

How desperate are you?

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Great place for individuals looking for resume experience in the CMT inspections/consulting industry. - Plenty of Overtime when business is good and weather permits.

Cons

- Training is an absolute joke, management expects field techs to be billable within two weeks of start date. This policy leads to a culture of questionable testing practices as well as a degree of turnover that turns mid level management into virtual staffing recruiters. - Company compensation is far less than any other competitor within the industry. - Employees are treated like day laborers and there is very little regard for their personal lives. Field technicians are especially treated poorly and have very minimal chance of advancement in any form. - Individual office management is incapable of basic business forecasting and remains in a state of panic attempting to cover all of the jobs they successfully bid. This has led to poor testing practices that will eventually result in significant financial liability, this is not an if but a WHEN. - Corporate office is an absolute joke, upper level management attempts to steer entire company towards ever increasing levels of corporate bureaucracy. This does not match well with what owners are willing to invest, nor does it suit individual needs of the varying markets B&E offices find themselves in.

avatar
Building & Earth Response
8y
I am surprised that you are left with that opinion of the company after working here full time for more than 3 years. As you probably know, it is very rare for a technician with that much tenure to leave our firm. From the tone of your posting it seems that something happened to upset you and to what extent your supervisor caused you the pain, I sincerely apologize. It doesn’t appear that you are familiar with our manpower forecasting and weekly manpower meetings, but we have been in a hiring mode for quite a while. I would like to let whoever may be interested to know that just this past year we have been awarded several very high profile projects such as the Thimble Shoals Parallel Tunnel beneath Chesapeake Bay, several very large distribution center projects, Interstate Bridge replacement in Birmingham, and expanded our operational footprint to a total of 19 locations due to our performance on previous projects and a loyal client base. We have also invested heavily in new field testing equipment, and expanded the employee benefit package. During the past year, we spent approximately $240,000 on training. We have a record high backlog going into 2018 and expect this to be another good year so no signs of letting up on hiring or training!
4.0
Jan 20, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I've worked out of the Huntsville office for the past two years. The management for my office has been incredibly flexible and understanding. They've given me plenty of hours and worked around my class schedule. I get paid holidays and vacation. Building and Earth does encourage the development of its employees. There are significant bonuses attached to getting applicable certifications, but they're not going to hold your hand in getting them. You'll have to study on your own, but they pay for you to take the test, and they pay you a bonus if you pass. At least in the Huntsville office, everyone is friendly enough. If you have a question, there's always someone available to sort things out. Overall, the Huntsville office management is very pleasant to work for, especially considering the unpleasantness of the industry.

Cons

Most cons I've seen posted for B&E are indictments of the industry rather than the company. Yes, they're going to want you to travel. Yes, they're going to want you to work rough hours. But construction doesn't always occur from 9 to 5 in your back yard. That said, Building and Earth does have some flaws in the way it schedules work. They've got a "do whatever the client asks" mentality which often translates into last minute scrambles and long days for techs. But if you're like me and want the hours, it's not really that bad. Building and Earth doesn't always hire experienced or reliable people. As a result, you'll have to earn the trust of management. There are checks in place to ensure you're honest and thorough, but so long as you just do your job, this is, again, not an issue. The final, largest issue I see at B&E is a general deflection of responsibility. If something bad happens, management gets a call from the client, management deflects to the engineers, then the engineers deflect to the techs and the techs catch the end of it, regardless of their roll in it. The company functions as a large conglomeration of individuals rather than a team. Even if a problem occurs because 4 different levels of employees made a mistake, the lowest level's going to take the blame for everything. This creates a system wherein the lowest level is functionally disposable. To compensate for the money they're bleeding to employee turnover, B&E has taken to hiring low cost techs. At least from my perspective, corporate seems to have a mentality of, "don't invest too much in techs because they'll be gone before the investment pays off" but this mentality is the root cause of the employee turnover. But again, that's probably an industry wide problem for low wage employees.

avatar
Building & Earth Response
8y
Hello! Thanks for the feedback. We make every effort to listen to all comments and reviews, and to adjust our future business strategy with those in mind. We value our employees and want to instill an attitude of ambition and teamwork in our company culture. We would love to discuss your experience with the company further, and learn more about how you think we can improve our employee onboarding and retaining processes. Please feel free to contact a member of our HR team or you may also submit your comments using our contact us form: http://www.buildingandearth.com/customer-service/. We look forward to hearing from you.
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Glassdoor has 315 Building & Earth reviews submitted anonymously by Building & Earth employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Building & Earth is right for you.