Toxic culture - Anonymous employee SCI Consulting Employee Review

1.0
Dec 24, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

HR team is nice and tries to help.

Cons

Turnover at Headquarters in McLean, VA is the highest I have ever seen. Turnover at HQ was around 90% in 2015. Average tenure at HQ was probably about 6 months. SCI tries to hide this fact by citing company wide turnover (including customer projects in the field) in response to inquiries. Hardly a week went by when someone wasn't fired or pressured to resign. Nearly everybody who works at SCI HQ started in 2015. Due to the extreme turnover, files are a mess and there is no continuity from one management team to the next. There are no policies and no procedures are followed so nothing is ever documented. SCI senior management takes no responsibility for high turnover and doesn't seem to understand (or care) how difficult the turnover makes it for employees to do their job. SCI employees spend inordinate amounts of time responding to audits because the files are in terrible shape and validating pricing or contractual actions from as recently as 1 or 2 years ago is an enormous challenge. CEO doesn't trust anybody and will not delegate any authority whatsoever. No matter what your title is, if you work at HQ you will effectively be nothing more than an assistant to the CEO. Expect to receive calls at all hours of the day and night and on weekends asking for documents, emails, etc She will not ask for your input or advise, but, rather, will treat you like a admin assistant and demand you fetch documents for her. She already has most of the documents that she continually requests because she is unorganized. CEO often arrives late morning and works into the evening. That's her right as owner, of course, but, she expects everyone else to arrive by 8:30am and will become angry if people leave around 5 or 6. If you're not there when she wants something from you, even if it is 7pm or later and you already worked a 10+ hour day, you will hear about it. She walks the halls after 6 and often loudly exclaims "where is everyone?!" When she's not there, she calls to check up on who is there. The office receptionist is required to track when employees arrive and leave and employees are routinely disciplined if they dare to step out to take a personal phone call or get coffee, etc. There is no flexibility at SCI. Employees are directed to take PTO for any time missed even if they have worked 50+ hour weeks. Management walks the halls regularly checking up on employees. Expect to receive constant feedback on your work style regardless of your productivity. Remote telework is not allowed under any circumstances. Employees are disciplined for leaving early even if the employee had already worked 50+ hours that week and even when leave is approved by the employee's direct supervisor in advance. CEO has hired many of her immediate family to work in positions they lack qualifications for. This breeds resentment as employees have to constantly hand hold and teach her family how to do their jobs - while they watch their more experienced, qualified peers be fired or pressured to quit.

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Pros

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Cons

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Pros

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Cons

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