Poor People Management, and Lack of Strategic Vision - Project Manager Tetra Tech Employee Review

2.0
Sep 14, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

This was a family-style firm, with a close-knit culture. The opportunities to learn and grow (albeit within an exisiting role, only) are numerous.

Cons

(1) all management lack people management skills, (2) senior staff have no formal management or business training, (3) no sense of stregy and hence no strategic coordination throughout firm, (4) firm is reactionary and most learning occurs from making mistakes (in some cases detrimental mistakes). All this creates a dis-jointed atmosphere, where parallel projects are common, overhead is not tracked nor managed against. This latter point is significant: without grasping a sense of the cost of operating, no effort is put forward to reduce spending. More importantly, the firm is famous for paying staff rediculously low wages, and not recognizing educational credentials. A very frustrating place to work.

Explore other reviews about Tetra Tech

5.0
May 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good culture, reasonable expectations for position duties

Cons

Difficult to receive any out of cycle raises/promotions

3.0
Apr 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Hired as a "fire-hire," the position is disaster based and 100% travel so you get to travel domestically paid for by the company. When working, pay is good, you can make a lot very quickly with overtime. Being part-time, I can take time-off whenever I want for as long as I want.

Cons

For my position, no natural disasters = no work. Living out of a hotel for months SUCKs and burn-out is real as you could be working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day for months on end. There's no added compensation for taking on an on-site lead position even though the workload triples. As a part-time employee, you have to pay more for benefits when working versus not working. There's a huge disconnect between part-time employees in the field and the full-time employees that do office work and upper management. Part-time workers are not prioritized unless they're willing to do whatever is thrown at them without complaints. The employee turn-over rate in the field is crazy.

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