Terrible company, incompetent management, no integrity, toxic blame culture, best avoided. - Project Manager SMEC Employee Review

1.0
22 Jun 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They manage, by some miracle (usually slashing their price), to get some interesting projects. The Australia division is ok, but SE Asia (which this review focuses on) is just a terrible set up.

Cons

1. Toxic culture overall which is encouraged by senior management and fueled by their nepotism and favoritism which is endemic within management. If you are one of their pets, then you are made, if not, then you are outside the circle and vilified at every turn, although your good advice will be adopted once senior management have messed everything up and then they will claim it as their own. 2. Staff are recruited on price, not skills and the management take pride in the fact that they pay well below market rates, and then wonder why the work they produce gets rejected by their clients and checking engineers time and time again 3. Skills are not valued, management think that they know everything and dictate what shall and shall not be done, in reality these managers got to their position through political backstabbing, not technical competence, and so they know very little, make very big mistakes, and then….. 4. Staff get blamed for managements mistakes, even when those staff have been telling and telling, with management simply not listening, when it comes time to throw some blame around, management forget what people have been telling them. 5. Lack of trust, of respect, of support 6. Company values are preached but not practiced, staff are bombarded with a new accountability and ethics system. When asked where the management is in these training sessions, no answer is provided. The very people who are responsible for the mess think that they are above it and the rules don’t apply to them. 7. Complete lack of integrity within senior management 8. People are treated like commodities, hired, fired to suit the business or more usually because they had the audacity to correct a manager 9. Hard work, loyalty and talents are not appreciated 10. Basically within SE Asia these are franchises with an Australian badge on the front door, but inside it isn’t Australian quality, ethics, skillset or integrity, it isn’t any level of quality, ethics or integrity 11. Offices are old and decrepit with no investment at all, not in the infrastructure (desks and chairs) but also not in the computers and software that engineers need to do their job, so it is almost impossible to actually do your job.

Explore other reviews about SMEC

5.0
4 Mar 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Competitive salary, comfortable environment, approval.

Cons

Nothing negative to say about this company.

1
4.0
19 Mar 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It is a really nice place to work

Cons

This place lacks a bit flexibility

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