Really Rough Situation - Civil Engineer Tetra Tech Employee Review

2.0
10 Aug 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

In right location with the right manager, you could go far. But you had to be in the right location with the right manager. Different operating units and DIVs function very differently and value employees very differently.

Cons

No - I MEAN - 0 life work balance. I FREQUENTLY worked 60+ hour weeks, with no end in sight. My workload was so bad that I felt bad leaving because my 60+ hour/week workload got shifted to people who were already working 60+ hour weeks. As a result of this guilt, I stayed here 2 years longer than I should have... And no, I wasn't billing 60+ hour weeks - I was not paid for anything over 40 hours. Management in my operating unit didn't have a clue - by that I mean, they didn't. care what you had to do to get 15%+ profits on projects, you just had to do it. If you didn't, you were on the chopping block. Even broken legacy projects that you inherited from former employees that were at 2-3% profit margins, management expected you to be Rumpelstiltskin and literally spin gold from scraps. If you are in a more functional operating unit, you may be respected, treated like an adult, given some autonomy, and even have a little life-work balance. But like i said, it's all based on operating units and departments. In the almost 5 years I worked there - no manager, I mean not a single one, told me I was doing a good job. None. I was never written up or placed on a performance plan, so I guess I was performing adequately, but, who knows! Vacation - TOWP (time off with pay) - is non-existence. Worst amount of paid leave I've ever had - i've worked at 4 different similar consulting companies. Benefits are meh. Bonuses and raises - here at Tt when someone new gets hired, you get a raise - because HR does a salary analysis, sees how much new employee should get for their experience and education, and then evaluates employees in the department at the same pay scale. Often times, at least in our department, people get HUGE raises because they are sooooo underpaid (like 10-15% raises). I got one of these once, and my boss made it like she so valued me staying on (after a couple people quit) - but nope, it was just because HR performed a salary analysis and realized i needed a 10% pay bump to be competitive. Annual raises - upper management has to approve any raise over 4%. (2.5-3% raise is typically considered a cost of living increase). Here, if you are performing adequately and "meeting expectations" you get a cost of living raise. As a manager, I was told that the most my department could get was an average 3% raise, including me. Bonuses - same. Here is your pot of bonus money. If your manager thinks she deserves it all (or, she and her friends) then you get nothing. This happened all the time. When I got a new manager, she gave me bonuses in Tt stock - but if I left before 5 years, I couldn't get any of the bonus....

Explore other reviews about Tetra Tech

5.0
3 May 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
19 Apr 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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