1. Flavor of the Day Management Style- I have never seen a company go thru so many misguided management changes and restructure efforts - there were 5 restructures in 6 years, probably still happening annually. This is not innovation, this is saying that SSOE is grasping and clueless and has still not figured it out after so many years in business.
2. Masters of Mediocrity - The growth of the company has mainly been by acquiring other firms, not due to any innovation/improvement or growing the client base themselves - that would be hard work. Some of these firms WERE the best in their class when SSOE bought them, like CRS Engineering, and Evergreen Engineering, but as is too often the case, these companies were destroyed after SSOE acquired them. It is the same old tired US business story - the "acquiring " company management all drink the kool-aid, pat each other on the back, give the "GM nod" and believe they are business wizards and MUST be doing something right because they have grown the company so fast. The "acquired" company management are deemed inferior, so the SSOE puts one of their own on the ground at the acquired company to "help" with the transition, but never leave. In the process, they remake formerly successful, well run, innovative, smaller/leaner companies into mediocre ones, now part of a larger one with slicker marketing materials, catchy slogans and zero real creativity or innovation under the SSOE flag. The US corporate landscape is littered with these wrecks.
3. Outdated Thinking- SSOE is still caught up in the 1950's groupthink that centralization of everything - corporate services and even management is the efficient, smart way to go. SSOE would get rid of the corporate services and local managers in remote offices and re-assign the workers in these remote offices to managers in the central office. The "amazing" result was detachment of workers from their managers ( some had never met their direct report in person), zero loyalty either way and a transactional, impersonal, robotic style of management by e-mail and spreadsheet. Imagine being given your annual review by a manager that has never bothered to meet you in person - it happens at SSOE! The corporate services people, sitting comfortably drinking coffee in their silo in Toledo, far back behind the front line of business, naturally developed an "us vs them" mentality, where the goal was to give you the least they could but charge the remote offices the most they could - like a whole 'nother side business within a business. Holy Toledo! This great if you are in the main office in Toledo but catastrophic if in one of the remote offices.
4. Benefits - Compared to their peers, SSOE's benefit package is just not competitive. Their medical plan is absolutely horrible. Again, in keeping with the centralized approach and providing less. A co-worker had a claim take 9+ months to pay and had to fight to get it paid.
5. Pay - All of the people I know who left SSOE made significantly more money immediately, including me, upon leaving.
6. Mobility - The options for upward mobility are limited unless you are from Toledo. The old boy network is alive and well at SSOE. I saw the most talented people quit one after the other because they could not see any future at SSOE.
