Louis Berger Employee Review

Current Employee – been working at Louis Berger full-time

Pros – The best thing I can say about Berger is that they kept me employed through some lean years when a lot of engineers are out of work.

Cons – Where do I begin?... It's real easy to blast an employer so let me list some specifics. This is a company that cares very little about their employees. They work their people very hard--frequently without compensation for overtime. The turnover ratio is crazy and clients notice these things. Berger believes they can beat the competition by having the lowest overhead rate. 100% utilization is expected. If not, layoffs are on the way ("right sizing" in company lingo). Almost every project goes over budget forcing employees to work on their own time. They preach the importance of doing quality work but don't budget enough to do it.

Health insurance coverage is poor and premiums expensive. Recently Berger has stopped matching 401(k)s with cash and replaced it with company stock instead. No choice. Human Resources is awful. The company does not like to spend money on equipment or employee training--very cheap.

From reading the other reviews here I can see that my office is not any different from the others. There are much better places to work--even in this economy.

Advice to Senior Management – Upper management says all the right things but it's hard to trust Berger execs. The company badly needs to change from the top down. Hire some top execs from your competitors and implement their recommendations.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company