Unfortunately, "Cons" Far Outweigh the "Pros" - Project Architect Gensler Employee Review

Team members with a history of success and great ideas were constantly met with an incredible amount of baseless scrutiny and aggressive behavior. This was very odd to witness. In my opinion and the opinion of other team members: Extremely poor management. A complete lack of understanding of staffing and what resources it takes to successfully complete a task. Projects were CONSTANTLY over-staffed, or we had zero help. The directives were taken out of the hands of our Project Managers, and studio leadership decided what they felt was appropriate. The team was always dumbfounded by the mismanagement of hours allocated to our projects. Although the emphasis is on "team," certain studio directors had a history of instead placing blame on others within a team. This didn't lead to a healthy team chemistry. Very few wanted to be a part of a team led by certain studio directors. I also witnessed constantly aggressive behavior towards multiple extremely well qualified and well respected team members, designers, and PMs by multiple studio directors and some principals (never the Managing Principal). The team members and PMs were proven to be correct in their stance on certain matters, yet the studio directors were wrong: proven wrong - not assumed. But this only seemed to make matters worse for the team members or PMs and made things uncomfortable for the team. Incredibly disappointing designs; plethora of egos abound and a "big fish, small pond" mentality seem to permeate the office, upper management, and some principals. The designers with the highest level of skill are those that remain the quietest; therefore those with the least amount of skill bellow about like mad. It was always my opinion, that most upper management exhibited a surprising level of childish behavior and a lack of knowledge within their discipline. I found that not all, but most, use "big words" and can not back up their own positions. Firm leadership is great at telling stories. But the facts of stories change each year, and this makes one wonder if they are ever being told the truth. The office felt like a popularity contest. Very uncomfortable to try and fit in. Energy should be spent on creating the best project possible for Art Gensler and the clients; not wasted on office politics... Again, not the Austin I know of. It was my opinion that the most talented of peers would often go unrecognized or stifled by Studio leadership and/or Management; and no one understands why this is the case. It would instead be nice to know that you are in an environment in which ideas and "good" talents - not "self-proclaimed" talents - are supported by upper management. I found this behavior to be bizarre and unsettling. "Who cares...That's not my problem..." These were the sad yet exact words of some studio leaders and management personnel that would employ useless finger-pointing as a means to place blame on other team members. I witnessed Project Managers constantly being met with harsh, unfounded, and blatantly inaccurate criticism by Studio Directors/Upper Management and felt that PMs really couldn't do their job as efficiently as possible. (as per past experience with other firms) I always felt trapped between doing right by the client and Art Gensler, and doing what the studio directors were telling the team to do - not what the team "should" do, which of course is to find an acceptable, efficient architectural resolution to exceed expectations of the client.