Pros
- Relaxed work culture: wfh 3 days a week, 15 Fridays off per year, barely ever working overtime
- very diverse and inclusive firm that actually cares about social issues. Definitely not another firm with a white male upper management like a lot of others in the country
- almost everyone is friendly and helpful
- not a lot of office drama/politics
- supportive of professional development/licensure
- can learn a lot if you are willing
- no autocad
Cons
- almost too relaxed— some folks are clearly slacking off half the time, using up the project fee and getting away with it
- no proper annual performance/salary review process. Staff have to be pretty proactive to try get promotions/raises otherwise they are stuck with an annual 2.5% cost of living salary increase
- staffing/work allocation isn’t great; there doesn’t seem to be a system in place for project managers or principals to evenly distribute work among employees. Some people have a lot on their plate, others don’t. Upper management has even informed the office several times that they are turning down projects because they don’t have enough staff but there are still designers that have nothing to do
- We get okay projects but nothing extraordinary. The firm itself is not growing fast in terms of projects, clients or staff. Due to other factors and the points above, Ratcliff is not a fast-paced environment which is great for someone retiring soon but isn’t for a young professional looking for growth.
- the firm only does academic and healthcare which can become boring after a while
- HR clearly is not doing much to look for talent to join the firm. They don’t even live in California and only come in the office once every few months. Was also absent when I first joined the firm which led to a confusing onboarding process