Working at HDR in Alexandria, VA: 2 Employee Job Reviews by Real Employee working in Alexandria, VA Area

What do you like about working at HDR?

"The atmosphere at HDR was always charged with energy and excitement. I loved the position I had there and the work I was doing. There were plentiful extracurricular activities planned for employees that allowed us to get to know our coworkers in an out of office background. The company encouraged personal professional growth."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"If you do accept a position at HDR do not place loyalty to HDR over your own personal growth and benefits. This company will drop anyone at a minutes notice and will give no warning."

What don't you like about working at HDR?

"I was quite disappointed at the way I was let go from the company. The week after I finished a 2 year design of a hospital I was called into the section manager's office and told I was being laid off due to lack of work. No allowance was given for the hundreds of hours of overtime I had donated to the company or the fact that I was uniquely knowledgeable about many design desisions and subsystems of the building that would require further coordination and design."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Have more respect and compassion for your employees during the slow times. At previous companies where I have worked we were informed months in advance of the state of the work flow and people were warned if they were in danger of being laid off so they could begin their job search. HDR lays off employees with no warning and immediately locks them out of all company systems and escorts them from the building like criminals."

What do you like about working at HDR?

"The way the company sought to create a working environment that made the employees like doing their jobs. They also were very proactive in creating social activities and extracurricular events for employees to participate in."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"Don't bother for the short term. They have laid off about 15% of their work force in the last 2 months and plan on more lay offs next month. They are very unprofessional about layoffs, not giving employees any warning before hand and locking you out of everything and making you feel like a criminal immediately after."

What don't you like about working at HDR?

"The management teams were horrible. I don't know how they managed to keep thier jobs. They made demands of the design personel that made our jobs more difficult and added nothing to the quality of the work produces."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Concentrate more on keeping the current staff busy and productive instead of constantly buying new companies and laying people off when work ran out."