Downer has been designing, building and sustaining NZ's infrastructure for over a century and is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive culture
#20 of 21 in Civil Structural Engineering
Our team has often get togethers which enhances the culture of the workplace. Most people in the team are mates and welcoming
After work the culture is good and we will do some activities together. At work it is not the best culture. I am not a huge fan of how some of the leaders on site talk to people and the teams. It feels a bit hypocritical for some people to stand in front of all the crews and tell them about speaking to everyone respectfully when the tone they use when talking to the crews at pre start is pretty harsh. I think that singling out/ confronting people at prestart is an inappropriate way to address a situation. I think that the more appropriate approach way to handle it would be to talk to someone in private and come up with a solution rather than publicly ridicule. Then once there is a solution the lessons learnt can be addressed at prestart. I don't think naming and shaming people publicly is helping the culture. As a graduate I feel as though I haven't been given too many opportunities to get involved with the works on site despite asking for more jobs and responsibility regularly. I was told of an opportunity for me to work with the bridge crew as the work in the earthworks space has closed up for the winter but I was told that I couldn't work on the bridge because one person in the earthworks team was going on annual leave because it is a good time with not much working going on. There is another cadet here who also has been asking for more work or different opportunities. In short, there are multiple young engineers who are not getting the opportunities to build their skill set and gaining good site experience. The grad program and cadetships are designed to give young engineers the opportunity to get stuck into different activities both on site and in the office so they can become well rounded engineers when they exit the program. At the moment I don't feel as though I am getting that.
High stress and loud environment in office. Difficult environment to work in but manageable. Culture is good when your manager has interest in teaching you things but often, they can be too busy or uninterested to assist you with much.