Pluspunten
Really friendly and fun coworkers (mostly) and interesting projects.
Minpunten
Everything comes down to bad leadership and management by the owner. The owner insists on being involved in and approving every aspect of all business operations because he doesn't trust anyone and can't/won't delegate. This results in massive slowdowns and inefficiency across the board. He can't read all his emails, so balls constantly get dropped. He questions change orders, rejects vendor payouts, and asks inane questions, all of which stymies job progress. His micromanagement also results in him being on his phone 99% of the time, either on a call, texting, or emailing; often all at once. Not only does this mean he can't focus and think critically about the responses he's giving, but it's also blatantly unprofessional and disrespectful to those around him in-person. His calendar is always triple booked and he is never less than 15 minutes late to anything. With that said, his trust issues are somewhat warranted because he hires atrocious PMs. There are a few capable and lovely PMs there, but the vast majority are thoroughly unqualified, ineffectual, oblivious jokes, ESPECIALLY on the west coast. Under their “leadership,” shady and completely unqualified vendors were often hired without anyone else's knowledge (no contract, no COIs, no work order, etc). Change order requests were completely ignored by the PMs, resulting in vendors demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars after project turnover for work that no one else even knew they had done. The PMs also don't understand or they outright ignore the submittal process, so materials delays cause massive schedule delays and/or last minute project substitutions. I could go on for hours. As for policies and procedures, there are almost none in place. Everyone does things their own way and everything is broken and disjointed. One “procedure” that does exist is the vendor payout process which takes HOURS every week, and none of the subs understand it so they are constantly harassing Michilli for money. This situation is compounded by PMs who don't know how to collect invoices and roll them up into requisitions, the “accounting department” being one person who is basically just a check cutting robot, and the aforementioned refusal of the owner to release payments if his money is tight that week. Needless to say, I've seen many subs and vendors file liens and refuse to work with Michilli in the future. For these reasons and so many more, Michilli is a revolving door. Staff turnover is unheard of. Any new-hire who has half a brain quickly sees how broken the company is and jumps ship. Over two years, our DoC quit, our training and development person quit, our general super quit, TWO comptrollers quit, and none of them were even replaced. I also watched no less than 11 PMs and APMs quit, as well as two estimators. Michilli has survived on its reputation and its admittedly very large portfolio for a long time. Now, however, the owner refuses to adapt or heed the good ideas and advice that I know multiple competent and savvy employees have given him, and the company's prospects have gone from a slow decline to a nose dive. This has even been spatially manifested in Michilli's downgrade to a smaller, older office with a mouse infestation and a water leak from the ceiling. The owner's short-sightedness and refusal to change have finally caught up to him and clients are definitely noticing. There were many bids it seemed we had a good chance of winning until the owner spoke to our previous clients and received negative feedback due to poor project management and ineffectual leadership. The most recent signs of imminent failure were the owner cutting several office workers down to four-day work weeks with corresponding pay cuts, canceling fresh fruit deliveries, and firing some of the cleaning staff. Obviously grasping for cash. If Michilli's name was sterling, it's now rusty bronze. I won't be surprised to see Michilli declare bankruptcy in 2024.