Mixed Feelings - Anonymous employee Myefski Architects Employee Review

I have been with this firm for 10 years and I can honestly say that I dont think I would’ve have learned and grown as much as I have here. The fact that this is a small/mid-size firm provides any staff member with the opportunity to take on responsibilities/tasks they may normally would not get at larger firms. That being said though, it requires the right individual who is up for such challenge(s). I also think the firm does a good job during the interview process. The first interview round is conducted with (senior) members of the team; when possible also including staff who would be a peer to the interviewee. This helps giving the interviewee a better idea of the team they’d be working with, and vice versa the team would get an idea whether or not the interview would be a good fit personality wise. I believe this is part of the reason we’ve always been lucky to have a really solid team of people who get along very well. The office is located in The Wrigley Building with a great view of the river and Michigan Ave. Super convenient for anyone taking public transportation, and a million options for lunch or happy hour spots after work. The office space has an open floor plan which is great for staff to engage with one another which wouldn’t be the case if everyone had cubicles and/or separate offices. I also think it makes new hires feel more included and get to know their coworkers faster that way. The firm also has monthly in-office happy hours, bi-monthly in-office lunches, as well as the annual holiday party which is always a lot of fun. During the summer, the team gets split into two groups and everyone gets a half-day Friday every other week which is super nice.

As mentioned above, it takes the right individual to truly thrive here so a shy/timid person may not be a good fit.

Myefski keeps decent hours as far as architecture firms go. The architects are mostly friendly and collaborative. There were occasional fun group activities.

The work the firm does it largely bad student housing for large developers. The owner was very misleading about this in my interview, in their marketing, and website. The office morale was always very low due to the quality of work being produced. Coworkers were constantly talking about how bad the projects and clients were. The owner also contributed to a depressing work environment. He was rarely there, but when he was he was kind of a bully. He was frequently very derogatory, much more than just being critical. The way he treated employees on a day to day basis made any company activities feel fake and forced. If you are comfortable taking zero pride in your work, being undervalued, and underpaid then the firm might work for you. I personally couldn't take working so many hours on such awful buildings. I would not show anything I worked on here to a future employer.