I worked for a "turn & burn" company

Back in 2020 I lost my job because of COVID layoffs. I needed something fast and ended up getting hired by a big-name consulting firm. They had a great national reputation, which sounded promising at the time.

What I didn’t realize was that the reputation only applied to certain offices. The one I landed in turned out to be what people in the company called a “turn & burn” — constant turnover, long hours, high burnout. But I didn’t figure that out until after I signed everything.

Part of the onboarding included a signing bonus that was more aggressive then industry stranded - typically for every 6 months worked you own 25% less back if you leave under two years. At this place if you left within 18 months, you owed the full amount back. If you left before hitting two years, you still had to pay half. Basically it was designed to trap people.

It should’ve been obvious at the start, no one in the office had been there more than two years. Within six months, I was doing the work of two people. Normal days went from 8 to 6. End of the month when reports were due? People regularly stayed until 10, sometimes midnight. And when people couldn’t keep up with the workload, management didn’t step in to help. They would just try to find reasons to try to write people up who didn't make their assigned workload.

Past the year-and-a-half mark, I was completely drained. The local director had started handing me his work on top of my own. I’ll admit, I’m a people pleaser and I liked helping the team. But looking back, that just made me an easy target to pile stuff on.

I’d raised concerns to my manager more than once. Always got the same answer of "we’re hiring soon, just help us get through this stretch". But no one ever showed up.

Eventually I brought it up to the regional director. I pointed out that according to the company’s own workload guidelines, I should be managing 6 to 8 projects at once. I was juggling 47.

He agreed that was way too much and said he’d talk to the local leadership to get it under control. Then in the same conversation told me he had to write me up for being slow to respond to clients.

I told him yeah, I’m slow to respond because I’m doing the work of five people. He said it didn’t matter, he still had to do it.

I was already casually looking for a new job, but that night I went home and started applying everywhere. A month later, I had an offer and accepted it.

Suddenly they cared. Offered me a 20% raise and a promotion. Told me how valuable I was. But it was too late. I took the signing bonus reimbursement hit and left.

It’s been over three years since I left. I still talk to one person who works there — an admin. Every single person I worked with is gone. Everyone they hired to replace them is gone too. Whole place turned over again.

Best decision I ever made.