I’ll preface this with stating I am working for a fairly large national GC and I’m relatively new to this industry. I love this line of work; it’s fulfilling and extremely satisfying to see the realities we put in place.

With that said, I already see myself running out of steam with the lack of incentives offered by CM as a whole. Sure my company offers a % bonus that’s not quite great, not even considering the fact I may be deemed unworthy of that max bonus. I just don’t get how there aren’t more project completion incentives in place. Maybe I just don’t even sniff them at the bottom of the totem? Overall though, what incentive do I have as an employee for a GC this size to hand over a project on time if I have no skin in the game?

On top of that, we’re putting in 50/60 hours a week only to be paid for 40. Will there ever be a day where we’re paid honestly to reflect the time put in? Sure, many other professionals on salary experience the same thing but it’s quite frankly bullshit across the board.

I talk with my two long time friends who work in commercial real estate and it makes me even more bitter. The absurd upside these developers and investors realize from these projects that we put the leg work into really frustrates me when I see the crumbs we’re left with. I get it, they take on massive risk with development but it really seems like we’re asking for so little in return to deliver these projects to their standards.

At the end of the day I still love this work but it frustrates me feeling ripped off and drained of my time. Sorry for the rant, feel free to share your insight.