Recent comments in /f/nyc

what_mustache t1_jae0yyl wrote

Reply to comment by watupmynameisx in Feds not coming to MTA’s rescue under GOP House, Schumer says by newzee1

Lol, the home was bought for 2.75 million in 2017. That's totally affordable for a PHD teacher and a former senator/VP. And also, we know he made money on the book because he shared his taxes.

And seriously bro, it's a compound? It's 0.34 acres. Where do you gullibles come up with this stuff? Do you just read junk on facebook and believe it? You can literally look it up on Zillow bro.

−2

djn24 t1_jae0tjl wrote

Reply to comment by Jealous-Math7450 in Consultants Gone Wild by ToffeeFever

Consultants are fine for solving a problem or managing a project that you rarely need them for.

But if you regularly use them, then, as you said, you're wasting money that could have been spent to build out a full in-house team.

1

Jealous-Math7450 t1_jadzm4x wrote

Reply to Consultants Gone Wild by ToffeeFever

I work in one of these consulting firms. We are indeed, a huge part of the problem. Many design projects by municipalities get picked up by consulting firms, billing at 3x the rate. These budgets end up very bloated to give firms their desired profit. Government in-house design teams are usually understaffed and undertrained, leading to poor results that then result in more costly change orders down the road.

The simple solution would be to have in-house design teams to be robust, and offer very competitive salaries and benefits to compete with these consulting firms. They need to stop giving in to the indulgence of these consulting firms.

Consulting firms are not necessarily all horrible. But I've seen enough to be pretty grossed out by their practices. Many of my coworkers have left to smaller ones or left to be part of municipalities. There's good people and talent in these firms, we are at the mercy of the MBA PMC class who charge much more than we do for God knows what and are not even freaking engineers/scientists.

5

mowotlarx t1_jadze3m wrote

Reply to comment by newestindustry in How much is remote work worth? New York City is about to find out. by arrogant_ambassador

Wanting cash because they are angry that their physical labor job they chose doesn't allow them to work remotely is ridiculous. Ask for more $$ because you deserve it, but demanding it because their work can't be remote is childish. And the only people egging on this apples to oranges garage are the bosses.

3

meteoraln t1_jadz4oh wrote

Reply to comment by GreatStateOfSadness in Consultants Gone Wild by ToffeeFever

A good example - the Freedom Tower in NYC, over 100 stories tall, was built with $4 billion. NYC is currently looking to spend $12 billion on renovating, not building, the Port Authority bus station. Maybe the government should use the Freedom Tower builders? Maybe NYC has incompetent managers that can’t be trusted to run and direct the builders.

4

GreatStateOfSadness t1_jadxsg4 wrote

Reply to comment by meteoraln in Consultants Gone Wild by ToffeeFever

Cheaper contractors usually result in shoddier work. When I was doing consulting with city and regional governments, it was not uncommon for a government to pick one of our competitors because they promised to get the work done for half the price. Then, six months later, it becomes evident that the competitor vastly underbid and ended up delivering results that were well below expectations. The government then has to basically throw that work out and start over.

7

raposadigital t1_jadx2ae wrote

Reply to comment by 603er in Consultants Gone Wild by ToffeeFever

I saw this in the navy specifically in HR. They cut a bunch of jobs by combining 2 jobs and then hired consultants. Took everyone of the ships and placed them in one building.

Hundreds of service personnel had to either switch jobs or eventually get out because they could not move up in rank.

4