Among the more common benefits that you should expect to receive as a civil engineer are paid vacations, holidays, sick leave, retirement pay, and workmen's compensation insurance. In addition to these benefits, many firms and governmental agencies will have other fringe benefits to offer. These can include military leave or jury duty pay. Other fringe benefits include incentive compensation, extra salary or bonuses paid to the employee as a result of a successful year experienced by a company or the successful completion of a project. This is particularly true in the consulting engineering field and in the construction industry. Early completion of a contract often produces a bonus payment to the successful contractor. This bonus payment will produce bonus salaries for the engineers working for the contractor. Other fringe benefits may include payment by the employer of the membership fees for professional societies or the fees for professional licenses. Many engineering employers send their civil engineering employees to meetings, conventions, and short courses at company expense. Many companies and agencies pay for life insurance and medical insurance for many of their employees. Some companies will pay educational costs for their professional employees. Many people are familiar with fringe benefits such as the free use of company vehicles or company owned recreational facilities. A much more important fringe benefit is profit sharing. Profit sharing means that when a company is particularly successful, the profits that are made are shared out in one of several ways with the employees. In many cases, the profit shares are more significant for professional employees, and especially for upper level engineers. Profit sharing can include employee ownership in a company. In other words, in addition to giving an employee a bonus payment after a successful year or after a completion of a successful contract, the employee may be rewarded with shares of company stock. This type of fringe benefit has significant long term considerations. Owning part of the company that employs her or him may be a powerful incentive to the engineer to work harder and be more careful in assignments. Also, the successful completion of an assigned task may bring added satisfaction to the engineer if the engineer is a partial owner of the company. Depending upon the particular package of fringe benefits offered to the individual, the total benefits package may vary from as low as 30 percent to more than 43 percent of the firm's base pay to that individual. The engineer must give careful consideration to the fringe benefits offered by a firm or agency before accepting a job offer. Of course, in many cases, a very attractive fringe benefits package may be offered with a lower direct salary, and the engineer must be very careful to consider the long term benefits associated with both the direct salary and the fringe benefits package.
General Employment Conditions
Since the civil engineer is a professional employee, he or she will find that the general conditions of employment will be quite different from those of a tradesperson, a vocational worker, or other nonprofessional employee. Usually the professional employee does not use a time clock to record arrival and departure from the office. A time clock is particularly inappropriate for most engineers, since situations will arise that may require unusual effort and late hours, as well as many trips in and out of the office during the course of a working day. In general, unless extra work and overtime occur on a regular basis, the civil engineer will not be compensated directly for this extra work. However, indirect compensation may come in the form of being able to report late to work the day after a late night assignment or the opportunity to leave early on a weekend in return for an extra effort late at night earlier in the week.
The professional employee usually is continually informed about the employer's objectives, policies, and goals. In many cases the engineer will be a part of the firm's management and may even be a partial owner of the company. Almost all professional employees will be provided with a well appointed office, adequate support staff, and physical facilities which will promote personal efficiency. For engineers, duties and levels of responsibility will be clearly defined by the employer and usually will be reflected in the engineer's position and title. Because of this professional position of employment, the civil engineer will have obligations to the employer over and above those of the nonprofessional employee. The engineer must accept assignments only when absolutely sure he or she is qualified to carry out the work. The engineer must be diligent, competent, and honest in completing assigned duties. The professional responsibilities of the engineer require also trying to contribute creative and resourceful ideas to solve the problems encountered in the course of employment. The foremost obligation, however, for the professional employee is due regard for the safety, life, and health of the public and fellow employees.
The professional employee must be careful to avoid any conflict of interest. For example, it would be unethical for a civil engineer to work at night for a competitor of the employer for whom he or she works during the day. It would also be unethical for an engineer to take information learned during the course of regular assignments and disclose that information to a competitor or to use that information for personal gain. The engineer cannot disclose any technical, proprietary information that would have any adverse effects on her or his employer or firm. If the engineer discovers that some action of her or his employer is contrary to the public interest, the engineer is obligated to inform the employer first about the problem and give the employer the opportunity to correct the situation. If the employer does not correct the situation, and public welfare continues to be in danger, the engineer must disclose the situation to the public. On the other hand, the engineer has the right to expect professional responsibility from colleagues and from the employer. If the engineer discovers a circumstance dangerous to public health and welfare, he or she has the right to expect that the employer would make every effort to correct the dangerous situation. Just as the engineer should show loyalty to colleagues and the employer, he or she has the right to expect similar loyalty in return. The common bond which unites engineers in their efforts to improve the quality of life is one of the most important intangible factors that lead to professional and personal satisfaction for the civil engineer.
