Gatekeeping, Burnout, and the Bottleneck in Civil Engineering

By Chad Smeltzer Published in The Digital Revolution

The Post That Hit a Nerve

What started as a conversation about profit margins in civil engineering turned into something else entirely. My inbox flooded — not with curiosity, not with collaboration, but with correction. One firm leader in particular sent me multiple private messages over the past month, calling my posts “misinformed,” my math “absurd,” and my motive “suspect.”

But here’s the thing:

I’m not an insider. I don’t work for his firm. Yet he treated me like an insubordinate — because I dared to ask questions in public.

That alone should raise a flag.

Because if this is how some leaders respond to outsiders who challenge the model, imagine how they treat the engineers working under them. This isn’t about one man or one firm. It’s about a culture crisis — one that’s quietly driving talent out of the field, silencing innovation, and setting the industry back a generation.

🧱 What the Messages Reveal (Yes, They’re Real)

Over the course of several DMs, this individual — an owner of a small IL firm — argued that:

“Marketing costs are never 25%. I don’t know where your numbers come from… Consulting would be unsustainable." “You need a degree in engineering, business or finance… just reading a P&L doesn’t make you an expert.” “Remote work destroyed collaboration. Culture comes from being in the office. Loyalty comes from proximity.” “Anyone thinking remote is the solution is sitting in a basement staring at a screen. The real action is out in the world.”

These aren’t outliers. I’ve heard versions of this from dozens of others — engineers, consultants, former firm employees — who left because they were told the same thing: You haven’t earned the right to question us yet.

🔥 Gatekeeping Is Not Mentorship

Let’s be honest: the civil engineering world has a leadership problem.

Too often, “mentorship” is used as code for control. Leaders don’t want to guide the next generation — they want to filter it, delay it, and mold it in their own image. They call it tenureship, loyalty, or tradition. But it’s gatekeeping.

When you have firm principals telling people in their 20s and 30s to “wait their turn” while CEOS in their 60s cling to leadership into retirement — something’s broken. When remote work is called “counterproductive” without any attempt to measure outcomes or explore hybrid models — it’s not about performance. It’s about fear.

📉 What the Data Says

And the data backs it up:

• 72% of engineers under 35 say they would leave a job for better work-life balance, flexibility, or leadership culture (ASCE 2023 Report).

• More than half of engineering graduates leave the profession entirely within 5 years (EngineeringUK).

• Mental health in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries ranks among the worst in the white-collar workforce. Burnout, anxiety, and depression rates continue to rise. (CDC & Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention)

🧠 Innovation Isn't Optional — It's Overdue

The argument that “AI can’t replace mentorship” or that “real engineers work in person” is a distraction.

No one’s saying AI replaces experience. We’re saying it enhances it — if you let it.

New grads don’t want to spend 12 hours reading 400 pages of due diligence documents when tools now exist that can analyze, annotate, and extract red flags in minutes. They don’t want to wait 15 years to get a voice in a firm when their ideas are already more relevant to the future of the industry than the ones being protected by legacy egos.

And most importantly, they don’t want to be part of a culture where asking questions is seen as rebellion.

🚨 The Real Risk

The greatest danger isn’t AI or remote work. It’s leaders who refuse to change because they’ve confused tradition with truth.

If the industry continues to gatekeep, ignore tech, and dismiss the next generation — they won’t need to fire anyone. The best people will simply leave. And they already are.

🌍 What the Future Demands

It’s time to build firms where:

• Transparency is a standard, not a threat.

• Culture is created by how you treat people, not where they sit.

• Mentorship is an investment, not a form of power-hoarding.

• Innovation is welcomed, not “proven” only after 30 years.

• Leadership isn’t defined by how long you’ve been in the office — but by how far you’re willing to look ahead.

If this article makes certain leaders uncomfortable, good. That means it’s working.

Because if I’m getting messages like this for simply posting on LinkedIn — imagine what your junior engineers are going through every day behind closed doors.

📫 Closing

The Digital Revolution isn’t about replacing people with machines. It’s about replacing outdated mindsets with ones that actually move us forward.

We can’t engineer the future while clinging to the past.

Check out our group called Engineer Match. I think, it's time we pay people a fair wage and cut out the BS overhead that each engineer covers for the "firm" Don't you?

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14692210/

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