Pros
No need to work hard because hard work is not rewarded. Too bad I found that out after working 50+ hours every week to do the right thing and care about the company's project delivery and reputation only to be given a raise that was below others and got the blame for working too much. My advice to new employees is just skate by. You will have a utilization of 80 to 85% or so in the E&P Division. Just put in your billable hours and pretend like you are working those other hours and all is good. Leadership is so incompetent they will not even notice or care as long as you meet your magic utilization rate so just reach it and do the minimum. There is no reason to take on 40 hours or more at all so do not do it. So overall, the work-life balance is good if you manage workload to less than 40 hours since there is no reason to work hard!
Kontras
I had a very poor experience overall in the E&P Division of ICF. Leadership within my branch was incompetent, completely absent, could not communicate, and really did not care overall about things as long as you were billable. There is more to management and leadership than stressing about billable numbers, especially when you have staff that are overworked.