The caliber of the employees is somewhat disappointing. Yes, there are some very smart people who work here, but easily as many who aren't worth their paycheck. It seems nearly impossible to get fired for poor performance, which I consider a very serious negative. When the dead weight is laid off from one program, another program picks it up. Operating this way, programs often overrun cost and schedule. Then the company expects its employees to work overtime -- often unpaid -- to make up for its mistakes.
Lockheed Martin claims to pay for performance, but high performance and high pay are not correlated. Working there as a high performer, you get the distinct impression of being taken advantage of. For example, working well above your pay grade and taking on additional responsibility aren't reasons to be promoted at Lockheed Martin. Quite the opposite -- if you're already doing the work they need for a lower salary than you deserve, they chalk it up to cost savings. The only way to get ahead in this company is to hop programs or to be the pet of someone in upper management.
At this company, there is the old school mentality that the more hours an employee spends in his/her cubicle, the more valuable that employee is. (If only they went old-er school and gave some thought to why a reasonable length work week was standardized way back when.) Never mind the lost productivity that results from continuously working significantly more than 40 hours per week; never mind the mistakes that are made by the overworked employees; never mind the detrimental impacts to employee health and subsequent impact on all our health insurance premiums; etc.
Middle management is a real weakness. No one seems to see the flawed logic in taking the best engineer in a group and making them the manager. "You've done such an excellent job in your technical position that we're going to remove you from that role and have you do something that requires an entirely different skill set (which you probably lack)!" Brilliant.
You get the point.
