Great upfront atmosphere, then it deteriorates into mind-numbing mediocrity and horrible pay raises.
Pros
-Great people to work with for the most part. This varies widely in every industry but I couldn't complain about the people working there. -Every other Friday off. A great benefit to have, especially because it cuts down on your vacation time you have to use. -Flexible hours and the ability to telecommute once a week if you choose. -Great pay starting out, on par with most industry pay. -Education benefits.
Cons
-Direct managers are spread out, so you may have one manager in Texas and another in Georgia, and you work in California. This is highly discouraging because your managers only judge you on what is on a piece of paper. -Promotions are so few and far between it is depressing. It is constantly brought up as an issue to management and they always shrug their shoulders and act like its not a big deal. -Then, the few times they do promote, it doesn't make any sense at all. They'll promote someone with 2 years at the company with less education over somebody who works their tail off for 6 years with more education. This produces a lot of tension and turmoil and people end up leaving because the morale is so low. -They had a bad evaluation system to begin with when I got here. So, being Lockheed, they replaced it with an even worse, more subjective evaluation system called LM Commit. It is horrible and it makes people wish for the old evaluation system back. -Like most corporations these days, they try to get you to do more with less. As the older generation retires, they expect you to take over their jobs, which is fine, but they don't compensate you for any of the extra work you take on. -Raises are horrible. Average 1-3 percent a year, and if you are the absolute cream of the crop, maybe 5 percent. This may be average for this economy as whole right now, but it really is shameful for a company that is the number one defense company in the world with a stock just under $200. You would think they might open up the wallet a little to keep employees from leaving since they got rid of pensions but no, Lockheed is happy to give you dirt devil or a backpack before they ever give you a decent cost of living raise. -Management has got their head so far up in the clouds they rarely have time to address employee concerns on projects. Most are dismissive, condescending, and act like they could care less about the status of your projects. -This is coming from an employee who had a generally good first 3 years at the company. The lack of growth, promotion opportunities, and overall apathy has made this place toxic.
