Used to be wonderful at NGC Rolling Meadows - has gone so far downhill it makes people want to cry. Many are counting the days to retirement (there’s even an app for that), or stuck due to other reasons and hanging on by their fingernails. Everyone who CAN leave is looking.
Things to beware of: Benefits are below other defense contractors and absolutely not close to the Chicago commercial companies –pay raises are tiny if not 0% (a chunk of employees get 0% every year), and for several years raises were on an 18 month cycle (only in Rolling Meadows, with no reasonable explanation).
Your management will not stand up for you or have a backbone. If someone is gunning for you (this happens frequently) you can be walked out at any time. Senior management and Directors in Engineering are almost invisible (on purpose) so that ‘the other guy’ sticks out and can be targeted. VPs seem unbelievably ineffective.
Huge problems are appearing in multiple product lines, can be directly traced to year after year of engineering layoffs, all while trying to hire new grads (i.e.: CHEAP labor). Some issues are so crucial that customers are yelling at the CEO directly. Final product testing that is customer-viewed had to be CANCELED DURING THE TEST because of repeated failures. It’s embarrassing.
Everyone is now afraid of HR and/or Sector ‘leadership’. A previous review from a new hire states she didn’t inform HR of 2 sexual harassment incidents - VERY smart move. Generally, HR will simply ignore you. If you push for your rights - HR will target you as a “troublemaker”. Corporate claims “retaliation is not tolerated” – right. Retaliation happens ALL the time (multiple people who ‘stuck their head up’, reported something to HR, have been told by HR they should quit, and their lives have been made so difficult that some have quit).
The word ETHICS is rammed down employees throats until we choke on it, but it’s just a club to beat the employees. Lots of employees ethics complaints go uninvestigated, unless it is of use to NGC (no visibility into the ethics “process” is allowed, so the employees are left wondering). If there are any ethics complaints against HR, they are investigated by…. HR (I’m SURE HR will have no problem explaining away the ethics of that). Unqualified minorities are routinely put in positions simply so HR can ‘check the box’, be prepared to do your job and theirs because SOME people “have to be protected” (direct quote from a staff meeting).
Be prepared to lose a few civil rights if you work her - NGC rewrote the rules a few years ago and employees CANNOT sue NGC. You have to go through “mediation” – guess who picks the mediator?
Advice for new hires:
• If you must come here, get a VERY high salary coming in (NGC is famous for low-balling – explains why something like 75% of offers are rejected these days).
• Find out who the “protected, special people” are and KEEP AWAY from them.
• Avoid HR at all costs.
• It’s more important WHO you work for, than specifically WHAT you are doing. A few managers are truly good people and good managers. If you want to be here for a while, find them.
• Do not stay long, or your skills will be specifically for defense contractors, and this is the only one in the Chicagoland area.
