Ballard or Astronics? Deep In Transition
Pros
-Good Internal Culture: awards given out quarterly based on who has gone above and beyond to meet company standards, regular employee lunches together, annual Holiday party, real community and love of company -Nice scheduling four nines and a four are common working hours in Engineering department. -Company growing steadily -Can communicate criticisms and concerns freely to superiors. They may not be addressed, but they will not BS you. -Senior management very willing to spend their own extra time to meet deadlines. They will lead by working as hard as anyone else, and are not afraid to get into the trenches with you. They are also not afraid to tell you when you mess up, which I find very helpful.
Cons
-Transitioning with One Astronics initiative has been clunky to match sister division AES. iERP system has lost functionality. -Historically, Ballard would not have found another way to absorb the cost, but with Astronics over-sight 10 employees were laid off because of COVID -Questionable management decisions about what products in new line will or won't succeed -Changing and reduction of bonus structure to match sister division AES -Acquisition of a new company and three new Engineers, just before COVID, while unpredictable, partially led to the layoff of ten employees -Non-merit based layoffs: Senior employees who were good at their job were pushed out for younger, less effective employees
