General Dynamics Bath Iron Works reviews

It used to be a privilege to work as an On Site ‘designer’, but now there has been a greedy corporate influence that has been spreading from all the way back east. There is a constant trend where experienced hard working employees get the raw end of the stick while keeping lazy incompetent workers around because of “union stipulations”. You are pretty much invisible and have ZERO representation while paying union fees and getting no support. Managers and supervisors are only worried about their spreadsheets and forget the human aspect of there employees.

WELL below industry average for 2D/3D drafter designers. Entry level is barely above state minimum wage for designers, yet they are expected to learn 4-5 different job skills in their first 2 weeks of work/training. Company WILL take advantage, while union tries to take advantage right back. SO MANY UNION/COMPANY GUIDELINES. Makes the head spin. States merit raises are available, but VERY rarely use them. Take advantage of knowledgeable and pliable workers to put extra responsibilities without the pay. Wage schedule useful for those looking to work bare minimum, but screws over hard workers. Losing employees faster than they can hire. HR is a total mess, despite 'trying' to hire thousands. Dismantling and moving around design teams with barely any word or input from employees on if it will actually do anything helpful. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SHIFTS IS A JOKE. Second shift designers are treated as second class employees. 1st shift gets most things they ask for at the detriment of 2nd shift. Company 'claims' to listen to employees, but unless you have the ear of a manager or higher nothing changes. (Communications issues are ongoing, and after 2 years listening to us complain at meetings specifically asking about difficulties for employees, followed by more meetings as such where we were explicitly told NOT to complain about the communication issues anymore.) Employees silenced regularly. Union protects worthless employees. Wage schedule overall increase has only been 5.5% GWI in 5 years. Placate employees with joke bonuses on years they don't increase base wages. Fought WFH for YEARS, then threw into effect in less than 2 months with COVID. Did I mention leaking employees like a sieve, especially those not in production. Doesn't listen to employees unless you're lucky with a good supervisor and manager, and still very limited there. Has had multiple fights with Neurodivergent Employees requesting accommodations at work. ADHD not seen as a real issue, and will fight over medical issues if not disclosed at time of hire. Could go on. Has only gone downhill in my 4 years here. Training efforts have been made, but continuously fall through and send employees with no idea what they're doing into teams expecting them to get right into super complex/difficult work. Will expect designers to have enough knowledge to do the work of potentially 3-4 different positions. (Modeler, researcher, drafter, checker, trainer, etc..) Has different titles for Mentor and Trainer, but have never seen a trainer for designers, only Mentors and Workleaders expected to fill both roles. Very few people who haven't already been here 30+ years intend to stay and retire with a company that doesn't offer retirement or pension plans. 401k only. Health insurance isn't bad, but they pay for a gutted version of the standard public versions of the same insurance. Use FitForLife and other employee improvement programs to try and bribe employees, or show how much they care, yet limit it's capabilities. Medical is a JOKE. Near all medical employees are in company pocket and will downplay issues, or ignore them all together. Have to fight for additional sick time unpaid even with a doctor's note. They can move you around the company with only 5 days notice, and this includes forcing employees to different shifts for short-term changes. (Not optional) Can give mentor/trainer title and remove on a whim even without reason, yet often still expect employee to fill the role to some degree. (Hard to get union in on this with so much grey area pertaining to titles in design teams.) Management is a JOKE 2 steps above supervisor. One step above is hit or miss. CEO doesn't care about anything beyond lining his pockets, and looking good to the Navy to earn contracts. Took FOREVER to even sort of respond to COVID. Most of the yard still does not wear masks, vaccinated or not, in crowded areas. Turnstiles are a cluster of body checks at shift changes. Cleaning is questionable at best depending on where you are located. Some design teams treated better than others, including desk space, storage space, cubical conditions, bathroom conditions, and overall office conditions. Designers are rarely held accountable when they continuously mess up. Nearly impossible to get idiots/lazy employees fired. At best can get them moved to another team. No smoking area for those in the yard on 2nd and 3rd shifts to use during break since they can't leave the ground or smoke on the grounds.