General Dynamics Electric Boat reviews

Depression: The employees here seem very dolorous. Very few people I have met come into work excited or seemingly that interested in what they do. People are initially excited about working on submarines (like me) but EB seems to extract that excitement quickly. The product is fascinating but EB ruins it Raises: The raises are pathetic. Really just cost of living adjustments masquerading as raises. Promotions/raises: From what I can tell they are only loosely based on performance and mainly based on tenure at the company and nepotism. Pay: The starting pay is OK for the area but downright awful the longer you stay. Because they increase starting salaries faster than employee salary, a new hire will likely make more than an engineer with 1-3 years of experience. The only real raises happen during promotions E2 (1-2 years), E SR (3-5 years), E Spec (8-11 years). Attrition: The attrition is obviously horrendous at EB. This is the best litmus test of how subpar a company really is. I am convinced that unless someone is stuck here because they have ties to eastern CT, the only reason they are here is because they cannot find another job. Amenities: You have to pay for water (from a office water cooler) in some buildings. You always have to pay for coffee. Retirement parties get almost no money after 35 years of service (just enough to make other employees sad when contemplating their own retirement). The college re-imbursement program is a joke. Supervisors don’t take employees out to lunch when they start (very common at other B level companies). They give employees a turkey right after thanksgiving, I can only assume because they are cheaper. The bonus is unequivocally bad compared to other engineering companies and they have recently reduced it for engineers. Note: Reason the amenities really bothers me: If EB is so stingy and cares so little about its employees that it will not provide basic and common office amenities, how can you expect EB to value you in any other area? If EB can save money by underpaying, reducing benefits (health care benefits have gotten progressively worse over the years), or shafting its employees in any way to save money, they will unapologetically shaft you. EB regularly puts profits over employee morale or retention. Parking: The parking in New London and Groton is horrendous. It has been that way since the 1980s apparently and nothing has changed. They have done nothing. So add 20 minutes to your commute (both ways) to find a parking spot and take the shuttle to your building. Note: Recently the parking situation in New London has become nigh on catastrophic. EB cancelled the overflow parking near the New London offices during covid and has not (and seemingly will not) re-acquire enough parking for their employees. They are doing construction on the small parking garage while simultaneously directing employees to return to the office. There is literally not enough parking and now employees have no real choice but to foot the bill and find paid parking themselves. Office: You will have to work at EB for probably 10+ years to get your own CUBICLE. Before that you will share 4-12 person cubes. This NOT normal. Any engineering company I have worked/interned for provides, at the bare minimum, a full cubicle for each engineer. Quite a few provide a full office. The longer I have worked at EB the more normal it feels but it really is completely unacceptable. Progressiveness: I could elaborate quite a bit here but my main complaint is the inexcusable lack of WFH. Covid illuminated the reality that WFH is productive and can be done securely for EB but they are pulling it back for engineering. Makes no sense at all.

#1 Con is the Culture. EB Culture is just.... atrocious. There are simply no kind words for it. It's stuck in the dark ages of old salty shipmates that are posturing themselves as the most impressive people without ever being vulnerable. The company will not really punish you for lackluster performance but they will also never go out of their way to make work more enjoyable for ACTUAL high performers. The result is a place where the unimpressive are comfortable, and the high octane achievers are frustrated. As you've probably seen in other reviews, these people simply do not stay at EB for long. There are some other stupid corporate quirks about EB that suck as a salaried employee, but honestly they aren't bad enough to make me detract a star. Most companies have garbage like expense reporting or some variety of logistics difficulties. The people whining about that stuff are pointing at the symptom and not the illness (the culture). Raises. Studies have shown that employees would rather make 60k in a place where everyone makes 40k vs 100k in a place where everyone makes 120k. They want the opportunity to grow above their peers if they invest the effort. But the system at EB is basically just non-meritocratic, like most government work. I get my 3% and maybe a little bonus and I don't complain (outwardly). Does bum me out though. Corporation-isms. This one is more of a feeling than a legitimate gripe, but there are so many things at EB that are just the most stereotypical "corporate office-y" things that just drain your life force when you face them day-in, day-out. This doesn't seem to affect the management at all though so they ignore the employees and refuse to spend money making improvements. Such an easy fix to boost morale, but the "ism" prevails.