General Dynamics Land Systems reviews

There used to be many opportunities for advancement and professional development at GDLS but not anymore. Over the past few years everything has been tightened to the point of being nearly impossible to get any training or advancement. Your individual performance is not rated. Instead you are put into a ranking order under a typical bell curve. Recently those in the lower 15% of the bell curve were laid off and upper management requested that the next round of performance reviews must match the bell curve of last years. This means that since the bottom 15% are now gone there must be an equivalent number of people shifted down into the "not achieving" category through no fault of their own. Moral is completely in the dumps with few people feeling satisfied at work. There have been two rounds of layoffs and it seems like more are likely. Most of the high achievers have left the company. If you are looking for some experience then you can get some professional experience at GDLS but then you'll need to get out. If you already are a professional with experience then I'd avoid this place.

GDLS is one of the most powerful companies in the world, yet, the management cares very little about its employees. Many of the people in leadership have no college degrees while the people who are pulling the weight of the company have college degrees and are discriminated against because of it. People with degrees struggle to receive raises, or in some instances, to be hired from contract status while people with no degrees continue to move up the ladder. In addition, contractors who ask to do labor tasks so that they can gain hands-on experience to move up the ladder are denied the chance to do so. Managers tend to migrate toward and assist workers who are less inclined to succeed while quickly becoming jealous and belittling workers who display creative and intelligent minds. Workers with a lot of responsibility and aptitude generally are shunned and held back from achieving their potential. Furthermore, they are forced to sit back while struggling to pay bills on minimal pay while watching workers with less aptitude or no degrees rise through the ranks of the company. Nevertheless, these intelligent workers must pick up the slack of their newly promoted incompetent managers while the managers receive all of the credit and bear no conscience for doing so. In addition, in most departments, there are some managers that actually have a conscience and would like to change things for the driven, degree-holding worker, but there is usually one main department manager or program manager who holds the keys to change, but will not do so and chooses to hold everyone back. In some instances, these unit managers will even move or demote any team leader or smaller manager who merely suggests that the treatment of competent, degree-holding workers must change! If you work for GDLS, be careful. Do not let them compromise your abilities or mental health. This is a great company to start and learn new things; however, you must quickly move on before they try to get rid of you out of jealousy or at the least, compromise your self-worth to the extent that you begin to believe that you don't deserve anything better. You really do deserve better - now get out and strive for that which you deserve in corporate America!