So much micromanagement and so many silos prevent people from getting their jobs done. There is a lot of emphasis on following convoluted processes rather than getting things done. There is a lot of focus on generating documentation that everyone knows that nobody reads and couldn't find if they tried. Knowledge sharing is minimal between silos and the documentation produced doesn't get distributed to those needing it.
HR practices are horrible. It takes forever to hire new resources, and the old boys network makes it hard to get good people in. The budget is tight, and so HR rigs the annual reviews to prevent bonuses and promotion. HR policies make it hard to transfer internally, and make you a target when attempting to.
Work-life issues are particularly bad. Lots of desk checks. You are expected to be on call 24 hours a day, but answering calls at 3 am isn't considered for why you aren't at your desk for a phone in call at 7 am (even when half the people in the meeting are also calling in). It is an international company with most meetings involving people across the world, but they still haven't figured out how to manage that, treating local people specially which leads to tensions among the remotely distributed teams.
It is very management heavy, and everyone knows that can't last. Every manager is staking out their territory and making their job seem important. This leads to a lot of finger pointing and chest beating, and not a lot of problem solving. Which leads to micromanagement, asking for project updates many times a day and shifting priorities every time you talk to any manager. You often report to more than one manager, and when they tell you different things . . . nothing good can come of that. The upper management seems to have a decent plan, but it doesn't filter down the chain, and nobody seems to notice.
They still haven't seemed to figured out how to be a distributed, international company. With major operations in Germany, Singapore and the US, there is constant infighting about who has control, and seemingly nobody that can actually make a decision. This leads to constant infighting and parallel projects where nobody can gain the upper hand to implement their vision. Many projects trudge along for years with local approval but global discord, nobody willing to pull the plug and nobody having the authority to go forward. There is a lot of good work that has been done but unimplemented. The political garbage seems to have more power than any engineering management, but is less effective due to some disconnect between upper and lower management.
