Promotion and performance rating system is an utter joke. Raises are based upon a bell curve format with the highest raises more often than not offered to the favorites at the company. There is a lot of cronyism and nepotism at this company and beyond the poor raises this causes, it also brings about resistance to change. For the hard work you put in you'll get a cost of living "raise" with a hand shake a smile even for going above and beyond. If you ask for tips for improvement in the performance rating system, you'll find that the criteria has magically changed from one year to the next.
Work life balance is poor because everybody works 40+ hours of overtime to gain favor for raises. Company values quantity versus quality in this aspect. Overtime is the norm, and if you can get your job done quickly and efficiently you will be rewarded with more work. I have found a great many people working at Lockheed work slowly and inefficiently, which is maddening to the younger generation.
Company priorities aren't straight: Company only cares about shareholders and it is apparent in many of the internal policies and decisions made. (A coworker of mine had gone to a corporate level meeting in which it was even stated that the#1 priority for the company was its stock price...really?!) Management doesn't practice what they preach as far as corporate values (which are drilled incessantly in the form of yearly training)
Workplace culture is dismal: The entire facility (Central FL) feels like it is stuck in the 80s. There are initiatives to bring diversity and cultural enrichment into the company but it feels very much like management lip service. The biggest issue with the culture is that management does not appreciate any new philosophies or anything beyond the status quo. This is ultimately stagnating progress at the company, and as such will have a hard time firing younger talent to replace the impending retirement wave. Most of the engineers want to fall into a leadership path because they see that it is the easiest way to make a good salary. There are already too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
Slowed growth opportunity: Managers and Engineers of retirement age are also staying in their posts too long and not retiring, leading to little growth or very slow growth opportunity.
Company is stagnant: Leaders are not concerned with new ideas or anything that will "rock the boat" because it could potentially hurt their retirement. This kind of attitude stagnates a company and is going to have its lunch eaten by smaller mid level defense companies that can grow and adapt. It is apparent that the company is stagnant because it continues to absorb smaller companies that compete with our product lines, gut their engineering staff, and sell said product without any reason to innovate.
