Fast-paced, tons of quality work, innovative
Pros
High quality of work. Challenging projects that support national defense and protect the U.S. warfighter. Senior management has a vision and regularly articulates it to employees. Most employees are decent, dedicated and hardworking. New Andover HQ is a major improvement over the tired Chelmsford facility. Recent acquisitions are opening up new opportunities for people to grow their skills and experience.
Cons
Workload - Poor work life balance; the workload is high and ever expanding. Partially offsetting this are quality work and teams of dedicated people. HR function - challenging, abrupt personalities in HQ HR function. Difficult to obtain HR support and the HR team doesn't understand Mercury's defense business model and the subtleties of that model; HR acts as if we are a tech company serving commercial clients. Business systems - substantial changes to our business systems within the past year. Some of the systems work well (Skype for business, expense reporting, project planning), some work OK (Solium Shareworks), and some were launched with limited or broken functionality (time tracking, vacation requests). You can now submit expense reports from your phone (finally eliminated paper expense reports this year) but not report time on projects or request time off on a mobile device. IT support - takes a week to obtain routine IT support if you don't mark your request as business critical. IT rolls out major new systems like Skype for business and virtual meeting technology in conference rooms without providing training on how to utilize it. Comp - whether you are a top performer or on track you receive the same 2.5-3% comp increase each year (used to be each 18 months). Mercury calls it a merit increase but it is barely a cost of living adjustment. Recent job architecture project resulted in many odd/ headscratching job titles.
