-Very nepotistic (big families run a big business)
-Rigid silos of thought and contribution with wasted parallel initiatives by competing managers
-Denigration of contributions by business staff not in engineering (in other words, leaders often isolate and divide rather than unify and inspire)
-Poorly set up corporate databases making accurate business reporting near impossible (The same person may come to a different conclusion on the same data in the same week in the same reporting period!)
-Company culture that denigrates any work experience not earned at this particular company
-Few avenues of growth or contribution from business staff
-Placing of unqualified engineers (no leadership training or financial/team building experience) into business roles where they devalue basic reporting and make it impossible to even know basic financial outlook
-Culture of fear and insecurity among business staff (Many people seem afraid to contribute in meetings.)
-Can't seem to hold on to the best people and promote them. Good performers tend to commoditize their area and sell it back to the company as a contractor for much higher pay or else go on to good positions in other companies in much less time than they could get a basic promotion at Sandia.
-Very slow pathway to promotion. Minimum is about 7 years in many cases. Even good performers may face 20 years before getting a slot they might have earned in 3-5 years elsewhere.
-The flip side of the determination to never let headcount people go because of performance is that you have some really bad performers causing problems for new people who show them up simply by trying to work hard.
-If you grow fast, contribute a lot, and want to maximize your potential in various settings, this company may not be for you.