Pros
Good job for fresh graduates and to learn the ropes, reasonable compensation New engineering grads are put into a “rotation” program where they spend about 6 months in three different parts of the company. It helps to learn about different types of engineering and understand how the company works.
Cons
No WFH option. Management does not communicate with employees about what is going on in the company. You are expected to use PTO any time you are out of the office during normal hours for ANY reason. (Sickness, bereavement, doctor appointment, taking care of sick kid, flat tire, inclement weather, COMPANY CLOSURES, etc. it ALL comes out of PTO). There is no Flex Time either which means if you work 10 hours on Monday but need to leave an hour early for a doctor appointment on Tuesday, they don’t care, you’re expected to either come back after the doctor or use an hour of PTO. Thus PTO runs out very quickly, especially for parents and people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. New parents get 5 days of leave. That’s it. You can give birth to a new baby and be expected to be back at work the following week. Ridiculous and so so outdated. Management is extremely paranoid about their employees and completely lacks trust in them. Badge swipes into and out of the building are monitored to ensure no one is falsely reporting hours. Everyone is expected to take an hour unpaid lunch during work or a half hour unpaid lunch with manager approval. Working through lunch is not an option. Fun activities and decorations are looked down upon. Upper management is extremely out of touch and it is run like an old boys’ club. Management agrees to ridiculous timelines and work agreements with customers without first consulting the employees/team that needs to perform the work. Management is so out of touch that they have no idea how long the work will actually take and thus they constantly overpromise and under deliver to customers , resulting in strained customer relationships. It’s on the backs of employees to work late to appease these customers. Women and minorities are talked down to and many departments are pretty bigoted. Would not feel safe being openly lgbt here. HR does not care about reports of harassment and is only there to protect the company, not you. Women are reported for violating the dress code frequently even when they are wearing something professional and appropriate. Some managers attempt to talk down to and gaslight their employees for the company’s gain. CEO and upper management are Trump supporters. Extreme pressure is put on many new employees without even receiving proper training, under a “sink or swim” mentality. It is really up to whatever department you end up in and how much your older coworkers care, if you receive any training AT ALL. A few years back, during peak covid, employees were expected to come in every Saturday for an indefinite amount of time. A full day, 8 hours, every Saturday, MANDATORY. We did not get comp days. We only had Sundays off. No one knew how long it was going to last, but finally enough people were quitting that they decided they needed to end it and it stopped after 3 full months of this. You would think they learned their lesson after that but shortly thereafter, there was a 48 hour a week minimum requirement (but you were allowed to work long days M-F and didn’t have to come in Saturday). One winter a snow plow hit a natural gas line and the main office building closed. A message was sent to all employees to not come in. Once the gas line was repaired later in the day, a follow up message was sent. Gas line has been repaired, please come in now. You are welcome to either use PTO for the whole day or only for the hours the company was closed. Are you serious? Why are you forcing us to use our own vacation time while the office was closed? We had no choice? Trying to create a warm atmosphere and doing small fun things for the office is looked down upon and considered a waste of time. They are cancelled unless it’s a company-approved activity such as the Halloween costume competition. No regular performance reviews, this is dependent on a per manager basis, but most people I knew never got regular feedback on how they were performing. Management does not take criticism well and is not receptive to feedback. From what I’ve been told, The company used to be a family like environment and much more laid back/friendly, but ever since the HQ moved to Pontiac, it’s a lot more sterile and everyone is treated like robots that have no life outside of the company and their assigned duties. Do not work here if you are a minority, planning for a baby, are a parent, value work life balance, or if you will need to take more than a day off per month for whatever reason.
