Harris Reviews

Pros

Decent pace, decent salary, decent location. At times the job can be boring and slow. Other times overwhelming. Usually it was acceptably interesting.

Cons

Communication from upper management is really sub-par. It gives employees the impression that the senior managemers are either very disorganized or are fighting eachother.

Advice to Senior Management

More open communication. As mentioned above, when the information from the top is scarce and confusing/contradicting, rumors begin spreading within the company.

Pros

good place to work, low pressure, can learn a lot since they average tenure age is very high, good overall process practice, safe

Cons

be more diverse, clear path to grow, allow employees to move dynamically within the company

Advice to Senior Management

open more to diversity which by itself will lead to new business opportunities outside of government work.

Pros

Great team members that actually carry their weight. Management that actually listens. Flexible hours and the pay is excellent.

Cons

Other groups within the company seem to not function as well as our group. Lack of processes to control work flow between departments.

Pros

I love having every other Friday off, and work 9 hour days.

Cons

Many of the PFA Level 3 and 4's do not have college degrees and have work experience of many years. They now are working with college grads that are more advanced in learning and the PFA level 3/4's feel intimidated and so they only teach you enough so that you can not unseat them, basically believeing in job security. Atleast that has been my experience.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to retain top talent, you need to have managers who understand and are willing to truly work with their new bright talent, otherwise if they are mistreated, they may go elsewhere.

Pros

Decent work-life balance with 9/80 work schedules. Reasonably cheap and safe location to be working at. Traveling on early Monday mornings out of Orlando, company pays for Sunday night stay in Orlando.

Cons

Not sure how Harris is trying to be more international but is not at all a conducive environment for a diverse work force. Many jobs are US citizens only in corporate office!!! There is pressure to be "white" and "male" in order to get promotions and recognition. Pressure to conform to religion (Christianity) at work as well.

Advice to Senior Management

Start with diversity at Harris CHQ! This is one of the most homogeneous environment I've ever worked in. I worked in Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland, Texas, California, etc.

Pros

Pay is great and the people are awesome usually have 40 to 50 hour week but can take all the over time i want

Cons

very diorganized people and community inside, they have to get the hierarchy back to the way it was before the layoffs. soon to be a top rated company again

Advice to Senior Management

get some of the real talent and direct them to a more specific job and market products differently according to their function and not their looks.

Pros

If you like challenge work, this place will keep you busy. It requires fast thinking and quick turn around. There is no similarity of product lines, and it is impossible to sychrolize unless we end product life cycle. If you are outstanding person, you can make a difference and be noticed.

Cons

Harris has many interface major software running in different functional teams, in different locations. You have to be intellengent and with strong computer skills on top of your normal specialty.

Advice to Senior Management

Simply product lines, keep the high runners so company can make profits faster. To general employees, it requires same amount of effort to maintain high and low runner products. Do the math, please!

Pros

Harris is the only game in town for many professions. The majority of the employees are nice, friendly people and enjoyable to work with.

Cons

Engineering managers paint a smile on their faces in the morning and maintain it all day while telling their employees what they want to hear. The next employee may be told the exact opposite if that gets him/her out of the office. EM's are experts at conveying untruths and denials. Each section seems to have a good ole boys/girls club and if you are not an active member, don't expect your thoughts/ideas to be heard or to be compensated for your hard work or suggestions that would benefit Harris. The EM's don't want to hear experienced peoples recommendation. They only want to utilize their own ideas and will get support from the selected buddies. Employees used to be able to disagree with an EM, discuss and resolve the issue. Todays EM's theory is, "It;s my way or no way". The employees at Harris have learned that escalation to director level or HR is useless because it is always a "No Win" situation. Harris protects their EM's by constantly changing directors and HR personell. This allows them the, "I was not aware of the history excuse" when approached. HR has always sided with the highest level person.

Advice to Senior Management

VP's need to get out among the troops in a non-threatening atmosphere, collect some historical useful data and clean house. The directors and EM's are all afraid of stepping on each others toes. This is where the cut backs need to occur.

Pros

- stable company with reliable and consistent work, hours, raises, promotions
- many friendly people to work with and learn from
- good benefits package
- good perks for educational advancement and training

Cons

- very hierarchical, political work environment
- dual managements structure (1 manager for current project, 1 for overall career development) is confusing and your career development manager (in charge of reviews, raises, etc) doesn't get to know you or your work directly but rather just interviews your other manager and relays feedback....very weird

Advice to Senior Management

- use a single manager who gets to know you and your work
- maybe have a secondary mentor independent of your current project but don't make this your manager

Pros

The worker-bee engineers are outstanding at what they do. New salaried employees start off accruing 3 weeks of paid vacation. Depending on which division you work in, you may have an every-other-Friday-off schedule.

Cons

Management is very oppressive, and "controls" their employees rather than "leading" them. Going above and beyond is often punished, not rewarded. Management is still a very old-school style which is not keeping up with modern trends, nor is it effective any more. Harris has too much overhead, process, and regulation to allow it to respond quickly and efficiently to customer needs.

Advice to Senior Management

Harris is no longer competitive in the markets that they claim dominance in. They need to do some serious cost-cutting and get rid of much of the corporate bloat that causes them to no longer be agile and nimble in response to customer requests. Also, so many times, Harris tries to tell the customer what they want, rather than solve the problem at hand. Customers recognize this and are purchasing services from other companies who are responsive to the problem at hand.