General Dynamics Information Technology Employee Reviews about "upper management"

Pros

Almost impossible to get fired. You can lay low under radar and do nothing and are never questioned by upper management.

Cons

Promote within -- most employees are promoted to positions they are not qualified for. Sales Team is lazy and makes little to no sales.

Pros

Beneifts, PTO, work life balance

Cons

This company is the absolute worst. It is the most stressful and poor management that I have ever encountered. Upper management doesn't respond to your inquiries unless another superior above them contacts them for you. Managers doesn't respond to emails or phone calls, you have to continuously call (at least 5 or 6 times to get an answer) and forward emails (at least 3 or 4 times) hoping that you get a response. When you do, its normally after a deadline has passed and you have been penalized for not meeting the metric requirements, and of course if you don't, you don't get a pay raise. Imagine that, doing all of the field work and not getting a pay raise because your managers lack of communication. The manager is never penalized for their lack of communication or lack of professionalism but sends out weekly emails out for individuals to meet the metric requirements, what sense does that make? For this job as a background investigator, they tell that you they will reimburse you for mileage since you drive your personal car and that they will give you a credit card for job related expenses (parking, obtaining records etc etc). BI's are told that they would drive in any direction up to 40 miles (this was reasonable since we are driving our personal vehicles), this has dramatically changed to 100+ miles in any direction, truth is drive wherever as long as you don't end up in another state. And the reimbursement for mileage is a lie. When you put in your for mileage reimbursement, they subtract that from the job related expenses that you had to use the credit card for, like parking or obtaining records. For example, say you drove 90 miles, the total reimbursement for that would be $45.00 and you used the credit card to pay for gas to drive those 90 miles, say that equals $35.00 and then you pay $10.00 for parking, so your overall total is $45.00, yeah you guessed it, you don't any reimbursement for using your personal vehicle, it all goes to the company card that you had to use to do the job. The background investigator gets NOTHING. And when you talk to the manager, they tell to you drive even further. This company is going downhill, it is always being bought out by another company (3x times since I've been here). It sucks and they take advantage of their employees. The job stress is high because of the lack of communication and constant reminders of metrics that you can never meet because your manager, and yes, you get days off and great benefits but at the cost of constantly being stressed? No thanks.

Pros

Minimal supervision. GD corporate umbrella added infrastructure, support, and credibility to the Wireless Group, which is under the Information Technology Division.

Cons

INTEGRITY The underlying theme was a lack of integrity. It was very evident that the Wireless Upper Management accepted contracts and then struggled to deliver on the contracts and promises to the client. • Upper management made commitments to clients without a plan on how to deliver. • Multiple construction/installation contractors outright refused to work with GD due to, saying 'I will never work with GD again.' and citing payment delays over 6 months and non-payment from previous projects. • Project Managers did not follow basic project management processes and procedures. • Team roles (construction, admin, site acquisition, management) were not filled months after they should have been so that there was a huge backlog of work. What work was completed was done by other team members lacking skills and experience so that much work had to be corrected and resubmitted. • Staff, contractors, and even clients were not held accountable for deadlines, quality of work, and overall commitments. • Project management tools and systems were not in place. When built, minimal internal training was provided to staff. Once built, the project management tools barely functioned with bugs and incompatibilities showing very little tested was completed prior to launch. • Close out packages were not established prior to work being completed or approved by clients. • Entire work groups were fired or quit - turnover was very high. • Inexperienced staff were hired and provided very little training or support. I witnessed multiple GD Wireless managers and employees outright lie to clients, supervisors, contractors, and staff. Examples: • 'Yes, that part was ordered.' • “Yes, we have a PO for …” • “Yes, that site is ready for…” • 'Construction was started, is at this milestone, or was completed.' • 'Yes, GD has a plan for that.' • 'Yes, GD is fully prepared.' • “GD submitted that paperwork on this date…” • “GD has a system for that.” • “That system/tool is up and running.” • “We do not have any issues with …” I was asked by multiple managers to work overtime 'off the clock' as an hourly contractor, saying they would find somebody else if I did not. The carrot of being hired as a full time GD employee was dangled as an incentive, but the conversion rate of contractors to employees was very low and the majority of those hired were then laid off as projects ended. In summary, this was the most frustrating and challenging position I have ever had. It did not need to be that way. The work itself was not hard. It was the way GD approached the work and the people hired to manage the work and the projects.

Pros

Competitive salary and benefits package.

Cons

Where do I begin? They do not believe in work/life balance, employees are expected to work long hours, including weekends. People in upper management are completely out of touch and/or ignore concerns of their employees. I complained multiple times before I finally quit, and nothing was done. Some folks in management definitely should not be in management. Employees are overworked and expected to carry very heavy workloads that make it impossible to keep up with the work. There is no recognition of hard work for internal support roles, you never hear 'thank you' from management. There was an expectation that you would take classes, but it was virtually impossible because of the workload and long hours put in at the office.

Pros

Most of my pros were due to having a great manager: - Always respected - Gives a great deal of ownership (no micromanagement) - Great training throughout employment, learn a lot - Great work life balance - Great tight knitted team, occasional team lunch and occasional free bfast paid for by the business area - Other departments are mostly competent and there is good team work within the org - Overall, everyone is pretty sharp and owns their work - Upper management treats you with respect - Benefits include tuition reimbursement, health incentive payouts, etc

Cons

- Like most corporate offices, the raises are pretty disappointing unless your manager hooks it up - Some departments can fall short on carrying their weight and upper management are left to battle out whose job is what - Not necessarily a con but you gotta aggressively seek out promotion opportunities, they won't be given out easily. - 401k is okay, health benefits aren't bad but could be better

Pros

Opportunity to get in depth experience in all aspects of Sales, Contracting, Proposal Management, business development, recruiting, hiring and managing personnel.

Cons

Upper management is bonused on your business development and capture efforts. You had very little leeway to be innovation in solution development. Company is very risk averse. Senior management encourages Program Managers to let seasoned contract personnel go at the end of contract cycles to recruit new lower cost talent for project recompetition.

Pros

Providing the consumer support for the Affordable Care Act and Medicare is a very rewarding and important job. If you can remain focused on the people you are helping and the positive way you are impacting their lives then you will enjoy the workplace.

Cons

Very few incentives for employees. The pay is not competitive. The decisions made by upper management indicate that they are not really sure what the 'situation on the ground' is at any given moment. The hours expected from the supervisory and managerial staff are pretty extreme for the level of pay.

Pros

Company was good for the first year.

Cons

Initially was able to participate in areas in which I had significant subject matter expertise. Upper management seems oblivious to tech so middle management had to translate needs...and does so poorly. See people with little expertise get ownership of projects and they go nowhere. Poor training opportunities for remote workers - all training seems to be focused on larger offices. Expense handling systems are at best onerous and at worst beyond frustrating. Pay seems average but benefits may be the weakest of any company I have ever worked at. Rarely see kudos for accomplishments.

Pros

-Upper management is easily accessible and understands needs of workers -Collaborative and open environment

Cons

-Lack of stimulating projects

Pros

Opportunities for career advancement exist if you are willing to work hard, network, establish the right relationships and work long hours.

Cons

No work life balance exists. Managers seem to hire from the outside versus promoting from within. Not a lot of communication exists between upper management and the rest of the company.