Pros
-I have friends in other engineering departments that consider themselves glorified paper-pushers but I love my job, because it's highly technical and challenging, not menial. I definitely feel lucky. -Due to attrition and retirement, chances of getting hired are favorable. -Stable job due to longterm contracts, great starting point, plateaus after a certain point. -Most people are very friendly and people bring in food from time to time.
Cons
-The pros list was hard to come up with. - The higher-ups are wrestling with the attrition problem and there is a general feeling of tension in the company. It feels like many people who have been there for several years resent new hires because they assume they're going to leave. Great way to make me want to stay. -Since I've been here (1 year) a laundry list of employee benefits have been pulled back. 1. no sick/personal days, 2. mandatory overtime (we need to make the schedule!) with no overtime pay (we want you to have a good work life balance!)(what?!) 3. tuition reimbursement program became crap today 4. minuscule raises (dropped from last year) 5. I've heard that the health insurance use to be better - Policies and messages to employees are contradictory e.g. (we want you to develop your career and pursue higher education, we are going to make it damn hard for you though) Overall, it's incredibly frustrating. Even benefits I didn't take advantage of that are pulled off the menu constantly makes you feel like the company is screwing you over. It doesn't help when they try to put a positive spin on it. My biggest problem is with the policy makers of the company. Considering the revenue of the company, maintaining a reasonable tuition reimbursement program is not an insane expenditure (They said it was around 3 million / year). That was the straw the broke the camel's back for me. They are constantly making reasons why you SHOULDN'T stay. Even the part of the reimbursement program that is meant to "reward" those who have been here longer still isn't nearly as good as the old policy; you wind up paying more anyway. Additionally, this sudden change in policy right before the semester was about to start, screwed months of work, from the college professional offices and contacts that were preparing for the semester to the students that diligently applied early and hassled respected coworkers and superiors for recommendations all went in the toilet. What a slap to the face. Yes, I'm very frustrated. At the very least, if you want people to stay, don't make an example by screwing over the people who have been there for decades! They had the greatest number of sick days and are likely to be older, with a higher risk of health problems, for a comparatively meager increase in vacation days. I could really go on forever, maybe publish a book. I truly respect the work that happens here and seeing a submarine come together successfully is an awe-inspiring and humbling experience. I feel like the higher ups are sabotaging a great company.