General Dynamics Electric Boat Reviews

Software tools are decades behind most industry...and...most government (e.g., no electronic workflows to coordinate and document reviews/approvals of documents). Many facilities are like a time-warp to the 1970s and 1980s, but with the decades of filth and wear and tear impossible to overlook. Extraordinarily inefficient -- no incentive to gain efficiencies as inefficiencies increase billable hours to the government. EB is nearly a monopoly, definitely a monopsony and these are notoriously inefficient, at best, anywhere. If you are at all familiar with commercial practices the archaic approaches & infrastructure at EB will appall you. As a taxpayer you will be doubly appalled realizing how GD-EB is bilking the Govt, your tax dollars, for every nickel and dime way they can with pervasive inefficiencies. EB is incentivized to be inefficient in this regard. Not the kind of environment that one is proud of. But, still for a while, there are many people with 30 and 40 years with the company, they do not know how far the rest of the world has passed this twisted economic bubble by. That's another source of inertia to modernization. As they retire, and the young talent continues is mass exodus, the loss in corporate "tribal knowledge" does not bode well for this company's long-term prospects. Unlike many of the bemoaned trends in the company that have persisted for decades, this loss of talent from both ends of the company's talent pool (see below about the young talent's exodus) is unprecedented and the efforts to 'do something about it' appear impotent. Managers do not make decisions, committees do. Rarely is there an accountable person in charge. Getting anything accomplished commonly requires interdepartmental bullying to browbeat other groups to do their job. There are certainly exceptions, but overall this is very very common. And, the specific problem areas are very well known. See above for why this is permitted to persist. And persist it does. Many toxic and disruptive managers, some with a well-known reputation throughout the company; so dysfunctional that in other companies the behaviors routinely exhibited would never be tolerate beyond once. Yet they are retained. Sure, some are good at their core jobs and do contribute, but they still leave a trail of wreckage and apathy in their wake. Many victims of such abusers creatively slow-roll their productivity on projects associated with these disturbed people. The internal "core values" website is seething with tales of such woe and misery, along with performance appraisal processes tainted by bias and favoritism. Pages after pages..... Some divisions have 100 percent, or nearly so, turnover of new engineers every three to five years -- long enough to gain some experience and then move on better paying jobs where all facets of employment are "better." Those that stay do so for a variety of reasons, with one obvious being family ties to the local area; one's coworkers include numerous extended families. Politics is bad enough in any large glacial organization, EB takes it to a new levels with nepotism. Be prepared. Salary employees "punch a clock." Really. They get paid full hours for 40 hr weeks, or 60 hr weeks... but get docked if during a pay period they work less than 40. Overtime is expected, but "comp time" is unheard of. The dis-incentivising effect is exactly what one expects: People work less ("if the minimum wasn't good enough it wouldn't be the minimum") and salary people "watch the clock" just like the hourly. In the nice newish building where the senior managers, including the Program Manager of the future COLUMBIA submarine resides, are some displays showing off some design innovations. This one sums up just how archaic even the engineering is: A curved pipe at a sharp turn is one of a handful of displays ballyhooed as among the major EB design innovations -- a curved pipe connected by two straight fittings at its ends in place of a 90 degree fitting at the elbow of the bend (I wish I was making that up). That is the sophistication at this company and such backwardness is pervasive at all levels thru all systems an organizations. Many companies have moved or are moving to designs made possible only by additive manufacturing. If you want to be involved in real technology development and innovation, consider EB's contractors. Working on submarines sure seems cool from the outside, but far & away most of the real technology is coming from EB suppliers, not EB. It's the difference between being involved in real engineering -- designing innovative technologies versus figuring out how to cram other's neat designs into a big tube. If you want to work in an environment and culture that is stagnated in the 1950s (and often enough a crass verbally abusive culture at that), with what appears at a glance to include the accumulated wear and tear and accumulated filth from that era to the present then by all means come to EB.

This is my first job out of college and it is the worst job I could have ever imagined having. First, it was like pulling teeth to get a response from HR on the status of my application. Once I was given the offer and accepted it, it took them almost 5 months to get back to me on any details on my start date or moving. I feel my salary is good for this area, but low for my experience and education generally. I like my coworkers, but there is an overall atmosphere of stress and negativity. My first day was met with surround sound cursing and slamming things around, and it continues to this day. People talk negatively about each other behind their backs on how capable they are at their job, instead of being kind and helpful to that person. We are expected to work overtime and not get paid for it, and I don't mean a few hours - I know someone who works 70+ hours a week and only gets paid for 40 of those hours. They encourage skipping lunch to get work done. I have only been at the company for a few months and I'm being given too much responsibility as a new hire. Last week I was full on yelled at by someone for a mistake that I didn't even make. I'm being expected to do more work than my male counterparts can get away with. Some coworkers who are older can get away with saying mildly sexist things because that is just what has been allowed. There is an uncomfortable amount of Trump propaganda at work. No matter your political opinion, it is inappropriate to have political stuff in the office, but people have flags in their cubicles, or shipyard employees will wear racist Trump t-shirts. When I brought this up saying it made me uncomfortable, I was the one who got in trouble for "bringing up politics at work," even though all I was saying was that politics at work made me uncomfortable Don't get me started on COVID. It was like pulling teeth to be allowed to work from home 3x a week instead of 2. I am high risk, and there has been a spike in cases in the area. And in the office, I have caught so many people not washing their hands, and administration has a hard time getting people to wear masks. Normally they have new hire events so you can make friends, but because of COVID they didn't even try. Not even a virtual event. So now I live here with no friends or family, and my only social interaction is the 3 people above the age of 40 that I share a cubicle with, but I don't even see them all because of our WFH schedule. I was exposed to COVID in the office, and was expected to not work from home and be in the office before my test results came in even though what I was doing could have been done at home. I am confused why so many people like this company. Maybe I just had bad luck with my department. But please be wary and ask good questions in your interviews.