Working at Lockheed Martin — Reviews by Employees

Lockheed is a mega-corporation, and you feel like a number with no potential for personal or career growth. There are something like 130,000 employees, so you really have no say in the company. Co-workers and management are mostly slackers because there is little incentive to perform, other than the minimum possible amount of work. Pay raises are based on a bell-curve, as opposed to actual performance. Government defense spending is at an all time high, when that inevitably drops, jobs here will be scarce. The salary they pay you and the amount of work demanded of you is just enough to keep you there.

Pay - What can I say? I used to work for the Feds and left 5 years ago to come to LM. By now I would have been a GS-11 Step 10 if I stayed in the Government- which is 2K more than I am currently making at LM after 5 years service. They suppress pay by lowballing some as an experienced professional - and once you are in - expect to receive some unfair reviews (and low or non-existent raises) in order to keep your salary down. That is if you are not connected. Also, they have a quota that so many must receive low ratings, regardless of performance. All while the CEO makes 25 mil. bonus every year.

Respect - No comment

Benefits - average

Job Security. We are going through a layoff drill right now.

Work Life Balance - they will work you into the ground if you let them. You're expected to make up personal time off by flexing out whenever possible. Moorestown is the only place to have a union - so therefore management still has to pay us for extra hours worked. If ASPEP goes it will be just like all the other branches - work 50 hours a week with no extra pay because they can now classify you as salaried.

Career Potential Growth - Get a Master's degree on their dime and bolt. The company lowballs experienced professionals - and then makes it difficult or impossible to get promoted to the appropriate level without going through HR/Union's protocol. They have ELDP for the young grads. They have System Engineering Rotational Program for older folks- I hear it used to be an honor to be selected for that program. In my experience, it just might be a politically correct way of management to dispose of people they consider excess. People are rotated to different departments for two years and nobody has a clue or a plan what to do with them when they graduate from this program. I found myself displaced after being put on this program and trying to come back to the department I started at. My management didn't have a job for me to come back to. Then I was encouraged to take a transfer in another department where I became trashed by that manager.

Location - average.

Co worker competence - Some are really excellent - the best in their field. Others are just getting by.

Coworker Environment - "Survivor" environment is just about right. I expect Donald Trump to appear any day now. Hostile, rude, intimidating, - rude. Performance reviews are rated on a "bell curve". You are told to set up Goals and Objectives. You meet them. You still get rated bad because you didn't rank well amongst your "peers" ). You ask what their goals and objectives are and management says they don't have to tell you. Your "peers" can also be your "multiraters." Your peers can badmouth you and it ends ups determining your low rating. One even took credit for my work and had negative input into my review. Not surprisingly, he ranked higher and got a better raise/review. I asked someone in HR what my "multiraters" (which I didn't pick) said about me - and the reply was "you'll never get that."

The union is no help because they are really part of management - you are on your own.

Run, don't walk, away from "opportunities" here. Benefits get worse every year. There is no work/life balance. Two weeks of paid time off includes vacation, sick days, etc. They claim to offer personal time, however it's "advanced" and has to be made up. Many coworkers will not be able to take any vacation this year because we were required to use vacation time if we couldn't make it to work during the snowstorms and blizzard that hit Baltimore this winter.

The bottom line is all that matters - stockholders rule and employees are slaves.

Time off is nearly non-existent. There is no respect for employees, as evidenced by the fact that the offices remained open during blizzard conditions, and even after city residents were not allowed to drive on the streets to get to work. Employees were forced to use vacation time or take time off without pay.

In most years, raises do not even meet the increases in the cost of living. There is absolutely no potential for promotion or advancement. No training opportunities are offered.

I would agree with other postings on here in that Lockheed Martin is just awful. I hate my job. I've only been there a short time but I know that my skills are wasted and I do the dumbest tasks each day. The company is full of 40+ and 50+ aged white guys who don't want to work with anyone who doesn't have gray hair. And forget about doing a job that you dreamed of doing, you will sit around bored or doing some easy and obsolete job. The place is not fun at all, you will get no joy out of your job. Its just that, a job, by no means a career. I hate Lockheed Martin.

I wish I knew this site existed before I made my decision to work here. If you have a family or are thinking about starting one, look elsewhere. If you are Generation X or Y, skip company LM. My advice, read the other the posts before applying. Just look at the consistency of the responses.

IGNORE THE OTHER POST RATINGS, THIS ONE IS CORRECT.

Good pay, good benefits, but other than that...THIS JOB SUCKS! Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, FL is a TERRIBLE CHOICE for a career. They lose most of the Level 1 and Level 2 employees, who are the early career people right out of college. You job is boring, you won't use anything that you learned in school, and you will go home with a headache and stressed out each day. There is also a unofficial competition of who can work the most overtime. Most of the older employees are ex-military and think that if you don't put in at least 60hrs a week, then you aren't working hard enough. Please! Give me my 40hrs and I'm going home. The Systems Engineers have this Early Career group (for the Level 1's and 2's) where they are trying everything to build up the retention rate. Sorry, won't work! Even if you stay long enough to become a Level 5 (like 20yrs of working), you will still sit in a dusty, raggedy, stinky cubicle just like the Level 1's. They also block all your personal email websites (Yahoo, Gmail, etc.) and other sites. They had Facebook and Myspace and other social networking sites blocked up until a few months ago.

I have a master's degree in engineering and I don't use one bit of it. The work I do, I could easily train a monkey to do. I had so much potential in college. I designed things. I was creative. I had hopes and dreams. If my past professors knew what I was doing for a career they would be in shock, and feel sorry for me. At Lockheed I just can't wait until the day I die. Well, not die, but find a new job! I'm ready to get out of here. And don't just take it from me, read other reviews on here. Do an internet search. You will see that Lockheed is not one of the best places to have a career. If you do work here, don't stay more than 2 years. And never leave another good job thinking Lockheed is better. For all of you college students, we know that Lockheed has a strong presence on campuses and at career fairs, but its all a hoax. You will be miserable here. I can't wait to leave this hellhole!

Benefits: Poor. I have seen a 50% increase in my deductibles for health insurance. Elimination of benefits. Worst: lack of effective managment, poor 1st line managers. Discrimination. Unethical behaviors are rampant. I only stay because I have so many years invested in my retirement that I am staying till I can retire. I don't recommend this to anyone.

Career development: deplorable. Company spent manu dollars on career training..but never provides opportunities for advancement. Good old boy network ia alive and well at LMC

Was really enjoying working for lockheed until they signed me up for the new helth insurance they have. !st I dont need it because I am a military dependent 2nd It cost 417 dollars a week. I make 50 buck for 40 hours work, and they say I can not drop it because it is PRe TAX deducted. All I have to say after tommarow is good by.. Hello Mcdondalds

I was there when it was General Dynamics and nothing seems to have changed after Lockheed took over. I don't know too much about the engineering department but in the program office and contracts, it's a joke. Whoever kisses ass the best wins in promotions and NOT being laid off. BTW, if you are a high school dropout, the contracts department is for you. You can make a good living there as college graduates are frowned upon. It's the old-school-stupid ass-redneck network....unless you are a TCU or Texas graduate and walk around faking like you're actually working all day, eh Tony?!