Northrop is a Good Place to Work??

On the whole, I enjoyed my employment at Northrop Aircraft Company (joined the company Novembe 12, 1975) which later evolved into what we call Northrop Grumman Corporation. I have met a lot of good people, and done a lot of good things.

The legacy pension is good, and the health plan for retirees is excellent. To see how I using the health plan, look to the links at the upper right corner of this page under "MICHAEL'S HEALTH UPDATES".

My family and I have done well by Northrop Grumman. The house is paid for. With some budgeting and frugality, we were able to put the youngest daughter through private school, and then through MIT. She graduated June 2009 with degrees in Course 11 and Course 14, Urban Planning and Studies, and Economics respectively with NO loans or scholarships (no "financial need" shown). She did turn down scholarships from Harvey Mudd school of engineering, UC Regents Scholarship from UCLA and UC Berkeley, Olin School of Engineering. Caltech and Princeton did not offer any financial aid.

My wife and I gave our daughter our blessings and approval to whatever makes her happy, as she has made the most of all of the opportunities that we were able to offer to her.

Thank You, Northrop Grumman, for the job (certainly not a career) and pay that enabled this to happen!

NOW THIS IS THE GOOD PART
"Northrop is a Good Place to Work" was most true when Jack Northrop was walking amongst the emeployees. He created the Northrop Recreation Club (NRC) for the benefit and recreation of the employees. The NRC sponsored the Toastmasters club in January 1953 which I joined in 1978 and of which I am still a member.

Now it is more about "Shareholder Value" and all the other buzz words we hear as motivation for the worker drones.The typical employee is considered nothing more than an employee ID with a associated skill set, totally interchangeable and replaceable in the interests of efficiency and productivity.

Published company documents on "Quality Policy" show that Integrated Systems employees are dedicated to:

* Relentless pursuit of internal and external customer satisfaction

* Integrating total quality into every aspect of our operations to satisfy all stakeholder requirements

* Continuous improvement in our people, processes, technology and products

Similarly there are buzz words on "Environmental Policy" and "Safety and Health Policy".

UNFORTUNATELY, "Northrop Grumman is a good place to work" is NOWHERE to be found.

Management is done through intimidation and humiliation, with fear and shame thrown in. Many of our employees are fearful of their livelihood being taken away from them. The manager is the boss who demands respect from the employees, but gives very little respect, if any, to the employees.

The manager has to be bold and tough, a take-charge person. Let the employee be the humble one. After all, the manger has the title, and all that the employee have are the technical degrees, and years of prior experience. The manager has the certificate to "manage processes".

Despite not knowing as much the the employee might know, the manager will decide the "desired results" BEFORE the work is done, not necessarily right way or wrong way, but done the Northrop Grumman way. After all, through the skillful manipulation of assuptions and inputs, the employee comes up with the necessary "Garbage In" to get the desired "Garbage Out."

The manager will in addition to the desired outcome, decide what methodology to use, along with the budget and schedule.

Sometimes an experienced employee with 20 - 30 years of relevant experience will see the flaws in the approach and methodology, and that it would be near impossible to meet the budget and schedule. If the employee DARES to voice his opinion and not agree completely with the manager, the employee is not a "team player". In extreme cases, the employee will receive a "First Warning" and "Performance Improvement Program" as part of his rehabilitation.

The employee experiences fear and shame of possibly losing his livelihood.

The employee suffers intimidation and humiliation of giving in to the manager's directions and doing what the employee knows to not be right.

This is why new employees fresh out of school are SO VALUABLE - they don't know any better and will always agree with the manager.

What would it be like IF THE EMPLOYEES ARE RESPECTED UP FRONT, and MOTIVATED TO MAINTAIN and NOT LOSE THIS RESPECT?

Too much to imagine.

Disclaimer: SORRY - This is only what I know from my point of view. No lies, just what I see as the truth.