-Siloed organization. Some subsystems like electrical and hydraulics had strong central guidance, but a (e.g.) sprayer engineer and a dozer engineer could be fighting the same problem with (e.g.) coolant leaks, unbeknownst to each other.
-Project timelines on quality improvement work, at times seemed more tied to "keep a manager 3-4 levels up happy" than "invest the time necessary to have the right solution". If we don't have time to do the right thing now, when do we have time to do it again?
-No annual cost-of-living adjustment / raise. Instead, HR periodically did an evaluation of what the market was paying for each category of role, and set a salary range for that role. You had to have been making less than the bottom of the new range to get an increase. (E.g. making up numbers: for an individual contributor grade X, the old range was $75-$85k, new range is $80k-$90k. If you were at $78k on the old range you got bumped up to $80k, if you were at $82k on the old range you stayed put.]
-performance reviews for most of my years were on the Jack Welch 3x3 (nine-box) grid, with the answers to an ever-changing set of 10-15 multiple-choice questions seemingly being weighted to determine your grid box. (This went to a linear 1-4 under Scott Wine.) In some years, upper management would make managers adjust some scores to fit an expected distribution.
-Sclerotic annual review process. You did your self-evaluation early in 4th quarter to start the process, and might not sit down for your annual review with your manager till late in 1st quarter.
