Overworked and Underpaid - Government Contractor Leidos Employee Review

2.0
2 Oct 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fun team that could be miserable together and bond over it You can get experience doing 9 different jobs for your resume Career opportunities are there, but depending on your program, management will always want to hire a non-Leidos contractor instead of promote from within.

Cons

When one person on the team leaves, is laid off, or out on medical leave, they don't back-fill that position and expect the remaining teammates to pick up the slack without any increase in pay. Employees expected to work unpaid overtime (actually told it's against company policy to pay employees for working overtime) Gender pay gap is strong here; men make up to 20% more for doing the same job (or a level lower) as their women coworkers Benefits received depend on your team: Some programs do not allow their employees to work from home, despite Leidos corporate having a policy that allows for WFH. That means some Leidos employees get benefits that others do not. Health benefits are pretty awful and PTO is capped at 20 days Management is unaware of the actual hard workers; every bonus that went out on the program went to someone who didn't actually do their job--someone else did it for them and made them look good.

Explore other reviews about Leidos

5.0
20 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

great work life balance nice

Cons

none, i like it here

3.0
27 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Leidos provides opportunities to work on complex government programs with meaningful technical challenges. Depending on the contract and team, there can be exposure to cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, systems engineering, networking, and mission-focused work that is difficult to find elsewhere. The company also has a large footprint, so there may be internal opportunities for people who are able to navigate the organization.

Cons

My experience was that the quality of management varied significantly by program. Communication around expectations, roles, and priorities was often inconsistent, and decisions that affected employees were not always explained clearly or handled in a transparent way. Work-life balance also depended heavily on local management. Flexibility that existed in practice could be changed quickly, and employees were sometimes left trying to reconcile changing expectations with existing workloads and personal obligations. In my view, the company would benefit from stronger oversight of program-level management decisions, especially where employee responsibilities, workplace flexibility, and performance feedback are concerned. I also found that technical decision-making was sometimes driven more by schedule pressure than by sound engineering judgment. On complex government programs, that can create unnecessary risk and frustration for employees who are trying to do things correctly.

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