Pros
The worker bees are the only thing keeping people here. I have worked with some of the most amazing people at Woodward. I am fortunate to be in a group where the people truly like each other and spend a considerable time outside of work together. The benefits are still above average, however the health benefits have been severely slashed the past two years. The work is interesting, however since we are such a "lean" company most people are stuck in a silo working on the same thing day after day. The products and engineering that come from Woodward are top notch. Even short staffed, there is no corner cutting and people take great pride in what they do.
Cons
Culture: The culture at Woodward has changed over the past 10 years from that of a small "mom and pop" company to that of every other large corporation. Anyone other than management is seen as overhead and a burden to the company. The "lean" culture that we have adopted serves simply as an excuse to not backfill when someones leaves. The executive management lives in their own world and only cares about meeting monthly numbers and pleasing the shareholders. Pay/Benefits Pay is below the average, which they can get away with as their is not enough competition in Fort Collins. If another large engineering firms moves into town and actually pays people, Woodward will be hurting. The raise structure is laughable at best as most people are paid the "affordability rate" which is almost always less than 3%. There is absolutely no incentive to put in extra effort as you are not rewarded for it and most likely will be burdened with extra work. Morale: This has probably been the most troubling and most difficult aspect to deal with lately. Morale is absolutely horrible, with some groups worse than others. Woodward has started to lose a number of it's talented people that have been with the company for years which just kills morale. It doesn't feel like anything will change with the current CEO and executive management in charge. Management: Most of this was covered above but by far the worst part of the company. There are some incredible and talented managers, but by far the majority are "yes" men that are only looking after themselves at the expense to the people that work for them. Middle managers can have 40+ people working for them, while directors and executives will only have 2-3 people working under them.