Ford

Some international travel. Although probably not anymore.

Pay is pretty poor. Even back in the day, it didn't pay as much as Holden.

Design office runs on gullible contractors who take on heavy loads in the hope of getting employed, which can take up to 6-7 years.

Staff, on the other hand, put their feet up and hang out for either a package, retirement, or cushy jobs in the satellite teams.

Replacement D&R Engineers get progressively less experienced and come with less and less technical background, which feeds the brain drain, leaving the design office.

D&R role is no longer an engineering job, just admin/paperwork. Internal spreadsheets, tracking sheets, and analyzing costs endlessly leave no time to engineer.

D&R role is impossible to escape internally. Transfers are not outright rejected, but they say you need to find your own replacement for your job, knowing full well that no one will ever volunteer to go into the D&R role.

Blame culture throughout, particularly between budget-stripped departments who fight each other like dogs to earn the praise of the overlords in Finance.

Morale is at rock bottom. Few meet up socially. Very few take pride in their work, and nobody cares except to avoid being given tasks and avoid blame. This leads most people to pretend they know nothing about anything. The most common answer to any statement in any meeting is, "This is the first I've heard of this."

Make it about engineering good products, not costing down products. Staff will take pride in their work.

Although this advice is 20 years too late...