-It's not uncommon for employees to be put in positions to fail due to unrealistic expectations, insufficient training, etc.
-Compensation is below-average across the board.
-Most employees don't have an opportunity to develop particularly marketable skills.
-Employees, customers, and vendors, are treated with extreme distrust, and too often with disdain. Blame comes quickly, without enough regard to trying to find root causes and lasting solutions.
-Communication is extremely poor, and there is almost no transparency. "Paranoia" might be putting it too strongly, but not by much. Because of this attitude, management's decisions/actions occasionally push ethical boundaries.
-The company shows little regard for employees' lives; most employee morale efforts focused on rare (semi-annual) company outings, rather than genuinely trying to improve the 2000 hours per year each employee is spending on the job. For example, I saw many people have their day-to-day work completely changed with zero warning, notice, or discussion. Things did seem to be improving in this regard, but still needs to be a point of greater emphasis.
-Senior management is comprised of a family of four; the nepotism holds the company back in some areas, but more importantly, employer/employee relations are very personal/political.
-Due to a combination of all the above factors, turnover is EXTREMELY high, which is rough on morale and has been a major obstacle for most areas of the organization.