Battelle reviews

Division managers are so overworked with 60+ employees under them that they cannot effectively manage or support their people. Within the last 3 years I've literally only talked to my manager one-on-one 6 times, one of those times being my resignation. When problems or questions arose I was largely on my own. The organization does not backfill with appropriate skills when key employees leave (which happens a lot -- it's a revolving door). By not backfilling, they require existing staff to fill roles that they are not qualified for but it's sold to you as an "opportunity" -- what they don't tell you is you're on your own to figure it out and you will not get compensated for the extra responsibility (e.g., managing a multi-million dollar contract when that person has never managed a project before). In the past year, I simultaneously managed 4 multi-million dollar projects (each with a team of 10+ people for whom I was also responsible for labor forecasting and finding new work for them, even though I was not their direct manager), was responsible for business development activities and proposal management, and was required to complete my own research as an individual contributor. All this for a low salary (compared to other colleagues with similar level of responsibility, I made about 30% less), and when I was finally promoted from Scientist II to Scientist III (which was like pulling teeth to get done and never would have happened if I hadn't filled out my own promotion paperwork), I received a whopping 3% raise, which was a slap in the face for the amount of responsibility I had and work I was doing. In the nearly 14 years I was employed here, the last 4 have been the absolute worst -- the stress built and built until I broke, simply unable to take any more pressure to do more more more more more with less less less. Morale is low, a lot of mid- and senior-level scientists are leaving, everyone is under tremendous pressure, and it is extremely common to work nights and weekends.