Pros
- They are often hiring because no one wants to work there for longer than a couple of years - 8% retirement contribution - A sanctuary for Physics PhD's who can't find gainful employment elsewhere
Cons
- No salary increases to speak of. The average annual merit increase in pay is around 2.5%. That is not even enough to cover inflation most years. The only people who see consistent raises are A) white men and B) have PhD's in physics. - Benefits getting slashed. One of the big draws of working at APS in years past was the 10% automatic contribution to your retirement fund. They slashed it to 8% last year while telling us that they were making millions in profits. - Layoffs in the middle of the pandemic. Six tenured people were laid off in the middle of COVID, all while they were telling us that they had millions and millions in reserves. - Very much an old boys' club - although there is diversity at the lower levels, most if not all of the upper management consists of old white men. If you're a white man, you have it made in the shade at APS. If you're not, there is a ceiling for how far up you can go. - Managers are untrained and horrible at dealing with people. PhD's are prioritized for advancement and this leads to many socially inept bookish managers who lord over their direct reports. Turnover in the Programs department in particular has been astronomical. - APS's business model is dying. Everything is moving towards open access, and APS is desperately trying to fight the tide - and losing. Other major competitors like Nature are moving into the physics space and squeezing APS harder every year. - A self-admittedly horrible company culture. A couple years ago, employees were surveyed on APS's company culture. The responses were universally negative, so much so that the company tried to hold a meeting and spin the results as positively as they could. It did not work.