Pros
When I started at Battelle it was a great place to work. There was a constant variety of innovative technical work with continual training and learning opportunities. Lesser pay was made up for by good benefits, ample capital equipment for the labs and a good working relationship among the staff. In the post 9-11 recession, Battelle had some forward looking managers were willing to take a hit on short term profits and reduce fee on contracts to win any work to keep staff employed. When the recession ended, these forward looking groups had already trained technical staff available to win and execute more profitable contracts. Battelle was a great place to work until one by one, each of the forward looking managers were forced out of management, quit to make more money elsewhere, or retired.
Cons
Battelle is currently struggling to adapt to the recession. The layers of management and other overhead is making them more expensive than the competition and they are losing business. Some areas are now managed based entirely on quarterly profit and loss, with no long term business plan for future growth of the business or development of the skills of the technical staff. Lack of long term planning means technical staff are being discarded even when their skill set might be necessary to win a new contract in the future. In some cases contracts are underbid to be competitive, with the technical staff expected to work uncompensated overtime to complete the project on budget. Since "time worked" is the only job measurement parameter that counts, staff are rewarded for "stealing" billable projects or billable hours from other staff. The internal environment is now very caustic to diversity, as the 'budy' system keeps the recession reduced project work among friends. If a staff member's time worked is suffering due to the recession, that person will go in the next RIF (Reduction In Force) without any attempt being made to transfer them to another group that might have an opening. Battelle used to be a great place to work but those days seem to be over.