Pros
There are some great people and groups within BPA. It has amenities such as a gym, day care, and the work can be challenging. You are also located in Portland Oregon which is a great place to enjoy the outdoors.
Cons
Keep in mind that this is a big place, and as the head union person said there are some and bad neighborhoods. Another human resource specialist said some groups do not even talk to each other. Advice to potential employees, you are taking a gamble. Here are the trouble spots: Management (all levels) use physiological harassment or bulling to go after troublesome employees. They have a physiologist on staff, so they are good. What happened to the Hippocratic oath, I do not know, also is this what tax payers really want from the federal government. Managers delve into people's personal lives. When I left a senior manager was talking with an employee about who was dating another employee in an open cubicle. I heard many things that were best left unsaid by managers. The ability to deal with complexity is poor, they make efforts but fail due to a lack of vision and push to tackle the problem. Too many older employees who benefit from the status quo. The downside of not dealing with complexity is that it takes years for a new employee to get up to speed, the problems get shaded because too few employees really understand what is going on, and have a tendency to wing it and hope for the best.