Best days are behind - Anonymous employee Brookhaven National Laboratory Employee Review

The place has shrunk from an open, free-ranging research organization of >4,000 people fifteen years ago to a reduced, highly bureaucratic place of ~2,000 in 2022. The depressing social atmosphere lightened as worried people left, but it still feels physically decimated. There are many laboratory buildings that are half-occupied or less; lab rooms have been converted to offices. Many employee services have shut down because it's too expensive to maintain in an overly cost-inflated organization -- the onsite cafeteria closed, the onsite daycare center closed, the onsite gas station closed (however, the onsite swimming pool, Credit Union, US Post Office are still open limited hours.)