A patchwork quilt dominated by the mundane with threads of peak experiences unlike anything any company could offer alon - Anonymous employee NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Employee Review

Investigations into every major mishap reveal one common problem, lack of vertical communication. The biggest downside to working at JPL has been witnessing the costly mismanagement of resources and not having a mechanism to correct or to communicate what I've witnessed. The Laboratory is steeped in excessive hierarchy, fiefdoms, and nepotism. In our missions we plan for known unknowns but we need to do the same for our management. The three issues I've mentioned are known entities in human organizations. Steps should be taken and processes in place that mitigate the impact of these naturally occurring conditions of human organizations but, too often, the decision to address these or ignore them is completely left up to the manager. Frequently, this results in a less than desirable product or service and sometimes in a major failure or mishap.