Continues to lose its way - Principal Member of Technical Staff Sandia National Laboratories Employee Review

Foremost: a disengaged and largely dysfunctional management, from the very top to the bottom line management. Particularly unfortunate as it’s been tough times at the Labs recently, A multi-year hiring near-freeze and a recent VSIP along with extreme challenges in funding are accompanied by a lack of leadership: poor planning, poor execution, and poor communication of direction to line organizations and staff. Staff morale is not healthy. The culture has shifted away from seeking to do good work and deliver for missions, to simple survival: a it’s trending toward a frantic “Hunger Games” pursuit of funding. It’s difficult to develop deep technical expertise and sustain a coherent career, because it’s becoming a job-shop where everyone chases too many projects (“fractionization”) just to keep fed. After start-up perks (recruitment sweeteners), staff are left to fend for themselves, contributing to a long-standing and ongoing problem of retaining good mid-career people—a great time to leave to build a better career elsewhere. Almost non-existent promotion or advancement opportunities. A widely despised performance review process (essentially stack-ranking) was replaced, but somehow was made even worse (an opaque, capricious process lacking tangible metrics or meaningful accountability). The quality of your work experience is dependent on the quality and commitment of your manager, luck of the draw. And while a few (overworked, overstressed, and underappreciated) gems are still out there, they are mostly powerless to effect positive change (while poor managers can do great harm). There has recently been an accelerated, breathtaking churn throughout management ranks, contributing yet further to the instability and uncertainty. It’s turbulent times.