“It used to be great” will be the overarching theme of your time at the lab. Everyone that I asked about their experience while I worked there said exactly that. The reasons for that vary, but appear to stem from the DoE demanding more of the lab to make up for the years of failing grades. This has led to every project being an emergency, because the problems were simply neglected for so long.
Upper management seems to be the biggest issue. Things were budgeted in such a way that they used money that should have been reserved for payroll for science activities. We were told to use as much vacation time as possible to free up that payroll money officially. This is when I left (in March), as I saw the writing on the wall. We were told that if enough employees used vacation, there wouldn’t have to be layoffs or furloughs. Well, there is now a 2 week furlough at the end of August. So any employee that actually DID try to help the lab will now go unpaid during that time. Not to mention you will be told to answer your phone even if you take vacation time.
I don’t know if I’ve heard more yelling between department heads in meetings anywhere else. You might end up with a great manager who you agree with and is down to earth, but their department head will just overrule any reasonable thing that the manager tells you. Upper management has 0 trust of their employees, to the point where everything is micromanaged. You have to track everything that you do all day in a spreadsheet down to the nearest 15 minutes, send it to your manager and department head, and then you will be questioned on these tasks. They compare spreadsheets between employees to see if they line up when group work is mentioned.
In the end, the DoE in all likelihood will not keep the current contracted organization running Fermilab. That seemed evident to me after a construction accident in 2023. Various chiefs started leaving their positions, with no replacements lined up. Some after only being in their positions for a few months.
