As an FFRDC, the total number staff and the total dollar revenue than can be applied to the sponsor organizations is capped by Congress (this is true of all FFRDCs). This cap (or ceiling as it is known within MITRE) is rarely increased and when it is, it is usually by a small amount. In fact, in the mid 1990s, the ceiling was decreased in line with the declining DoD budgets which resulted in limited reductions in force (layoffs). The down side to the congressionally mandated ceiling is that there are limited growth opportunities for the organization which can also limit individual promotion opportunities (as compared to a fast growing private/commercial company). Merit pay increases for senior staff are also fairly limited (around 2-3%) because junior staff must be given somewhat higher merit increases as they are rapidly increasing their earning potential in the marketplace. The upside of the staff number caps is that the government sponsoring organizations (MITRE’s “customers”) generally want more MITRE support than they allowed to have, so the total amount of work remains the same from one year to the next resulting in a reasonably stable work program (no big ramp ups or ramp downs in work force).
Another limitation of the FFRDC environment is that, as a non-profit, there are no stock options, profit sharing, or cash bonuses based on the organizations financial performance. In fact, because of the staff ceiling mentioned above, bringing in new work, which is highly valued in most commercial organizations, may result in negative consequences for a MITRE person. This is because if a government organization requests additional support in area MITRE may be uniquely qualified to perform, and a MITRE staff member tells the customer that MITRE is willing to perform such work, MITRE may have to go back to the customer and decline the work due to the ceiling issue. This can cause frustration with both the government customers and the MITRE staff that work with them. This also eliminates a key metric used to evaluate (senior) staff in most commercial organizations: positive (or negative) impact on the organizations financial performance.
