Upper management gets in the way of the work
Pros
The farm and research technicians are a great team. They work well together, communicate well, work hard, and always try to find ways to improve. It's a well-known organization, so looks great on resumes. If you can stick around longer than others, it's great for networking - you'll meet a lot of great people who come, work hard, get discouraged, and leave, over and over. Because there's a lot of turnover and sometimes understaffing, you'll learn to do a lot of things that you wouldn't at other organizations with more siloed positions. Because it's a nonprofit and can't necessarily pay competitive wages, you're more likely to get a job with less experience than you would in more established farms or labs. Good benefits.
Cons
Constant staff turnover means constant loss of information. Limited or no upward mobility or even acknowledgement (aside from "yay us" emails) for technician-level employees in farm operations, facilities, and research, while employees in development and other front-facing departments get lots of title changes, promotions, etc. Because of issues with management, the research quality is bad. People who stay for more than a couple years are worse managers, and research is managed poorly, includes errors, and is generally biased toward organic management being better because that better matches the overall institute message. Technician-level employees work hard and get along well but also are not happy. Stress levels constantly high. Lots of hoping things will get better, trying to communicate to improve things, and then frustration. People join and want to stay for years or for decades, and end up leaving the institute and even the entire field after a few years because things are so bad.
