Pros
Good community values, above average work life balance, decent benefits, interesting location.
Cons
An institute that is working on ridding the world of infectious diseases is itself diseased. This place is as stable as an elephant walking on a piece of string. The trouble begins in the most logical place - leadership. Or, lack thereof. There is no one at the top who really gets what the problems are. The board of directors seem to be in charge. They keep demanding that people be hired whom they think will solve the many problems of this institute, only to find several years later that they are riddled with not only the problems they had before, but an entire new set of problems. The hole they have dug just keeps getting deeper and they keep throwing more and more money into it, money that should be spent on keeping valuable employees and doing good science. This place relies on federal funding for about 90% of their activities. This was a struggle with the last administration, imagine what it will be with the next…not a pretty picture. They are currently looking for a new president because the last president was a disaster and costs the institute hundreds of thousands of dollars and was asked to “step down” when he should have been fired. What individual in their right mind would want to be president of a place that is limping along, with little hope for the future? This is a place that undervalues important members of the staff, while rewarding upper level management with exorbitant salaries and pay raises. They keep walking in circles. The finance and the grants departments have been in constant flux and chaos, never reaching a level of stability. Mostly because no one knows how to fix the problems. They bring in consultants to help, but the consultants either get sucked up by the problems and just add to them, or they provide guidance that is either ignored or forgotten. Instead of trying to solve the problem of the world’s infectious diseases they should focus on their own diseased state. If you are not particular about the culture, or stability of the place you work and don’t mind seeing waste then you might be happy here. Otherwise I would keep walking.
