Pros
Great people, mission, campus, location.
Cons
Bad senior leadership. Worst management I've witnessed in 20+ years at NREL. Top management is brilliant yet clueless. After a year, it's obvious that management does not care about employees. Director fosters a division between research and non-research staff (even program-funded staff like analysts and project managers) and refers to them as “carpet” vs. “tile” people (office vs. lab). He pushed aside female leaders to make room for male friends from his previous job and even invites only select male managers to extracurricular activities. To fund the director's pet projects, he cuts overhead expenses like early lab closures for holidays and treacherous weather. Another top manager says “dedicated employees will come to work regardless of the weather” regardless of the fact that teleconferencing and videoconferencing technology makes in-person presence unnecessary. Are we living in the 1970s??? Despite claiming NREL to be a model of sustainability, management can't get past this antiquated mindset. Incompetent and archaic HR leadership does not help, as it's sole mission is to avoid litigation. Meanwhile, non-existent management training and support fosters an environment of ill-prepared and ineffective middle management.
