INL Reviews

Pros

You work with brand new technologies all day and can make an impact on new scientific breakthroughs. The work life balance is great.

Cons

Advancement can be difficult without more degrees behind your name. Management can often seem tone deaf to the creative nature of the work.

Advice to Senior Management

Remember that people who create new ideas are creators, and creators should not be saddled with things like overly detailed timesheet requirements.

Pros

quiet place to work and live

Cons

boring place to have a family living with you

Pros

The technology is great and you can work on some of the most amazing projects in the world with outstanding resources.

Cons

The bureaucracy is tough and makes it difficult to get anything done. Feels like you're working for the government without all of the paid holidays or flexible working hours.

Advice to Senior Management

Run it like a business instead of a department in the government.

Pros

The work environment is challenging but interesting, and the organization provides sufficient flexibility in your own scheduling and prioritizing to get done what needs to get done, but to still spend time projects you find more interesting.

Cons

The area isn't exactly my cup of tea, as I like more of a bigger city environment. The weather isn't too great in the winter either.

Advice to Senior Management

I'm not exactly sure what to state here in this somewhat rambling sentence designed to last at least 20 words, other than thanks for the opportunities.

Pros

INL is pretty good when it comes to supporting employees that choose to pursue continuing education. While I was there, they would reimburse tuition fees for those who got good grades. Plus, Idaho Falls is close to a number of national and state parks for those outdoorsy types.

Cons

The biggest drawback at INL was dealing with the management changes. Every few years a new managing contractor would emerge, thus resetting the priorities of the organization. Over the span of a few years, the name of the lab itself changed from INEEL, to INEL, to INL.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees have to deal with the dual bureaucracies of a national lab as well as the managing contractor, so progress can seem slow or even futile. The best solution I can think of is to fund more interesting and relevant projects.

Pros

Good engineers, good technical people, good family balance

Cons

always need a charge number, innovation is stymied

Advice to Senior Management

pick a path and move along that path. Recognize talented individuals and clear the obstacles in front of them.

Pros

The pay is very fair, the staff is fairly competent. The location is great since Idaho Falls is a growing community that has the benefits of a larger city (great shopping, reasonable airport, good restaurants, public involvement) but has a small town appeal (good schools, low taxes, not much traffic).

Cons

Internal resources are divided by the "who you know" principle rather than based upon merit or need. The management at the top level is disconnected from the staff. The management at the lower level is fairly stagnant and rarely changes (fortunately they stay out of the way for the most part though).

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees.