Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Reviews
Updated Jun 28, 2022
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Found 422 of over 548 reviews
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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
- "There are some abusive senior managers that nobody will touch because they bring in money but they destroy the morale of a big number of staff." (in 9 reviews)
- "Upper management does not seem to be connected to what is happening on a day to day basis with the workers." (in 6 reviews)
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and is not affected by filters.
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- Current Employee★★★★★Featured Review
Pros
* Great work/life balance * Assigned mission-critical work rather than toy problems * Project/team flexibility * Remote work accommodated
Cons
* Mid/Low-range pay considering the competition * Main campus location is not overly exciting for a younger audience
- Current Employee, less than 1 year★★★★★
Pros
flexible working time, friendly working environment
Cons
restrict background checks, very hard to push progress forward due to all safety/reviewing regulations
- Former Employee, more than 10 years★★★★★
Pros
Mostly great coworkers, flex time for all employees, a comprehensive benefits package, technically there is a lot of opportunity to jump to new or related career paths or for advancement (but see below), beautiful campus and a number of social and cultural events for employees. Truly excellent safety culture (seems paranoid and over the top at first, but the Lab environment has a lot of risks, and you come to appreciate it). You will learn useful cybersecurity tips you can use at home!
Cons
Good luck actually climbing out of whatever career pigeon hole you get put into. While a lot of career path flexibility exists, it can be very hard to access in reality. This company has reorgs every couple of years that consistently employees' degrade pay and benefits. Health benefits have been getting worse and more expensive every year for over a decade. Lab management follows the Neutron Jack Welch school of thought; middle management is inconsistent, especially between directorates. Could be competent and humane, could be tyrants. For a "not for profit" org, they act like the most hard-nosed for-profit companies overall. Pay is about 65-75% of market for all positions except researchers and bargaining. Ablist culture dominates. Whatever you do, do not develop a disability, chronic illness or any emotional distress. Do not become highly experienced and expensive. You will be fired (no matter how many OPAs you have, how many awards you've earned the lab, how many patents you have or what your H factor is) unless you are a Golden Child.
Continue reading - Former Employee★★★★★
Pros
flexible precise intuitive forward thinking
Cons
there are no cons in my personale expeirce from the compny
- Current Employee, more than 1 year★★★★★
Good place for an intern, or aspirational programmer looking to learn
RecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Relaxed work environment, easy learning for interns
Cons
Bureaucratic restrictions, work package scrambles
Continue reading - Current Employee, more than 1 year★★★★★
Pros
• Good networking opportunities and connections • Lots of learning opportunities • They pay for your clearance.
Cons
The NGFP program is poorly managed and infantilizes Fellows through assignments for their “Aspiring Leadership Certificate Program,” which isn’t any kind of real or externally recognizable certification in the same sense as something like PMP or Six Sigma, but it still has a lot of assignments and requirements. Rather than being treated like a fully functioning professional adult with an advanced degree and valuable experience, I felt like I was treated like I was still in undergrad. There were also a ton of hang-ups related to travel because even though most fellows are in DC, we were subject to heavier restrictions since PNNL’s site in Richland was while folks in our NNSA offices were traveling like normal. Keep in mind that I am speaking about the PNNL side of the fellowship and not NNSA (they rock).
- Former Employee★★★★★
Pros
Work-from-home flexibility. Pension. Good work life balance.
Cons
Pay is good for in demand areas but the promotions and raises are stingy.
Continue reading - Current Employee★★★★★
Pros
Work with bright scientists, engaging projects
Cons
Can be hectic balancing writing proposals and working on 2+ vastly different projects - possibly a lot of time lost to context-switching
- Current Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
Pros
Pay is decent and benefits are solid. There are some interesting projects.
Cons
Meetings and charge codes. You have to charge 40 hours per week to charge codes. There is no admin time charge code. We are instructed to charge any internal time evenly between projects we are working on. Then, half of our time in meetings each week. Many of these meetings are internal. This means most of the time logged to a project is not even spent working on that project. Project managers have a hard time understanding why progress is slow but billing is high. This is why... Then, when you say something, it is suggested that you "gift your time." Gifting your time is the company asking you to work after hours and not log your time. This way progress is made on the project and budgets are met. It is all on the developer to save the day during nights and weekends. The charge code culture also does not allow for any improvement. If research is needed for tooling or better processes, it is done with gifted time. This is very bad.
Continue reading - Current Employee, more than 10 years★★★★★
Pros
Hard, interesting problems that support our nation. Cutting-edge technology using cloud environments and the latest in data science. Fantastic work-life balance. Pension plan.
Cons
Salaries are competitive but not on the top end. Small bonus structure. Supporting multiple projects at a time can be challenging.
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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Reviews FAQs
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has an overall rating of 4.1 out of 5, based on over 548 reviews left anonymously by employees. 78% of employees would recommend working at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to a friend and 71% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has decreased by -1% over the last 12 months.
78% of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 4.1 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.9 for culture and values and 4.0 for career opportunities.
According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to be benefits, career development, coworkers and the cons to be culture, management.
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Scientists, engineers, and other professionals from around the world come to PNNL to solve some of the nation’s greatest challenges through... – More
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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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