Sandia National Laboratories Reviews

Cons

Large employer, red tape, politics

Cons

Competitive by not generous salaries

Cons

Albuquerque is not a fantastic location in terms of school quality and crime rates. Most people who do well at Sandia either have friends or family in the area, or place a high importance on outdoor activities like hunting, hiking, etc.

Cons

Soul sucking employment; an endless hamster wheel of activity that generates nothing.

Cons

Politics are brutal and bad behavior is rewarded in some organizations
Management values, culture, and ethics vary greatly. Some are amazing, others are the reason to run away.
Many are managers because of their technical ability, not their management ability
New management tries to run the place like a company "buy out" with little understanding or regard for what being an FFRDC actually means.
Career mobility is not as diverse in some areas as you would expect
Heavy emphasis on diversity which is great until you look at the org chart (very much a "do as I say, not as I do" mentality it seems)

Cons

The cons are the amount of stress and the complete disrespect among co-workers. Many people are so set on promoting themselves such that other people are put down. Basically, engineers don't have people skills and don't see other people as human beings. HR is a joke and is not willing to admit that managers are bullies or that managers are the cause of the problem. HR will protect managers even if they are bullying an employee and will then tell the employee that they have problems. Some people are pretty set in their job and don't lift a finger. It is the best place to find a job and get paid to do nothing! Yes, I sound cynical but yet I have seen and experienced a couple things.

Cons

lots of red tap, lots of waiting

Cons

Not much mobility up the chain without a masters or PhD.

Cons

need to invest in long time, loyal employees

Cons

Benefits are not that great