Pros
The 401k match and health benefits are decent. They aren't amazing but better than what most in the US have access to. If you have a good manager, you can explore other parts of the lab fairly freely. It's also not too hard to transfer to another group because there are ample job opportunities across the labs because the company is ALWAYS hiring. If you need a job out of college and have a pulse, this place will hire you as long as you have a clean background and are a US citizen. Once hired, you're never getting fired unless you break security protocols or lie on your timesheet. Yes, it's an hourly salaried position. They'll make sure you stick to those 40 hours whether through the use of personal time or just not paying you.
Cons
Disengagement is running rampant through this organization. People complain on the Newsfeed about EVERYTHING. Some complaints are legitimate, others are things like, "Why are we recognizing working mothers on Mother's Day." (I wish I could make this stuff up) People sleep and watch the news and History Channel like they're on vacation. People don't support each other. It's very much dog-eat-dog because management adheres to this ancient principle of "ownership". So people will withhold information or just not work with someone if they don't want to get involved and be "responsible". People are afraid to speak up against issues (both technical and organizational) because managers ding them on their performance appraisals if they do. So people have become silent and disengaged while giving the public image that they are "happy and content." All the while, behind closed doors and outside of work, they'll hate on this place like it's a house of demons. Management is awful. And when I say awful, I mean AWFUL. They only care about their Mission, which is serving the Navy. During the pandemic, they say things like "We want you healthy so we can meet our deliverables for the Mission." They don't care about their people, are lazy, and show no empathy or understanding for anyone's life outside of people being drones to carry out the Mission. They claim they want diversity and inclusion, yet the newest director they hired is another older white male who is added to the list of directors who are all older white males except for two who are older white females. A lot of male managers also do not respect women here. I've seen managers who will completely dismiss a woman's opinion over a man's when the woman gave a good argument. If you want to get ahead here, you have to comply and drink the kool-aid and never think of breaking the status quo. HR... There is nothing human about this. During the pandemic, their policies have been 100% about benefiting the company. They don't focus on the employee experience. Mainly because all of the senior HR people are ancients from the 70s and 80s. So they don't believe in things like not having a 40 hour week and just getting your job done, having unlimited vacation time, or people advancing outside of HR's ideal "time-in-band" requirements. And for employees trying to push people initiatives to better the employee experience? Forget it. People's initiatives are shut down almost all the time. There is this little People's Initiatives Council, but they do meaningless things like "Free popcorn day" and stupid things like that. Nothing is impactful. BUT, HR gives you the feeling like your opinion matters through the Employee Engagement Survey, which is basically a third party asking a bunch of questions that people agree or disagree on and then HR toots their horn when they see advancement in at least one area over the past year. It's toxic. Compensation is subpar. The company claims they adhere to "industry standards" while sitting right next to places like GE and Lockheed. We as employees talk to these other "industry" employees and it's quickly realized that we are not compensated to "industry standards." I think management is stuck in the 80s where people weren't as easily connected... Mediocrity is accepted and basically encouraged here. If you strive for anything that pushes the status quo or is not in direct vision with what management has in mind, forget it. You're going to get pushed down either through less opportunities or your performance appraisal until they finally shut you up. They claim they want to be innovative and have actually had to go to other companies like SpaceX asking them how to innovate. Then when these companies tell them the way they do it, NNL management says, "Well, that's not really for us. We're going to do it this way instead." Which is the thesis of the entire management chain. They have no management or leadership training and are all inbreeds who learned from other inbred managers. So bad practices keep getting passed along. They won't listen to anyone but themselves because they think management is "right." The list goes on and on... I would give it 1 star if it wasn't for the few good managers who do try to work within the cage they are put in to make things somewhat better. But those managers are far and few between and most are gobbling up the NNL kool-aid so they can advance to the next level just like engineers are doing.