Overworked but fairly paid - Anonymous employee Battelle Employee Review

I loved working at Battelle... at first. It was challenging work, I was always learning something new, and there was always something to work on, so that was fun. Where it fell short was on management. I worked in a department that bid on contracts, and managers would consistently bid on too many contracts while underestimating the time it would take to complete them. It resulted in mandatory overtime for pretty much everyone in the department--60 hour work weeks were the norm. However, this mandatory overtime was posed as 'optional'. You didn't HAVE to do it... but if you wanted to avoid getting fired you did. And heaven forbid you want a promotion! You'd not only have to do the 60 hour work weeks, but extra ON TOP of that. They paid pretty well (actually, about 25% higher than the average in my location), so your extra time was accounted for in the salary. If you can handle long work weeks, this would be a great place to work. If you aren't prepared to pull 12 hour shifts regularly, run.