Pros
* Reasonable and responsive management - I feel comfortable talking to and being heard by anyone in the whole chain from my boss until CEO * Welcoming and respectful coworkers - friendly group and sociable from day one, I continue to see an encouraging team and strong support of diversity * Awareness of shortcomings - Lunar people are able to back down and correct most mistakes that they recognize, which an especially valuable skill to have within the management team * Care for wellbeing - from healthy office snacks to lab safety guidelines, there is a permeating sense of compassion towards employees and opportunity to provide feedback and influence those perks * No explicit overtime expectations - flexible around personal schedules affecting work hours and a need for mental breaks, resulting in relatively clearly communicated opportunities to take time off to avoid overworking oneself (caveat: this may not be 100% true for all teams, but within my group it has always been the case, even -especially- during high pressure times. However, managers do NOT often lead by example, so there may be some inadvertent influence on employees individual decision of work life balance...)
Cons
* imbalance of team strengths/sizes - certain teams are short-staffed and struggling to maintain reasonable work life balance. Incompetence within some teams has been seen to impact cross-functional groups, although this is relatively rare and attempts are made to address the situation once apparent to management * Not the full suite of office perks (yet), relative to big tech - company still growing and supporting employees with the resources available but it is certainly not as comprehensive as what you might find within the established for-profit tech industry. Lunar does focus on and listen to what they're employees care about though, so this hasn't been a significant setback for me, just a point of comparison given the state of the company * Strong personalities and intense work environment not always suited for all people - there seems to be an attitude of getting stuff and drawing on all resources needed for it if the problem is a high priority blocker. I thrive in such environments, but am aware that not everyone is comfortable with this dynamic hardworking startup experience, which may lead to tension and frustrations if unprepared * (Prior?) Lack of emphasis on diverse hiring - although diversity is encouraged and supported within the company, I don't yet see outreach focused on recruiting a diverse pool of candidates, resulting in certain gender/race stereotypes persisting and limiting some teams :| so far, I don't feel enough effort has been put into building up the diversity, making it more challenging now, although I am starting to see awareness and change on this front!