Pros
Being an employee of Stanford; beautiful setting; some very smart people; very laidback; everybody friendly and mostly helpful; Buildings out of the 1960s, many do not meet ADA and the décor is cast-off Salvation Army/ Good Will, but eccentrically quaint
Cons
the relationship with Stanford is a positive experience that with the DOE awful, procedures and forms layer upon layer; very hard to move forward; Many people in key positions have been there their entire careers and have wives, children, nephews etc. all working there; key people from outside almost always come from government or other labs and are just as backward; There are no big bonus structures or Pay for Performance; a 7% bonus is considered earth-shattering; Raises are small and generally the non-scientific staff are below market rate; many of the business procedures are from another time, say 50 or 60 years ago