Pros
The association with Stanford is the best thing about this place.
Cons
This place is a mess. Problems are too long to list but a few major ones are aging infrastructure, less funding from DOE, ineffective human resources department, inability to fill Associate Lab Director positions in PSD, SSRL and LCLS. The lack of success in attracting top notch people to fill senior positions here has caused SLAC to promote from within with mixed results. People often have dual roles which cause huge conflicts of interests. Upper management condones and encourages unprofessional behavior among their staff. If you are rude, loud and obnoxious you are rewarded with bonus and a promotion. HR turns a blind eye and even facilitates managers in their unethical practices. No one works together. The field staff is constantly fighting with central staff over everything. Compromise is a dirty word here. It is no wonder that even the low hanging fruit is challenge to fix here.