Pros
Some world-class research gets done there. If you are lucky enough to be significantly involved with it, you will likely love you job. Management can be very abusive and heavy handed. They take care of themselves; i.e. they get bonuses for the hard work of those under them (who do NOT get bonuses). As part of Stanford University, the educational benefit (college degree, that is) for employee's children is good.
Cons
Morale for a VERY large percentage of the people at SLAC is very low. Of course, management will deny this. Management can be very abusive and heavy handed. They take care of themselves; i.e. they get bonuses for the hard work of those under them (who do NOT get bonuses). In lower management there is some nepotism. It is not what you know, but who you know. Facilities department is bad in this regard. There are a lot of people who do not have advanced degrees, or any degree for that matter, that do great work and can do so much more that what they are doing now but do not get the opportunity to do so. There is great waste of talent at SLAC. Management can be very abusive and heavy handed. They take care of themselves; i.e. they get bonuses for the hard work of those under them (who do NOT get bonuses). As part of Stanford University, the educational benefits for employees are not so good (this is part of Stanford). As part of those benefits, employees get $800 a year for staff training. It has been at $800 for decades!