MITRE reviews

Middle management is still protecting their friends. Long time directors, division chief engineers, and highly tenured program owners are still covering based on friendships and political alliances. Newer "outsiders" that are not FFRDC "native" and raised in the revenue-centric model are still ego-driven and not truly mission and people-centered in their outlook. Layoffs on paper are based on coverage. In reality, good people are getting kicked to the curb while "friends" get coverage because they are in the right department or have the right alliances.

Platitudes and group think are favored over realism, pragmatism, and operational experience. Junior management frequently have no substantive work history for the topics and people they manage, Severance falls well short of OPM guidelines, extended service and performance is not considered. It was awkward to justify (high) costs to government leaders as compared to national labs while at the same time being expected to grow work. PTOB time accrual is calculated down to two decimal places, presumably to avoid the same rounding effects that are ok for reporting work hours.