Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Employee Reviews

Awful experience. Stay far away.

The Human resources department head is a despicable human being.

Loved working with scientists and some great people across the Lab. That usually outweighed massively dysfunctional department management.

the Lab does important work, and to work here is to work on a gorgeous campus surrounded by smart people from around the world. That said, the non-scientific staff here is treated as an after-thought, and poor leaders are allowed to run their depts poorly for decades. Lacking in true leadership.

The PIs are generally knowledgeable and very enthusiastic about science

Honest, consistent communication and transparency. Stop allowing dept heads to create silos (their own "kingdoms"). HR leadership approaches role as one of protecting the Lab from its employees. No focus on employee development at the institutional level, esp for non-scientific staff.

Senior leadership needs to see administrative functions (HR, Communications, Finance, etc) as potential areas for building a true world-class place to work and do science, and then support great leaders in these areas and get rid of those who are just protecting their turf.

Benefits are excellent, especially pension

Benefits are quite good - medical/dental are comprehensive and premiums very low, and employer-funded pension is excellent.

The benefits here are generally excellent - 9.3% of salary contribution to retirement, medical/dental with comparatively low employee premiums.

You get a comprehensive package of health, vision, dental, and life insurance. Preventative care is usually free.

Some nice personalities, most very stressed and unhappy

Non-scientific staff's general competence and willingness to venture outside of their job description is wildly inconsistent. The key for anyone new to the Lab is to figure out who the people are in each department that can be relied on.

I have a very few excellent co-workers in my department and others who actively detract from the quality of our work. Management has a tendency to add complexity to our processes and work flows to work around team members who aren't getting their work done - rather than dealing with the source.

The coworkers are generally too competitive and only care about getting authorship rather than a collaborative process

Outside of my department, there is a culture of intellectual curiosity and collaboration.

It's very inclusive and there are lots of appreciation events.

The culture that was built when there were 200 employees 30 yrs ago cannot be the culture today with 1100. You have dept heads with their own agendas sometimes in opposition to the Lab - in an org of this size, you must build consistency across depts. If leaders won't work together, get new leaders.

Getting to meet many people at different levels and functions at the Lab

Meeting a lot of different people.

Working with people who take pride in what they do, do it well, and making the Lab look great.

Engaging with people in other departments who have a clear view on Lab priorities and don't withhold help for the sake of power games. Generally being part of the science mission of the Lab.

The entire company culture is toxic at this point, I don't think it can be improved.

There is too much competition and monotonous work

Brilliant science and scientists in a beautiful setting.

Actual HR leadership vs bean-counting personnel. Actively compete for the best employees (who now have the option of working in NYC, for NYC $ w/o the daily commute!) with both pay and flexible work. Offload leaders who won't work as part of the larger team.