Keith’s note: According to “NASA Lab’s Workforce Woes Threaten Major Space Missions“ in Scientific American: “To many, it is a dream job. So why have some of JPL’s most vital workers jumped ship? To find out, Scientific American interviewed more than a dozen current and past employees who blame much of the brain drain on the high-stakes, high-stress atmosphere of the lab. Missions, not people, are the lab’s top priority, they say.” … “Even the harshest critics interviewed by Scientific American hold out hope for change—much of it tied to JPL’s newest director, Leshin. “It was amazing to see the amount of trust that was accorded to her right from the get-go” after her arrival a year and a half ago, says one current employee whom we will call Ava. “She was very open. She was welcoming. She was engaged. She was personable.”
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
One major thing that the author didn’t mention when talking about JPL (and APL). The vast majority of the employees are not employed by NASA, but by CalTech (and in the case of APL, Johns Hopkins), so that they aren’t subject to the bad features of civil service employment and a civil service workforce.