NIH reviews about "manager"

Some managers are terrible so interview

You are part of a huge bureaucracy, and so have to deal with the usual red tape. Management skills are not prioritized and and managers can be hit or miss.

pay doesn't keep up with private industry

Good managers are rare. Many are incompetent and defensive and unreasonable as a result.

- If you end up with the wrong department, things can go left quickly - Unfortunately with these "bad" departments no room for growth - "Bad" Departments has poor leadership, micromanage and terrible behaviors unbecoming of what a manager should be. Strongly recommend doing your research prior to saying yes to a job/find out what institute or department prior to.

Not many growth opportunities. Managers will limit your detail opportunities and ability to grow.

Awful middle managers. NIH seems to actually try to find incompetent people even when talented, genuine leaders are available. They can't fire people, so they generate attrition by strategically placing people to destroy divisions.

Travel to and from the facility isn’t easy to navigate with the beltway traffic and somewhat unreliable metro system.

Work can progress slowly given the red tape that has to be cut to move forward; promotions to management level are few and far in between and often are delayed by months or even years thanks to the bureaucracy so the strongest employees tend to leave (and sometimes return) so they can get the promotion.