They barely pay you for above mentioned slow pace. Most of the staff in middle management (along with myself) even though we have phds in STEM know that we can not afford to live in the bay area. The perceived prestige of working at a national lab is enough to get naive young people in the door. Most people either promptly leave leading to high turnover and high overhead, or realize they don't have to do anything to get a small paycheck, time with their family if they have one, and a pension in 20-30 years.
Unfortunately the pay being as much as 50-60% of market rates means that real sacrifices must be made if one wants to have a family or live in general in the bay area. I have a colleague who lives in a van. He has his engineering degree. An physics BS from Harvard was hired as an RA making 40k/year in the bay area. Do you think he's staying? Most of my coworkers do not own cars because we can't afford them, which is good because the lab is reducing parking constantly.
My advice to my younger self is to not be so impressionable with regards to working in a national lab and evaluate working here similar to another company. I pivoted my engineering career to work on energy and climate change, but I regret doing it at Berkeley Lab.
