Yes. I was there from late 1990 to late 1993. The Labs were struggling to adjust after the breakup which was many years before. AT&T had Bell Labs, the Regional Bell Operating Companies had BellCore. Both were paid by taxing business orgs who were struggling to compete with MCI, Sprint, and other communication companies that did no research. None of the business orgs liked paying the tax and wanted results to show for whatever they did pay.
Penzias had put Bell Labs on notice that it would have to get more applied while still maintaining the research excellence. There wasn't much direction on how to do both. The philosophy regarding any problem was, "You're smart, figure it out." Additionally, he felt the future was in software so the physical and materials science orgs where I resided felt the pinch that much harder.
Nevertheless, my management pressed the case for physical sciences hard and at often substantial personal and professional cost. The postdocs were well shielded from all this. No matter what was playing out at the higher levels, the doors stayed open and just about everyone was up for a discussion of whatever was on our minds. Go in with a middlin' idea, come out with three better ones.
