Pros
You’ll finally understand what people mean when they say, “a paycheck isn’t worth your sanity.” If you’re looking to build a tolerance for chaos, disappointment, and performative leadership — congratulations, you’ve found your training ground.
Cons
The most qualified and competent employees, the ones who try to make improvements and order, either get pushed out or quit. The ones who stay are either quietly job hunting or have given up entirely. Turnover is constant, morale is nonexistent, and leadership acts surprised every time someone leaves — as if this isn’t a symptom of their own negligence. No one has any idea what’s going on. Whatever “scientific advancements” that are made are entirely baseless and no one actually understands any of the chemistry going on. This leads to inconsistent product with no real scientific knowledge of its composition or properties (which you would think would be necessary for a product being marketed for its properties). Leadership would rather have a subpar product and cut corners to meet an unrealistic deadline than actually have any sort of scientific integrity. HR and management will gaslight you into thinking working conditions are safe or that improvements will be made (they won’t) if you bring up concerns. They would rather spend the money necessary to improve working conditions on equipment that would be able to pump out more of their baseless product. Management is allergic to accountability. Most of your time will be spent trying to jump through the insane hoops of inconsistent rules. They demand results without offering resources, micromanage from a place of fear rather than guidance, and hand out blame like candy at a parade. Good ideas are ignored. Bad ideas are celebrated until they explode, and then somehow become your fault. Nepotism and favoritism are the only currencies that matter. Promotions and praise don’t go to the most capable — they go to the most connected. It’s like working in a high school clique with a corporate budget, and all the gossip. If you aren’t in agreement with management or leadership, they’ll bully into submission or until you can’t take it anymore. Worse, your ideas might be stolen and repackaged by someone who is. Policies are changed what feels like weekly and seem to contradict itself time and time again. The pay is far below industry standards, and when you bring that up, you’ll be met with “you’re paid fairly” while the leadership flaunts their wealth with a “treat” from whatever expensive vacation they just got back from. If you want to be treated as a human being with any kind of respect, go somewhere else.