Pros
It was close to home and the laboratory staff were very kind and friendly.
Cons
Working at SW was a disappointing experience, especially in upper management. I took this job knowing I’d be taking a big pay cut. I was okay with that because I wanted more experience, not just better pay. But SW claims they pay top dollar, which just isn’t true. I also noticed that upper management, in particular, is underpaid, but I didn’t have the heart to bring it up. The work environment itself was terrible. My office, along with others, had a serious rodent problem. There were mouse traps everywhere, and I constantly saw rodent droppings. Despite that, I never once saw pest control come in to fix the problem. Housekeeping was just as bad—we even found bacteria growing in the water and ice machine. The worst part? Nothing was done about it, and employees weren’t told until days later. Another major issue was how they abused employees’ time and schedules. One day, you could be scheduled for a 10-hour shift, and then, with little to no notice, you’d be expected to come back just four hours later to cover another shift. It was impossible to plan anything, even a simple weekend, because I never knew if I would be working or not. The lack of consideration for employees' time was exhausting and unfair. But what really pushed me to leave was the constant unprofessionalism. From my first day, I could tell that the QA Manager had no real control over her team. Whenever she left the lab, her employees would come into my office to complain about her. They accused her of abusing her power and even harassment. That was my first red flag. The second red flag was during my conversations with the QA Manager about company performance. She bragged about her plant being the top producer with the fewest QA issues. But then she admitted that they hide certain problems from corporate to stay on top. When I started asking questions about these issues, she basically told me to mind my own business. She had been there for eight years without making a single process change, which spoke volumes. On top of that, she seemed to take everything personally. She assigned me the task of revising and rolling out new SOPs. However, when I pointed out grammar errors and poorly structured sentences, she would get angry and deny the issues—even when I highlighted and showed them to her directly. It became clear that she was more concerned with maintaining control than ensuring accuracy and improvement. Looking back, I realized this was a common issue within CEP. They are so understaffed that they promote people just because they need to, not because they’re actually qualified. The Plant Manager even told me this directly. This creates a cycle of bad leadership, poor decision-making, and a toxic work culture. In the end, between the dishonesty, unhealthy work environment, lack of professionalism, and complete disregard for employees' time, I knew I couldn’t stay. I wouldn’t recommend working here to anyone looking for a fair, ethical, and well-managed company.