Pros
Because there is very high turnover, there is more potential for movement and/or a promotion than at a stable company Overtime work is abundant and unavoidable
Cons
The marketing end of this contract laboratory makes unrealistic promises to the customers, and then management will harass, manipulate and threaten the chemists into working crazy overtime to make it happen. Pace does not care if you have family or friends outside of work. They regularly come at the end of the day with several hours of "extremely hot" rush work and expect you to skip all your evening appointments again and again. I saw several of my co-workers in tears over the disappointment of missing out on a weekend trip or the guilt they felt abandoning their children and missing all parent-teacher conferences. Even fresh graduates who have no family or social life get burned out after working weekend after weekend. The amount of vacation they give is very low for the industry, and they force you to use some of it when their business is slow in January or February. Don't expect to get a Friday off in the summer. Pace accept contracts for work with very dangerous chemicals, and employees are usually too rushed to read the MSDS and know what they are handling. Expect be exposed to poisons while you are here. The building is old and the ventilation system and hoods don't always keep poisonous gasses out of the room. The heating and cooling system has issues too, and is has occasionally been 90 degrees inside in the summer and below 40 degrees in the winter. Pace likes to hire people directly out of college, because fresh graduates don't know what is and isn't legal. Every boss I had in this company pressured me to break the law. When I reported unethical conduct, I found myself reassigned to the copy machine and my employee file was suddenly filled with anonymous reports of rude and inappropriate behavior. I also saw other individuals denied promotion or reassigned for political reasons. If you are salaried, they will demand a minimum of 5 hours of overtime a week, with 25% or more overtime expected during busy times. They give out a paper the first day of employment stating that OSHA requires them to allow two 15 minute breaks a day, but then tell you verbally that no one else is taking breaks and you probably shouldn't either. They load everyone with much more than can be done in 8 hours a day and are furious if anything is late. The wages are low for the industry and when I worked there it was cheaper to buy insurance on your own than to take what they offered. The president emails out monthly rants about politics and how upset he is to be held to the same rules other companies are. They don't give raises every year and they keep pushing back the date for when raises go into effect. Hard work is seldom rewarded, but mistakes are called out and criticized sharply. I have heard bosses at every level including the CEO unjustly verbally attack people under them. Most people there would like to leave, but the frequent attacks on your self esteem make it very difficult to act confidently if you get an interview anywhere else. Pace wages are not worth the physical danger and psychological torture you risk by walking through the door.
