Pros
Good entry level foot in the door to a lab based position
Cons
Where to start? Senior management is an old boys club. Management do not ask for input from staff over decisions that will impact their day to day work life, but instead put it in the hands of supervisors or managers who haven’t actually worked in the lab for 10+ years, it which time processes have completely changed and they have no idea how the lab actually operates. Management will cut entire departments (often the few with women in positions of power) and call it a “corporate restructuring”. Constant reshuffles leave staff in a constant lurch, and often results in staff members now working with a double work load, increased responsibilities and no change to compensation. Supervisors have reduced employees to tears on a regular basis. It’s ironic that we make antidepressants, because too many staff have started them after working here. At the end of the day, you will be seen as a cog in the machine of the ‘pharm’. Your opinion will not be heard, your ideas validated or concerns listened to. Management are aware of the terrible work culture, they’ve done the internal surveys to show it, but show no real incentives to actually fix any of the problems, but instead have told employees that they should be lucky they have jobs. And give managers training on how to be better leaders, but never actually ask the employees what they need from them, or how they could change for the better, or what support they could actually do with. Pay is abysmal, the annual performance review system pathetic, only 1-2 people per department can be considered to be “exceeding expectations” and this is often based on popularity. The system is rigged against your favour, and any increase you do get is sub inflation, so when you’re told you’ve been given a raise, you’re expected to smile and nod, when you’ve actually been given a pay cut. While supervisors and managers get their 6 figure salaries, bonuses and constant praise for the blood, sweat and tears of their direct reports without doing any of the heavy lifting themselves. Constantly management will boast about how above and beyond they’ve been going to improve the workplace. Most recently they’ve congratulated themselves for introducing mental health first aiders into the work place. However, this is just a part of new government legislation that businesses have to make sure they have processes in place to ensure good mental health practices. If legislation wasn’t changed, would they ever had done anything? And nothing has changed, people are still stressed, depressed and quitting left and right to avoid a sinking ship. There is no possibility for progression in the company in any meaningful way.
