Pros
Lots of lovely people work there.
Cons
The system was chaotic, feeling like every person was for themselves, with so many layers of management and too much toxicity. There was a layer of fear and dread as it was easy to not follow the rules and make mistakes. The work area was so big, spread out in a large building over 3 floors, and you had to move between them a lot. There were no telephones, but there was Microsoft Teams. It was mostly paperwork, with paperwork for every system, and as an analyst, it's your job to deal with a lot of paperwork that is not really about your work in the lab, so you have to prioritize things. It felt very fragmented and disorganized. To gain access to a sample or standard, you needed to fill out a form the day before and submit it, and someone would get it for you for the next day. You couldn't retrieve a sample or standard yourself from the room a couple of meters from where you stood, you couldn't have it until you filled out a form so someone else could get it for you. And you had to make sure you filled the form out right, or you wouldn't get it the next day. Then you had to email a reason why you wanted it on that day, to be told, you'll have to wait until someone is ready to get it for you. It was a very tricky system to navigate. There were stacks of these forms piled on many benches. Once they had done their job, they were supposed to be filed away, but the system was out of control. There was paperwork linked to samples that were tested two years ago yet to be dealt with, which meant samples in the sample collection areas that were from years ago, often samples and standards got lost in these areas, lost in piles of samples and standards. There was a system where everyone had to account for the work they had done throughout the day using a piece of software. These datas were used to fine-tune things, it was data collecting like Facebook, just numbers that management use to look at what's happening. If you didn't fill it out, they knew about it before the end of the day, and the next day you were told first thing you had to fill it out, don't let it happen again, it was very important you filled it out. It was scary how quickly they knew you didn't fill it out, why did they need it so quickly? That speed of collection of data was strange. All of the jobs had hours assigned, and if the software told you there were no hours, you went down as unchargeable for those hours. You were let by the software how chargeable you had been that day or week. You needed to explain why you were unchargeable. You had never worked anywhere with a system like this. It didn't feel like anything positive for the employees came from this system. If you hadn't done a chargeable job, like cleaning the lab, it had its own section in the software. And again, you had to write down what you did and how long you did it. There was no section to fill out how happy you had been that day, or how stressed or your feelings. That wasn't important at all. I imagine that a suggestion to add this metric would confuse the people collecting this data. I don't think it's too important for a company, the company is to make money for the shareholders. In fact people are told there sometimes "Did you do something good for the shareholders with this job?" There were monthly meetings where they told everyone how profitable the company had been. I'm not sure when the last pay rise was that was above the cost of living rise. This means it's not a pay rise isn't it? You were left to fend for yourself a lot of the time, you were your own manager, despite the number of managers. I guess the managers are collecting the data and reporting it to their managers. The company talks a lot about the good things they do for the world, all the great medicine they're testing to make the world a better place. Yet, they can not make just a couple of hundred people content. I saw people crying quite a few times, I saw loud shouting arguments, people being walked out. I've seen, or not seen should I say, a few people vanished, just gone one day for saying something to a manager that the manager didn't like. I saw a few people who I would look at every day and think, they are having a bad time, they're not happy. Some of them would treat other people badly, some of them would just keep it inside. Some people didn't look unhappy, but certainly not happy either, they looked like snakes or lizards, waiting for opportunities to feed on someone's mistake or weakness. If you are a nervous or sensitive person then this company might make you sick, and this will be used against you, your mental health is your problem, you have to look after it, they have no responsibility for your mental health, in a way this company is good for strong or sneaky people. I have seen a few other reviews where people have said "This company affected my mental health badly", and there was no surprise from me reading that. In the whole world, companies like this one make the world a more difficult place. It is there to make a lot of money for less than 1% of the people that work there, so I can offer no advice to management because they are doing a good job really. They know what the job is, and they have to tell everyone that works there "We care for you", but I hope no one that wants to work there believes that. If you will get a job there, don't get stressed at anything, don't worry about anything, they are very very profitable, just take your time and do the jobs and learn where to protect yourself the most. If you work extra hours then the next day you can arrive late. Do not work for nothing. I saw too many people leave with so many hours extra on their time sheet, giving the company their LIFE for free when the company makes A LOT of money. Do not work for free, doing so makes the people who do not work for free look bad.
