The initial delight and excitement which typically adorns new professional relationships will inevitably by transmuted into bitterness and indignation by the egregious actions implemented by management of all echelons. This diagnostic laboratory is a veritable gulag, an unsuitable environment for learning, personal and professional flourishing, camaraderie, and overall wellbeing.
Intimations of this could have been gleaned from flurries of correspondences placing a disproportionate emphasis on perceived poor performance and mistakes. Management had no compunction berating and humiliating us publicly, and further still no compunction about discussing these matters openly with anyone willing to listen.
The histology department slogan, if I could conjure one up now, would go something like this: “Antech is my life. I am nothing without Antech. Follow the true path, comrades, and we will grow the glory of our lab.” Quota was paramount. No work could be left behind, even if it took one longer than eight hours to finish. But herein lies the conundrum: overtime was verboten. Punitive actions were swiftly and vituperatively carried out for even the smallest of offenses, while rewards for good behavior, exceptional performance, or shouldering more than one’s share of the workload were callously ignored. And expect to remain in your position permanently. There is currently no infrastructure for professional advancement and zero opportunities to learn new skills. It should, therefore, be no surprise that employee turnover was and shall remain preposterously high.
In summary, and to adopt some of the rhetoric of my favorite journalist, working at this lab is to wish to be a slave. It is to indulge in masochism and discard all the trappings of one’s dignity, self-respect, and one’s ambition for a better life. It is the abnegation of a social life and the despoliation of the spirit and mind. The department eschews civility, propriety, professionalism, and sound judgment in favor of hubris, discourtesy, and caprice. A professional relationship with this company isn’t only undesirable but untenable for as long as incompetence, condescension, and stupidity remain regnant.