Where to even begin? This company is awful in just about every way imaginable.
Here's a short list:
1. Terrible compensation. They'll put you on salary (<$30K) to avoid paying you overtime, which they'll expect you to work as matter of course (don't forget about holidays, which you'll also have to work). They'll also make you clock in and out to make sure you're working the ~45 hours/week they expect out of you. Management will tell you they do this so they can gauge workload in the lab and determine if they need to hire extra people or not. Don't be fooled by this. They make you punch a time clock to see how dedicated you are without actually interacting with you. In other words, they want to see how many extra hours you're putting in. More hours = better employee, in their eyes. But don't try working fewer than 40 hours a week. They'll get on your case if you do that, even though you're salaried. This is their "having their cake and eating it too" philosophy.
2. Favoritism. They don't even try to hide it. Managers have their pets who can do no wrong. See #5
3. Racism. It's pretty obvious why some employees can't get ahead, and it's not due to lack of education.
4. Inappropriate behavior and comments. Lack of professionalism all around, from managers goofing off and making snide remarks about employees to whole departments laughing raucously while doing their work. If things ran smoothly and mistakes weren't constantly being made, this wouldn't be a big deal, but that clearly isn't the case.
5. Double standards. Sloppiness is tolerated out of certain employees but not others. The last person to touch a report before is goes out to the client is expected to find and correct the mistakes of all the people who touched the report before him/her. Management makes no attempt to stop the mistakes at the source.
6. Turning a blind eye. Five managers, five supervisors, who-knows how many "lead techs." Yet no attempts to improve the process of how reports and samples are generated and moved through the lab is ever attempted. The way things were done eight years ago is the way things were done last week. Nobody in management wants to look at how dysfunctional the process is because that would mean sticking one's neck out and admitting to someone in corporate that things aren't perfect in the lab. And who suffers from this cowardice? Technicians--who then have to navigate their way through a broken system.
7. Weekends. A 24/7 lab that is open every day of the year. So where's management on Saturdays and Sundays? Holidays? Nights? Oh yeah, they'll say on their way out the door, "If you need anything, give us a call." Okay, then. Why don't you stay at home and never come in, then.
8. Meetings. Endless managerial meetings. If a client calls and wants to talk to a manager, chances are he's in a meeting, which is odd because see #6.
9. Shadiness. Let's just say things aren't done by the book. The ends always justify the means. Methods are frequently modified for customer needs without subsequent analysis of how the alteration may affect the efficacy of the method. Interpretation of results are different from client to client so as to not upset them or lose their business.
10. Incompetence.
a.Managers/supervisors who should understand the basic tenets of microbiology but don't acting like helicopter parents, hovering over technicians to make sure they don't make any mistakes on reports they have deemed "important," then disappearing once that report has been completed.
b.Higher level techs who are afraid to speak to clients over the phone/email.
c.People afraid of making mistakes pushing their responsibilities onto coworkers who shouldn't be placed in that position.
