If I end up in purgatory I imagine it will resemble an FSNS lab - I would wander the corridors aimlessly for eternity, blinded by margarine-worthy fluorescent lights, tacky wall art, and my tears. The faint scent of bleach and old meat hangs in the stale air as I continue to search for a way out. Echoing through the labyrinth I hear the sound of stomachers and people’s self-worth melting away...Anyways, this is what working a 12-hour shift feels like - there’s only so many bags of raw meat you can pour sugar water on before you start to lose it.
This job is pretty miserable! You’ll work crazy hours, be constantly stressed, and receive AWFUL pay for the endless soul-sucking work. There’s not a lot I can expand on that hasn’t been covered in the other reviews. I encourage you to read all of them- you’ll notice glaring patterns in employee grievances. When 80% of the reviews are negative it isn’t because people are lying or “aren’t the right fit for FSNS” - it’s because this company treats its employees poorly. Believe people. Not corporate HR representatives.
With that said, I have a couple of stories I’d like to share that I feel capture the spirit of FSNS and their attitude towards their employees (“the cornerstone of all they do”).
Last January (2021) FSNS forced my lab to send techs to the East Coast/Midwest in the middle of a global pandemic. We traveled to assist understaffed labs (bear in mind the vaccine was not available to us at this point). I did not volunteer and felt as if I had no choice in the matter. If I had flat out refused to travel one of my coworkers would have been forced to go instead. Throughout COVID-19 FSNS claimed the health and safety of their employees was their top priority (I read that email from HR in the middle of the O’Hare airport). But I guess our health and safety go out the window when profits are on the line. We should not have had to put ourselves and others at risk because FSNS can’t pay people enough to keep their labs staffed. To be frank, the forced pandemic travel was irresponsible, dangerous, and contributed to the spread of a contagious virus. It’s even more of a slap in the face seeing as we received multiple emails from HR discouraging personal travel/vacations (“you might want to put that Vegas trip on hold”) - it is in poor taste to treat the pandemic seriously only when it suits your specific needs ($$$$$).
On a more comedic note- to show his appreciation for his valued employees during Thanksgiving 2020 John gifted us frozen expired hams. Instead of raises, decent bonuses, proper staffing, a good response to the pandemic, or PTO…. they gave expired meat to food safety scientists. I’m sure the vegetarians and Muslims felt especially appreciated. It’s fun to joke about now - but also a great example of how out of touch our company CEO is. This felt like something Michael Scott (The Office) would do.
In conclusion, while I was working here, I lost 15lbs from stress (and I don’t have much weight to lose to begin with) and my hair started falling out. People kept asking my family if I was dying. No joke.
Also, I take it back, FSNS isn’t purgatory it is a layer of the inferno Dante missed (probably located somewhere between the ‘greed’ and ‘anger’ levels).
TL;DR - run
