Business direction is shaky. The division I was in had more turnover (corporate, management and onsite positions) this past year than I have seen in 5 years of working for this company. Corporate is constantly moving their employees around between businesses or location sites. Each corporate leader is looking to implement different standards and goals, so sites keep having to change business direction. Recently there were two projects that were bringing in revenue (and had potential to bring in much more if marketing developed better customer leads) that were ended. During tough fiscal times that the industry is going through, one must wonder why these projects were ended.
Direct leadership are over worked because they often have their own project work to do, typically manage other people and their careers, as well as continually having to take on new duties since this location is in a hiring freeze but has had several retirements and turnover. They will toe the corporate line and not go to bat for you if it means rocking the boat.
Communication is awful at pretty much every level. Between project managers, scientists and technicians. Between management and everyone else. There is too ambiguity and inconsistency. This in the end can be expensive because if work is done incorrectly, you have wasted hours and materials. Much information has to pass through the rumor mill instead of formal communication to all employees. Creates mistrust and misunderstandings, has been compounded by CoVid-19 while 50-66% of the building are working from home.
Few opportunities for for tangible growth (raises and promotions are far and few between, even for valuable employees/high performers). It is often that you are presented with "growth and leadership" opportunities, however, this is their way of adding responsibilities to your job that expand your capabilities but will not be financially compensated for. Sure, you will get the annual raise, but to move through PLs takes promotions. In 5 years, I have only seen 4 promotions. All except one of which were for people that had been there 7-13 years and had been waiting 5-7 of them for a promotion. Bonus program is only available to those at high scientist and management level.
There are more than a few examples where technicians are doing scientist work yet have not been formally promoted. Those onsite are relied up now more than ever to take care of things that are not their responsibility. CoVid-19 has allowed for many of the scientist and project managers to "work from home" and some have become disconnected from the onsite work. For example, there are certain scientist that expect next day or two turn around for their work, just because they decided to finally submit something (because they are coming up against a deadline and realized they need some data to present) when there is work already in process to be completed.
Clique culture. Most of these employees have worked together for 10+ years and are able to regale you with stories of the "good old days". Though most are friendly, I have seen cases of when people just don't fit in and can lead to being black balled out of working in an area or a project. Beware the bullies and steamrollers! If you're into that, manipulation of the "right" people will work here. You will find that if you target and befriend highly influential people, it will put you in a position to be treated favorably. Some managers will not evaluate you by your work ethic but instead how you the façade that is presented.
Instead of productivity and quality in which one completes their work, there is a heavy emphasis on networking and attending all of the non-essential meetings and activities. There is no possible way to do your job successfully and attend everything. People who are in attendance of everything are those who want to 1. avoid their actual work responsibilities, 2. brown nose to the "right" people to be noticed.
Company values (like safety) tend towards being just lip service with no action, particularly if the price tag to upkeep their values is too expensive. The only safety officer onsite had their position eliminated. The nurse that was contracted onsite 3 days a week, no longer is available, instead there is a virtual nurse. Despite having 3 medical incidents onsite within the past year. AND weathering a pandemic. Also, due to the decreased capacity of the building, they are waiting to re-sign their evening custodial service. We have just one (amazing, kind and hard working) custodian during the work hours that covers cleaning and disinfecting the high touch areas AND daily cleaning. Keep in mind that the square footage of the building did not change.
