The glitter has failed
Pros
The company has a varied but interesting range of activities. When I joined, there was a buzz about the place and a clear vision and detemination to get things done. There's a lot of people with a genuine commitment to good science.
Cons
A lot of redundancies in recent years, mainly due to the appearance in the market of a lot of companies that do not see the need to carry the overheads that LGC seems to find necessary. The amount of time spent writing quality procedures which nobody ever reads and are only there to satisfy the "quality audit" has to be seen to be believed. IT is really only interested in what's trendy in IT and seems to have no knowledge of what the rest of the company does, leading to the memorable situation that they blocked access to web pages that referred to illegal drugs. Unfortunately toxicology (and testing for such drugs) is a mainstay of the business. The number of staff in the Finance department has increased enormously, but its efficiency has not to the extent that it is now commonplace for suppliers to cut off services because their invoices have not been paid. Very few senior management have any scientific training at all. A large number of management "initiatives" that seem to consist only of vacuous slogans. Middle and senior posts are almost invariably filled from outside. Pronounced "meetings culture", with meetings called because "we always have a meeting now" rather than because we have anything to discuss.. HR and especially building services very heavy handed. Appraisal system very unfair, targets set often impossible and ratings determined by application of a quota rather than by performance. Appraisal system also penalises heavily any attempt to assist colleagues or to try something new.
