Extremely Toxic and Unprofessional Management: My manager engaged in bullying behavior from the start, including inconsistent feedback, shifting expectations, and creating a culture of fear. Their conduct included highly inappropriate personal oversharing, such as divulging personal trauma.
Hypocritical and Unfounded Criticism: My scientific rigor and intellectual curiosity were questioned by a manager who themselves lacked the standard academic credentials for such a role, making the criticism feel particularly disingenuous and malicious.
Potential for Bias: The manager made odd and unnecessary comments about the personal lives of other employees (specifically mentioning their family status) following a conversation where I shared personal information about myself. This created an uncomfortable atmosphere and raised concerns about impartiality.
Unfair and Opaque Evaluation Process: For a critical training process, I was evaluated on a rubric created the morning of the test and never shown to me. I received no written feedback ever. Instructions were contradictory (e.g., I was explicitly told not to ask the manager for help, then later chastised for not coming to them directly.)
Designed for Failure: The process felt deliberately stacked against me. I was only provided written documentation of my performance when faced with a final "pass or be terminated" ultimatum.
No Psychological Safety or Trust: The manager fabricated feedback from other team members to support their negative narrative (e.g., I had never sought help from the person they mentioned.)
There was no formal training department or onboarding team. Preparation felt haphazard and stressful.
I would not recommend this company to a friend. I am grateful I left and would caution anyone to thoroughly vet the team and manager before accepting a role here.
