I didn't realise just how bad the company was until I found a 'real' job.
Pros
- The lab is a very social atmosphere. The people are great. - Gain lab experience straight from uni - Expert witness training course - Very interesting work, no two days are the same - Flexi system in place - Good amount of holiday - Teddington is a nice place, close to busy park and nice grounds to site and have lunch on site - Carpark on site
Cons
- The company and HR department do not care about staff at all. - The salary. 16.5k starting in London barely even covers rent / living. - That is when you get paid. There were numerous months when I wasn't paid what I was owed and had to argue with HR for this. Payroll mistakes were a monthly occurrence, both in favour and against. One one occasion a member of staff was over paid by about 300k. - Performance review system is diabolical. I was given a discretionary pay increase due to performance only to have this taken off me the next month along with the extra from the previous month. I had received a letter informing me of my pay rise, but no communication regarding my subsequent pay decrease, or that they would be reclaiming any money from my salary. I questioned this with my manager and it was explained to me as a HR error. I should not have received the pay rise as I had been promoted in the past 12 months period. A little communication would have been nice! - Not a scientific role, the are looking for mindless monkeys to put samples on a machine and their names on a statement. - No personal development or time for improvement / further reading. I fail to see how we can be subject area experts with out this. - Very high pressure stressful environment. Expected to work at 150% capacity at all times. There is no down time and I have known people work 12+ hour shifts with no breaks. - Unethical practice. They call themselves a forensic company but focus on meeting work deadlines rather than getting the science correct - My biggest issue - the company purposefully lied and hid procedures that were taking place from UKAS in order to get accreditation. Without this they would not be able to practice, and really should not be practicing. No work that comes out of that lab would be able to stand up in court if any defence lawyer knew what went on. - Stop gap emergency procedures put in place to get the cases worked without knowing if the procedures are durable and work correctly. After a number of quality incidents knee-jerk reactions started investigations into the suitability of procedures after they had been used (and probably compromised) live cases for over a year. - Lack of scientific knowledge across the whole department, and those who do have knowledge do not have the time to share. - Loss of essential knowledge due to high staff turn over that is not replaced. Only uni leavers with no industry knowledge are hired to keep costs low. - Focused on making money and nothing else to the detriment of the quality of the work. - Lab is constantly running out of the essentials to do the job. - The equipment is old, out dated and constantly breaking down. - The lab is dirty and not a nice place to work. - No respect for forensic values - very low moral
