Pros
Shared research culture really promotes learning through formal and informal sessions with specialists In-house specialists were all extremely friendly and responsive CIfA membership paid for by company
Cons
No career progression offered despite being advertised on job applications. Was called hypocritical when suggested that I will look elsewhere for progression whilst still asking for internal progression Tiring work for below-average pay. Managers would increase workloads to match approaching deadlines with little empathy for how tiring environmental sampling can be. Daily targets were always called 'low averages' and simply working to target was disincentivised as it was expected that higher performing employees picked up the slack of continuously low-performing colleagues Redundancy processes in 2023 laid of 10% of staff, affecting processor jobs tremendously, led to an exodus of staff both voluntarily and compulsory whilst staff remaining were given explicit scores as to their performance Scheduled bi-weekly one to one meetings were rarely held - I had 4 between January and July