Emerald Cloud Lab Reviews

-With the 12 hour days and the work day starting/ending at 4pm/4am, this job is physically demanding. Days are long and extremely exhausting by the end of the work week. You have to give up a lot of weekends and a normal schedule. -The actual work is very pendantic and frustrating . The software makes running experiments, even simple tasks like emptying chemical waste, are painfully slow. For example, something simple like making standard can take about an hour in accordance with the software. A minute spin on a centrifuge takes around ten minutes for the software to clear the steps. -Work requires very little critical thinking. The software is designed to limit the "human" component of running the experiments. The software dictates your every move in the lab and the job requires very little training. It is easy to feel undervalued and not interested in the work. -There is low morale within the lab ops team. Everyone seemed to complain about the work and it was common to hear people talk about looking for other jobs or when they plan on leaving. People generally either seemed unhappy, exhausted, or more commonly both. -There is an extremely high turnover. It seems like only a handful make it past 6 or 7 months. People are constantly leaving. If applying or commiting to this job, I would recommend weighing the options before doing so. The pay is good, however it comes with a price. Few last and almost all seem unhappy or at least frustrated with the position. Of a twenty-something person lab ops team, more than ten operators left within the past year. This job is hard and unfulfilling. Emerald's inability to keep lab ops team members is a reflection on that.

- There have recently been a series of multiple pay cuts for all Lab Operator positions, as well as a cut in vacation hours by over 50%. Pay has become highly unstable and falls below promised "annual pay" amounts. - In addition to vacation hours being cut, it's very difficult to even have a vacation request approved, as NO MORE THAN ONE person may take a vacation on a given day for a given shift. Notification of approval/rejection of a vacation request will not be given until a week before the date, regardless of how early the request was submitted. - Schedules for Lab Operators are now completely unpredictable, as shifts are now assigned only one week before, making it very difficult to make plans outside of work. This and the restrictive vacation policy make it nearly impossible to maintain a healthy work/life balance. - The newest sick time policy now forces Lab Operators to work while sick, or it will be designated an "unexcused absence", three of which will result in disciplinary action/termination, regardless of sick time being used. Only sick time requested 48-hours in advance is considered "excused", which is clearly an unreasonable expectation. - As such, there has been significant turnover in the Lab Operator role (over 50% the staff have quit), and even Lab Operators who had worked for the company for multiple years have left within the last 3 months. Claims of "low turnover over the last 10 years" are highly misleading at best, and outright lies at worst. - Upper management wants to increase scrutiny of "metrics", which are similar to TOT or "time on task" for Amazon warehouse employees. However, task metrics at ECL are not at all proportional to work completed, so unlucky Lab Operators who are assigned protocols with long tasks will likely be vulnerable to disciplinary action through no fault of their own. - Other perks, such as break room snacks, have also nearly gone away as the budget has been significantly downsized, and supplies frequently run out despite the diminished staff.