Pros
New management handles the long-term, jaded employees that do the absolute minimum and complain about everything, very well. The company is refocusing what products they test, and have new management and schedules so it is hard to tell how these changes will affect the work environment, but the new director is very capable and easy to interact with, but is strict and doesn't take less than quality results. The work load varies from week to week, but if you a producing results and following all SOPs properly it is difficult to keep up with rush samples. They need more qualified and skilled workers because they usually only have one person that is highly skilled at only one or two things, usually meaning you feel a little guilty using PTO, because you know all that work will be waiting for you when you get back. While I was there they had very flexible schedules and remote access to machines so testing could continue through the weekend. The schedules are now stricter 8 hr days, 5 days a week. As long as you stay in communication with management and produce good, consistent, high-volume results, no one will micro-manage you. Office politics are minimal, and you'll get along with everyone, as long as you listen to their complaining. The ones that complain the most also put the most minimal effort into the job and do just enough to get by, putting the workload on other employees. Achievements are recognized. Everyone at the front desk/office and QA dept are great people. They are genuine and put honest effort in, work-hard and stay late when needed.
Cons
Too much is put on the R&D chemist that everyone depends on them to train them or explain unfamiliar software or equipment. Company needs to change its name, hire more skilled people, train them properly, and refocus attention each day on what lab work is most profitable, too much time was spent bending over backwards to please clients that would never end up using us in the future. They spent the last two years trying to be an affordable cGMP/GLP prescription and OTC drug products testing lab, but instead of bringing in clients it drove them away because they wondered why we were so much cheaper than our competitors. The company was cheaper than our competitors because the company was losing money. It was a good idea for management to refocus efforts on food, stability, and supplement testing, but as long as they have the same name it will be hard to change their reputation. It is never great when you are at a conference and tell people what company your with and they gasp and tell you how bad you are. My 401k lost money while I was there for less than 2 years, ~6.6% loss! Not much growth opportunity there, they hire outside the company for management rolls, and some nepotism prevents other higher paying roles in the lab from becoming available. The protocols were chaos and how the data in my notebook was recorded changed no less than 8 times in less than a year and a half. Most of these cons should not be happening now that they are not trying to be a GMP lab, and instead focusing on food and supplements. Now that all the employees will have some stability and not have to keep up with constantly changing protocols every few weeks. Most of these cons wasn't any one person's fault, and were caused by trying to increase profits and expand our scope before the lab was ready with instrument qualifications and protocols. Each employee was doing too much and too fast, rushed work usually caused more work later on to fix.