Quest Diagnostics Reviews

Pros

Great Reputation, solid offering. Quest is know for its quality.

Cons

Poor interdepartmental communication. Lack of internal resources

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in more employees

Pros

Quest offers good benefits to their employees. Including good health insurance and 401k match. Additionally they offer a ESPP and goal sharing bonus

Cons

Employees are overworked and are not fairly compensated for the work they perform. In addition, there are many inefficiencies around that company that need to be corrected.

Advice to Senior Management

This company needs a change of leadership. The organization is too focused on cutting costs rather than growing business. The new CEO should have an operational background.

Pros

The benefits packages are generous, and they operate a very successful business.

Cons

Complete and utter lack of communication. I was amazed at how anything got accomplished, and the main reason was through fear and the cushy benefits Also, they have a knack of burning people out due to cutting corners.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve the communication between employees and management and between departments. So often, people felt out on an island with their issues that they give up. Also, the communication tends to be so top-down that valuable information takes forever to bubble up or move sideways.

Pros

Flexible hours, work load is decent and manageable

Cons

unorganized, treats employee with very little respect, employees feel threatened. Employees feel there is very little trust with their immediate supervisor and often not sure if HR actually handles issues when they arise in a timely fassion.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to revamp your supervisors and leads, they lack professional skills for these positions

Pros

Pay is not too bad.
Good health insurance.

Cons

The company keeps putting more and more work on the employees making it very hard and exhausting to keep up.

Pros

This is the industry that will take off. Get your foot through the door, get your experience and education and branch out.

Cons

For lab workers, the hours will most likely put a strain on the natural rhythm living, i.e. night shift work. Expect compromises in social activities and sleep as your circadian cycle is thrown off on account of weekend normalcy.

Advice to Senior Management

Purge the middle management. Expansion is critical but it is happening without the promised synergies and at the expense of good business practices. I'm just a lab worker but at least I try to reach out to the people who work here. Communication among employees and employer is lacking and middle management bears the brunt of blame, especially for lean labs where communication can be a minefield for us underlings.
Review logistics personnel and review, check and recheck their training practices. I know about the buddy system of driver review using swing drivers. Poor practice for everyone. Identify those who are abusing the system and let them go and identify the quality people who care and pay them well. Otherwise they will be poached by the competitors who know better. There are so many medium to large issues that I often wonder if they even cross the heads of management. That said, I've voted by selling my ESPP shares.

Pros

Get a goal sharing bonus each year, paid time off, decent pay scale.

Cons

Supervisors have "pets", and treat them better, by catering to them and giving them the easiest jobs.

Pros

Benefits are great
Quest owns many companies so there is availability to move around

Cons

With a company so large there are various layers to go through to get anything done. So worried about money that they are losing the base that makes any company good- customer service and support.

Pros

There are some genuinely nice dedicated professionals: my experience was with co-workers and peers working at the Alameda facilities. There are some genuinely helpful senior staff who have weathered the environment for over a decade.

Cons

The Quest corporate takeover has created a lot of vast confusion. Celera is trying to act like it's still Celera and BHL, but it is Quest Diagnostics. Anyone seeking employment there needs to be very aware of that.

Beware of local management they arbitrarily bring in from the outside just because that management may have worked for Quest elsewhere. My job was supposed to be in engineering, not just as a desktop support analyst which would have been fine had that been what I applied for. The job expectations had nothing to do with the job description for which I applied.

Expect no work-life balance as "performance" (aka "attendance") is based on having one's rear glued to his or her chair literally from 8:00-5pm and not actual hours dedicated to the job (at least in my department). Telecommuting and flex-time was barely tolerated whatsoever and I specifically stated that I needed that when I was initially hired. It didn't matter that I worked weekends and could take care of equipment halfway across the country from anywhere. I also really didn't mind doing the Help desk requests because they are in dire need of a better system and more local resources that do not require overseas outsourcing when, given the economy and job market, is not necessary.

Advice to Senior Management

The takeover of Celera by Quest created a certain type of odd insider backstabbing and a surreal "closed door" policy in IT that is highly more resonant, and I hate saying this but it's true: of managing people at a fast food chain rather then delegating projects to highly qualified engineers. I really enjoyed working with my local peers and the folks I both interviewed and collaborated with from the Quest HQ in NJ, the PA Data Center, and the Kansas City team. However, the local pace was neither fast nor challenging because of unnecessary bureaucracy. I've worked in major "takeover" environments before and this was a very unhealthy environment. It's too bad, because the place could have so much potential. I know the transitional managers from the East Coast are trying really hard, but they need to really clue into both the local Hi-Tech culture and the technology trends in the Bay Area.

Pros

Respectable, very nice and pleasant co-workers. Always make you feel part of the team. Numerous automation tools to be utilized to help you get the job done.

Cons

Management is not honest and transparent to lower level staffs. Disrespect to one's capabilities is a typical scenario. Need to be a kiss ass to move up...

Advice to Senior Management

Be real. Realize your mission, vision and goals you posted on your company profile. Practice what you claim you are to be. Practice the "open door" policy this company prouds claims...