Avoid at all costs - Laboratory Assistant ProImmune Employee Review

Overall company seems very friendly and supportive. You will meet a lot of genuinely lovely interesting people. Most the people pull their weight which makes the work more manageable. The new labs are better than the old ones and are nicer to work in but not without issues. The work is interesting to start with and you definitely get involved quickly. Over time there seems to be some possibility to get involved in some different techniques. There is “responsibility” to take on early on which is ok if you want to do extra work. The graduate experience varies quite a lot across the departments but it sounds like there are some good aspects for each department. Management are varying levels of helpful, but there are ones that care.

Walk through the labs and you’ll hear the same people who spend all day talking, complaining that their workload is too high, some managers crying and moaning about having to do their job thinking no one can hear them and actually productive people running about covering for people chatting. If you are someone who likes to work, there is plenty for you to do here to cover for people who are fake busy. For those that are actually busy, the pay is not reflective of the amount of work they do. The work becomes samey and all you are asked to do is more of the same but quicker by the managers who just want to look good to their manager. There are some managers who just outright ignore some people and only talk to their favourites. The company is trying to be big in some ways but one of those ways is not employee benefits which are basically non-existent.

The staff here were extremely friendly and tries their best to make sure everyone felt included and had help if they were struggling - you just needed to ask. I worked in services and overtime gained more responsibility as I expressed an interest in it. It started off small, being in charge of stock checks etc then becoming responsible for organising asigned customer orders and reporting. Services manager and Assay Scientists were always around to ask for help, even if the timing was inconvenient. I don't think I would have been happier working in another team. Services manager in particular tried his hardest to make sure we all still had fun at work organising events like the ProImmune Olympics (fun lab challenges). Or doing motivating and funny end of year/Christmas presentations. Not sure if any of the other managers organised things like that. I found most things got sorted as long as I raised them. Salary progressed well provided you stayed here and took on more responsibility and independence. Much the same as in any job. We got bonuses twice a year after each performance review which was great.

Sometimes could get a bit stressful when experimental work didn't go to plan. When we got short staffed your work load increased which could also result in some very hectic days. Some of the staff could be very gossipy, especially around glassdoor reviews.