Synthetic Genomics Reviews

Cons

There is a very steep hierarchy and most of the new senior management is relatively detached from the operational aspects of the company. This causes a disconnect between the vision/strategy and real work (boots on the ground) which can often manifest as ineffective communication, poor motivation and low morale. The steep hierarchy also leads to a highly political climate where employee recognition and feedback is often overlooked until something breaks.

Cons

HR is heartless, they fire people without due cause or reason, and ultimately a place with no job security unless you CYA which you should do if working there.

Cons

This place will drain you. People are asked to do the impossible while management suffers from entitlement. Management is horrible, from the top dow and in between. There is no direction, no common vision, in-fighting, and bad business decisions on a revolving basis with no accountability. Working people are treated miserably. Craig's vision and passion has left the building.

Cons

The executives and HR have absolutely no clue what is going on in the trenches nor do they make any effort to step out of their fancy executive offices to come into the labs and see for themselves what is really going on. It's like a game of telephone. You simply can't trust what you hear. There are many people that started w/ the company under Craig that worked for MANY, LONG, HARD YEARS and devoted their entire lives to the company...only to be laid off. It felt like a spit in the face. You had great people who were extremely flexible, bending this way and that, as you frequently switched gears. These people were honestly capable of handling anything you threw at them. They could have easily transformed into what you needed in order to be successful...but you chose to get rid of them. This was a huge mistake. When you treat good, hardworking, loyal, dedicated, smart people like that...there is absolutely NO WAY you will end up successful.

Cons

Often lack a clear vision, and commitment to see projects through. For many people there are very limited opportunities for career advancement.

Cons

Management, unfriendly culture, high employee turnover, high stress, lack of employee recognition. SGIDNA division is even more difficult than the rest of SGI.

Cons

Poor alignment of goals and strategy among executive team. Middle managers are caught in a bind trying to develop technology in pharma applications for which there has been little experience to date. Upper management has failed to trim total number of projects and organization is a mile wide and an inch deep, resulting in insufficient resourcing of multiple projects. This company has struggled to pivot from being an academically leaning contract research organization to one that knows how best to apply its talent to develop specific products with meaningful revenue.

Cons

No potential for career growth. Supervisors are generally not inclined to provide help with advancing careers. Unfocused management. Not a lot of communication between the management and the scientist.

Cons

I had been extremely excited to work at this company, however it soon became apparent that there are deep issues within the division that I worked and entry level positions here are treated very poorly. Existing hired employees did next to nothing all day, while hardworking passionate temp employees busted rump working 10-12 hour shifts trying to stay on top of all of the work. The employee turnover is extremely high because they soon realize that there's no way they're going to being hired (even after being told that would happen after 6 months and being temp is more a formality), and they realize the futility of their hard work. In my time there I saw numerous low level employees break down in tears and break out in stress rashes. We were always running out of neccessary reagents, and then pressured when weeks later the order would be approved and finally the reagents would come in to tackle the extreme amount of built up work. Middle management seems to be aware of issues but is either unable to fix anything or has their hands tied by upper management, who can be extremely rude and unprofessional. Upper management is more concerned with FTE count/money than taking care of the little guys that break their backs for them. There's a reason why the moral is so low.

Cons

Layoff people every couple of years. No career development. Senior management decisions are not transparent. Every department is different but employee's treatment and promotions are based off of whose boss can "yell the loudest".