Pros
PEOPLE: Incredible coworkers - they have cultivated an amazing group of people who are a delight to spend 40 hours a week with. Caring, empathetic, and understanding lower/middle management. Lots of flexibility and grace given when life happens. For all the complaints we had or have, the team makes working here worth it. EXPERIENCE: Lots of learning opportunities if you want them (and some even if you don’t). The job is very dynamic for better or worse, which means the test menu and job duties can fluctuate quite a lot. You can either get on the cutting edge of the changes and learn as much as possible, or wait for your job description to expand for you. I took every opportunity available to me and gained SO many invaluable skills that carry over to far more science-related fields than you’d guess. I will be using what I learned at Avero for the rest of my career. FOOD!!: Free Costco snacks were a huge employee appreciation perk. I basically had a free breakfast every day I worked, may as well be a paid bonus with the money I saved on food. The actual paid bonuses were nice before they were cut.
Cons
ROOM FOR GROWTH: Despite all the learning opportunities: your actual job title, official responsibilities, and pay grade top out fairly quickly. There is admittedly a built-in ceiling to clinical lab work unless you become an MD. But some sort of stratification within the molecular department for additional certifications, experience, and training needs to happen. They were not even receptive to asks for a symbolic title change (not even a pay raise!) to more accurately reflect credentials and job duties. STAGNANT PAY: We used to receive annual bonuses, which were then allegedly turned into performance-based bonuses we would receive following (nonexistent) performance reviews. We were told this for years before anyone actually admitted that we were unlikely to get a raise or bonus ever again. They regretted what they set molecular tech salaries at in 2020, lowered the pay for that role in 2022, and never raised it again for anyone under any circumstances. Times are tough economically for everyone, but given some of the absurd things the company has spent money on, it stings that they couldn’t scrape together a 2-5% pay bump to even PARTIALLY adjust for inflation. I had better pay scaling working in fast food in high school. JOB INSECURITY: Multiple mass hiring events that eventually led to surprise mass layoffs. After each of the first couple incidents, the staff left behind were promised that this would never happen again. When layoff criteria were given, they were opaque and inconsistently applied. I do understand that a company cannot be fully transparent about the minutiae behind why someone was let go. But it’s impossible to feel safe in your job under these circumstances. PATIENT CARE CONCERNS: Repeated, predictable, fully preventable events where poor budget management and other administrative misadventures led to absurd, embarrassing turnaround times. NO REFERENCES: What? Never heard of this policy before working here, at small businesses and huge corporations alike. Yes, it is technically not allowed to list a supervisor as a professional reference, because they are not supposed to recommend any employees. If you want a reference for all of the extra work you did outside of your actual job description and title, you are supposed to provide the number to Avero HR, who have never met you before but can look up your name and say “yes, this person worked here.” POOR UPPER MANAGEMENT: At the root of everything on the “cons” list is awful mismanagement of the lab. A revolving door of C-suite executives squandered large amounts of pandemic-era funding, repeatedly hired people only to lay them off, and effectively lowered pay for everyone. Decisions affecting the lab floor were made without consulting anyone who has to deal with the fallout. Senior leadership goes sight unseen, despite the company being relatively small and the executive suites directly across from the lab.