Becoming VERY corporate very quickly - Anonymous employee Ginkgo BioWorks Employee Review

Benefits are okay. Pay is below average for the market -- a lot of people have left finding better pay elsewhere. Interns almost can't accept the position because it's barely a livable wage in Boston. Since announcing going public, Ginkgo has become very corporatized. It's is becoming a lot less about the people and a lot more about the company and dollars. Examples include terminating contractors after telling them their contracts were going to be extended, firing people with no notice, GGP (Ginkgo' version of a PIP), or real reason because of team restructures. They maintain a "increase efficiency without increasing headcount" mentality and it is driving a lot of good people into the ground with burnout. A good percentage of the population is fresh out of school. This in and of itself is not a con, but there is a good amount of hand holding that needs to be done because it's a lot of employee's first time in a "big kid job". Not a lot of clear career development. They haven't been promoting from within much recently. They cite unlimited PTO but I know whenever I took PTO I was still checking work messages so I wouldn't be underwater when I got back. Work/life balance doesn't really exist here.