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Source BioScience

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Source BioScience Reviews

2.5

27% would recommend to a friend

(126 total reviews)

Jay LeCoque

40% approve of CEO

26% positive business outlook

Source BioScience has an employee rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars, based on 126 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Source BioScience employee rating is 29% below average for employers within the Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

126 reviews
1.0
17 Aug 2015

SBS: An honest review

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

None that spring to mind, but there is a 20 word minimum so you have to type something. No pros at all.

Cons

An honest review I feel I should write an honest review of my tenure at Source Bioscience. Not long after I started, my boss gave me a word of warning. ‘Do not take time off sick. The directors hate nothing more, and will make your life hell if you do’. At the time, it didn't concern me. In 12 years of employment, I'd never had more than the very occasional day off sick. Little did I know how working for this company would have life-changing effects on my health. Soon after I started, I discovered I was the fourth person in three years to hold my job. Pretty strange I thought, perhaps there was a good reason for it. By a few weeks in, I was working sometimes 7-day weeks, often 12 hour shifts. It was intense, but seemed the norm as others would do the same thing. Then started the travel. Berlin one day. Scotland the next. Then Ireland. Time with my young family was becoming a precious commodity. We then started providing support to our US Offices. A 12 hour shift then continued at home, providing telephone support on call, every week, until midnight. This was in addition to having the entire IT infrastructure resting on my shoulders, with no support and no escalation path (why pay for vendor support?). Appraisals came and went. Promises made and never delivered. Management continued to not listen to frequent concerns raised about the integrity of the infrastructure. No process, no procedure, no support, just constantly moving goalposts as and when things broke. I started becoming ill around 8 months in. The stress had gotten to me, and I was struck down by numerous illnesses. Bursitis. Tonsillitis. Migraines. The doctor warned me that my job was having a negative effect on my health; I ignored him. Anxiety, panic attacks, more migraines. A serious bout of tonsillitis hospitalised me. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, the onset of which, in the doctor’s opinion was caused by my job. The time off sick started to cause issues. My boss’s prophecy proved true. After glowing appraisals and an unblemished history, life started to get very difficult at work. I was told the directors had got wind of my illness and wanted me out. I spent my last days at the company in tears, a broken man. I had no choice but to leave, before I was carried out on a stretcher. This story I witnessed in others many times while I worked there, from office staff to directors, and finally myself. To this day I continue to suffer with panic attacks, and the fibromyalgia means I struggle to work. I'm in a job now that I enjoy and am supported in, a world away from the pain of Source Bioscience, yet I still suffer from the illness caused by them. That company ruined my health, both physically and mentally. Yet they simply do not care. Another reviewer nailed it perfectly – they suck away your soul, your life, your health, before discarding the empty shell that used to be a human being. Please, please, please, pay heed to these reviews. Your health is not worth sacrificing for a job. It is simply not worth it.

1.0
8 May 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

´At will´ agreement. Good fellow trapped workers.

Cons

They will make your work odd shifts without regret or care or accommodation. No gratitude / compensation for any extra work. You could be working in research field and could be assigned a marketing sales task across the country, without even bothering about your convenience. Your salary is a joke. Christmas bonus is a luncheon because you sacrifice for the company. (yes you get that answer). Horrible behaviour and disrespectful environment. Background check a company before you get hired. Short term employment will harm you more than the company. If you still accept their employment, you asked for it!

avatar
Source BioScience Response
8y
Thank you for your comments, I am glad to say that under new management and a more open and free forum, all current directors and managers are allowed to do the jobs they have been employed for. I apologise for your experience with the company being so poor, it has taken our new owners to allow focus on the growth of our USA business although interestingly, it was the commercial management team pushing the previous senior management to invest in this group. It is sad that you have not had the best of experiences but now with the investment and opportunity available to us all, we are certainly able to address the issues you have raised to work towards a more positive outlook for our USA employees.
1.0
27 Sept 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-I agree with other reviews that the COVID lab can be a good stepping stone for those who are literally fresh out of their undergraduate degree and have zero work experience. If you do have previous work experience within a lab or a graduate degree this place will not be worth your time. -Because the employees in the COVID lab are all generally young graduates, it can be a fun atmosphere at times. -Start and end times can be a little bit flexible around the 11.5 hour shift times. -There is potential to 'climb the ladder'-but only if you are liked by supervisors.

Cons

To be completely honest, this was the worst working experience I have ever had in my life, and I only wish I could have spent less time and energy here. To start, the shifts are extremely long and tedious, doing the same thing over and over for 11.5 hours. Which would be worth it as long as you were a) paid well and b) the culture was enjoyable. But neither of these things were true. We actually started off on a extremely low wage which was bumped up when the CEO of the company suddenly 'decided he wanted to be the top 10% paying employers' out of the blue. This being said, when I saw my job being advertised once I had left, they had the cheek to advertise it for £1000 less than what I had been getting paid. Then there's the toxic, awful culture. Because the COVID lab expanded so quickly, there was constantly an influx of new recruits and new 'teams' and eventually they changed our day/night shift pattern to a early/mid/day/night shift pattern which was much more disruptive to everyday life yet somehow made them more money by being able to process more samples. Managers constantly acted like they were your best friend and always an open ear, shoulder to cry on, etc, while talking openly talking behind your back. When the opportunity for promotions came along, my manager was completely unprofessional, telling me one thing and then doing another, leaving me in a constant state of not knowing where I stood. It was also obvious that the promotions were being handed out to those who had the best relationship with their supervisor and factors such as a Masters degree, previous work experience or day-to-day work ethic were considered. This kind of clear favouritism obviously results in many who know that they deserve a promotion (considering that everyone starting working there around the same time) feel completely unvalued within the company. Time after time my manager dangled a carrot and even when I did everything that was asked of me it was still just too far beyond reach. What I came to realize is that my manager just plain didn't like me, and had repeatedly denied me a promotion; something that can be grounds for harassment. When I attempted to go to higher management (twice) the issue was never resolved and I ended up continuing to go in circles with my manager. When the higher manager heard the word 'harassment', she immediately got extremely defensive and turned the situation back on me, telling me that I was just simply 'not good enough'. This kind of behaviour is also completely unprofessional but also just serves to isolate people from making complaints to higher-higher management, hence why the person who keeps commenting on these reviews has probably never heard about them. Another part of the problem is that it is easy to get really wound up with trying to do well in the company and get promoted, partially because they have created their own little 'rate race' within the lab. When I first started, there was only MLAs and Scientist and Shift Supervisor positions. However once the teams grew slightly, they decided to make a Scientist I and Scientist II position, however very little differentiates you from a MLA to even a Scientist II. And when promotions were being offered, managers expected you to act in the higher role before even getting paid for it. It is all just a scheme to make you work hard and get emotionally invested in 'progressing' within the company, even though a Scientist II at SBS is not at all equivalent to a Scientist II in other companies. After dealing with all of these issues ongoing for several months, I ended up having no energy to raise a formal grievance after being intimidated by higher management, so I just had to leave. I know for a fact I am not the only person to have this experience, I know multiple other people who were not treated well here and have since gone on to much better positions.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 126 Reviews

Glassdoor has 133 Source BioScience reviews submitted anonymously by Source BioScience employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Source BioScience is right for you.