People were nice overall but overshadowed by poor management - Chemist BioAscent Employee Review

There are some brilliant, highly skilled chemists working at BioAscent and it was fantastic to work with them. The workload was predictable.

Please take heed of other similar reviews on this platform, they unfortunately reflect the reality within the chemistry section at BioAscent. The culture here amongst management diminished staff confidence and professional worth, leaving myself and others feeling undervalued as chemists and people. There is no credible path for progression, improvement or career development but instead a career dead-end. Furthermore, there are no meaningful perks to working here and no performance related recognition. Given the tight fiscal environment, instead of paying employees a liveable wage, even basic professional recognition would suffice but was notably absent. All of this can be overlooked perhaps in the dire chemistry market of recent years however, management's behaviour during recent redundancy period was unforgivable. Redundancies are regrettable but understandable in the context of the difficult market conditions for smaller CROs. I think everyone at BioAscent understood the reality of the situation and why drastic change was necessary. The problem is the serious lack of duty of care shown by management towards employees during the difficult period. Decisions with profound professional and personal consequences were made with no transparency and compassion. Scoring was arbitrary, highly reckless and deeply insensitive in how individual circumstances were treated. Communications from management and HR were sparse, terse and at times highly confrontational and unapologetic. This was completely unacceptable, especially as basic human decency was all that was called for. There was no meaningful support for affected staff and a staggering lack of compassion or even acknowledgement of the human impact. The mismanagement and poor leadership resulted in the process becoming deeply personal and caused significant distress to many colleagues. This is an experience that I will never forget and has left a permanent black mark on this company. The incredibly poor management at BioAscent is a considerable shame. Given the high skill levels of the chemists working there and the wealth of chemistry talent available within Scotland more generally, this could have been a great company. However, it will remain an awful place to work unless significant changes are made at the top.

Amazing colleagues with lots of experience and expertise spanning several areas.

Salary on the lower end, no benefits, very limited progression opportunities.