Poor psychological safety/ job security due to layoffs and strong hierarchy. Communication feels strained, as navigating interpersonal dynamics requires constant caution to avoid upsetting egos. This creates stress and stifles open dialogue. There is a constant fear of triggering a negative reaction, as if navigating a minefield where even ordinary comments can unexpectedly upset someone.
Strong hierarchy. Your performance is measured by how many degrees of separation you are from a close circle of people, not the quality of work. The people you need to follow to be successful are not your vertical leaders, but this network of people with the CEO being in the centre. This causes a lot of confusion and inefficiency. I know this is not unique to BenchSci, but the presence of this hierarchy is felt very strongly here, even compared to some family-owned companies I’ve worked for before. Sometimes inappropriate behaviour or comments are not being addressed because someone is within this circle. You feel defeated and helpless when you’re the one who is impacted.
Personal brand is extremely important, more so than your work. I was told by multiple people that I do have outstanding performance, but I need to work on my appearance, the way I speak, and my overall “presence” in general. I consulted mentors, peers, previous managers and they all believe I show an appropriate amount of maturity both physically and behaviorally but am told otherwise by impactful people at BenchSci. Anecdotally, I have heard of other young females (but no men) who were given this feedback.
Poor change management strategies. Change fatigue in all departments. These changes include processes, tools, people, organization structure, etc. By the time you get used to something, it gets changed. It's one thing to change with a certain goal in mind, another to change constantly before you can see the impact starting to show. Change management/ impact assessment are non-existent. From what I observed, those who need to execute on, or are being impacted by, the changes are rarely consulted. There’s usually no transition period for processes - you are given a new template/ process/ org, and have to change the way you work by the end of the week, or even EOD.
Since everyone is so willing to work overtime, it sets an expectation. You work over time a lot too. And unfortunately a lot of times, it will not be productive because constantly changing decisions means the urgent work you did last night is now irrelevant.
Leadership focuses on giving prescriptive direction but little high level strategic planning. The recommendations from them are often quite short sighted. You’re also expected to execute tasks without a clear goal in mind, in a very short amount of time.
