Pluspunten
The culture of people at this company is a tenacious and supportive one. The majority of staff here are collaborative, polite, and amazing at communication; during the company's early growth these people were incredibly close-knit, and there were nearly no social barriers between whichever aspect of the company you worked in which was a tremendous perk and a great selling point for new starters. Though the company began to develop silos of departments as it naturally expanded, the open nature of many staff still remained an incredibly strong pillar of the culture. From my experience, every single one of my managers over my time was an incredible role model for me, we would consistently maintain good dialogue and my progression was always tracked and evaluated at the right time. Communication between myself and my colleagues was always productive and fun, and I've continued to maintain many of these relationships after leaving the company. The healthcare benefits and pension scheme were very strong, and there was great incentive from the company to maintain a healthier lifestyle with healthy food options, plus many sports and social groups that stemmed from the positive and outgoing staff. There was a firm belief and resolve about most of the scientific work that the company undertook from the many projects I was either witness or accomplice in, there is an incredible talent pool within the company and others who have moved on from it continue to do amazing work in or around the biotech sector.
Minpunten
Having been there for so long, I have seen my fair share of questionable decisions and misappropriation of the hard-working staff's passion and commitment to the company's success, notably by the company's former top management. These individuals are no longer present within the company, where the case for shared accountability went out the door with them, and sometimes a quiet or sudden exit led to several questions about what was happening behind the board room meetings. I will not lead to speculative answers here in this review, only to say that whilst the day-to-day staff upheld the "communication is key" aspects to a very high standard, the C-Suite did not. The company made incredible amounts of buzz between 2021-2023, and at a certain point was looking to expand its operations and enter the public market due to an amazing couple of rounds of funding achieved during the post-pandemic investment swell, despite a lacking product portfolio at the time and too few sales to match. Bit.bio was attempting to capitalise on clout with surface-level "good science" that was nowhere near ready, with many internal researchers questioning the validity of our strategies, and with directors being reassured by the executive leadership that the company was on track for great yields regardless. Skepticism from myself began at the first wave of removals from the company which was incredibly questionable, as it was during the most successful period of the company. Those who were removed were considered to be nay-sayers, skeptics, or controllers with operational authority who were simply trying to herd the company's overly ambitious goals and maintain them within reasonable expectation to guarantee sustainable growth. The ensuing years of volatility have resulted in yearly staff reductions, consolidation of research operations, reliance on product to remain stable, and as a result an overall demoralising experience for many. An amazing cohort of people are continuously being pushed and pulled to their limits for a company that they have seen decline for the last couple of years from the inside out. Empty promises of career progression and growth, pay rises or bonuses have been evidence for the years that the company bit off more than they can chew. The negative spiral of revolving executives and reactionary attempts to break even is eventually leading to a lack of confidence in the board of investors. I can only wish the best for the talented folks on the ground and what will happen to them.
