microbiology technician

r&d engineer

laboratory technician

manufacturing technician

Artivion

I haven't worked at CryoLife since they laid off a host of well-tenured people in 2009. So keep my time away and personal animosity in mind while reading. 
It's my understanding that the compensation has been significantly increased since I started there nearly 20 years ago. For a long period, the pay for the dissecting positions was just completely rotten. I mean, these people take 2 years to train and get good at their jobs, but were making a wage more akin to part-time work in retail. The company's position was, "Where else are you going to work in Atlanta with a Bachelor of Science degree". Competition from new companies has been a big driver for improving this. 

Dissecting human tissue is just a really cool job.

Don't know if this has changed, but there was no capacity planning. The instructions from leadership were to accept tissue no matter what - even if there were no where near enough people or materials to accomplish the job. You would come to work one day be told that everyone is working 5-6 hours of overtime on top of the normal 10 hour day. As a leader, you had to call everyone from off shift and beg them to come in and work and somehow figure a way to get it done. These long days were not "one-offs" and would be stacked upon each other day after day. It got to be where no one who was off would even answer their phone. The pace was grueling, but more than that, the lack of recognition for those efforts was the worst. For all that effort to compensate for poor planning, who gets the hefty bonuses? The sales and marketing guys who cause the problem in the first place. Stupid.

I am grateful for the job experiences that has helped me build better skill sets either with technology, learning processes, or training new employees.  There are numerous co-workers that are great to work with and have become life long friends.

With that being said, the work culture set by management on every level is based on fear and insecurity.  Shame and blame flow each 98% of the supervisor level and up.  Decisions made by top brass come with armor posturing instead of dialog.  Basically, all decisions are made by numbers period.  The CEO, in each quarterly meeting, will start each meeting talking about Cryolife being a life saving company; however, will then proceed to talk about numbers for the next 45 minutes.  It sends a clear message through every channels, don't make any mistake or find another job.   That fear spread like a wildfire through out the company.  

With that fear set by top management, the site manager at the Austin branch, ran wild with his insecurities by shaming, stereotyping, and blaming others mostly through emails.  This person would never do it in person and could never handle criticism.  At one point this spring, 10 people out of 100 people in the Austin facility decided to move on to other places of business.  In the heart of economic uncertainty due to a pandemic, 10 people decided to take their chances else where.  And yet, if the flow money, production, and "yes" people are still there, why fix it? 

Again I say, get the experience and plan to move on.  Cryolife, with the anger and resentment created by poor management, will crush your soul. 



Expected job performance and rate of pay out of balance. Number one complaint I heard at work was they don't pay enough for the level of precision expected. That was by far the biggest complaint  and that was across multiple departments. Most days at work were not typical, it was all customer driven, we could go from nothing to do, to overdrive. I learned SAP and Lotus Notes as far as skills go, I had no prior exposure to either program. Management varied based on who was in the position. Lots of changes before I left, most were positive and needed to happen. My co-workers were for the most part under paid, but were good, hard working people.  There was no difference in the job description in a one year employee and someone with 4-5 years experience, everyone did the same job and that was an issue that did not sit well with some personnel. The hardest part of the job was going home and worrying if you had made a mistake during your shift, I could never totally feel at ease. The most enjoyable part of the job was being able to implement a change to a process that made the job easier, or reduced the possibility of making an error.

You can make a huge impact with every contribution of your talent that you bring to the table, regardless of your job function or level of seniority.
The culture is rapidly growing into an environment that allows you to align your personal purpose and mission in life to that of the organizations. CryoLife's Purpose is about extending and saving lives while satisfying the business demands of Wall Street.
We are not a Google, but we have an awesome new fitness center, basketball courts, open cafe with unlimited expressos or latte and healthy foods, Extensive wellness programs, massage chairs, and sports leagues such as golfing, bowling, and softball. If you are just looking for a j.o.b. , you may not be happy here, the people that stay here bring a passion to make a difference that matters.
The training programs and learning opportunities continue to expand into a Learning Culture for developing Leaders through CryoLife's Corporate University. Instructor lead classes, online learning, and Lunch & Learns are a growing constant that allows you to develop a solid personal and professional value proposition.

Do not apply for final assembly unless you want to be put in what every other department calls “the sweat shop” ran by “the evil step sisters”. They have a sign in and sign out sheet to manage your restroom breaks during your shift, on occasion I’ve seen the trainers follow my coworkers into the restroom to make sure they were using the restroom. They are always rushing you during your two breaks and lunch. The two trainers basically pick and choose what they want and make up procedures to suit their needs. Nothing is constant, they’re never happy and there’s so much pressure and stress out onto anyone working in that room. They do a mandatory 9 hours a day which wasn’t originally in our agreement for the work schedule and always scold you for any little thing. The job itself is rewarding in the fact that you save people’s lives and that’s great. But they do NOT care about you in there. If you go in maternity leave they count that against your attendance, if you’re sick with doctors note they count that against you, any little thing is against you and they stay threatening your job any chance they get. 

For what you are responsible for, there should be much, much better pay. There are days where you can't take a lunch break even though they will chastise you for not taking one even if you don't have time. Shift is supposed to be 10 hours, but it will sometimes turn into 12+ hours. There are perfection standards, but not perfection standard respect nor pay. Not a very open minded company; not apt to change and adapt to modern times. Very old software and equipment for a biotech company. Management doesn't make an effort to listen to employees even though most if not all of the team in TPL are highly educated and informed. Very bureaucratic and spend money on their image rather than their hardworking employees. You are expected to do way more than what you are payed for. It's a numbers game to them and you are expected to have perfect work, but you have to rush and do your work fast which can cause errors because, you know, human error. Stressful, tense, and toxic work environment. This company could be really good to work for, but unfortunately it doesn't seem they will change.

There plenty of benefits and a lot more PTO compared to a lot of other medium sized companies. But from my time there, management at a macro level is very out of touch with the processes that technicians, dissectors, and leads do within the lab to such a level where policy changes makes their lives harder with marginal growth and no change in compensation. Equipment fails often due its extreme age. The same equipment has been or is commission or malfunctioning for many months at a time, but money has been allocated instead on superficial signs and paint in the lab hallways. Upper management was easily the worst part of the company, and each all employee meeting for the lab for each quarter only reminded me how unethical as leaders they are. They craft policy around their numbers and projections for the year when they spend close to no time in the lab to even see how feasible their goals are. The burden then falls on the worker to meet their expectations without compensation. In other words, your hard work at this company will always be recognized with more work.

This company allows managers to assign their own responsibilities and tasks that is not your responsibility, like investigations of old files that occurred before you were hired that you have to figure out on your own because there is no onboarding system in place for new hires.  And then fire you all knowing you are bound to make mistakes to put the blame on someone else because they it’s easier to blame that take accountability.  I have never been terminated in my life!  No warning, no write up, just pull you away from helping your team get their work done to the HR office to fire you, not a care on world if it’s wrong or right.  Manager blames anyone instead of taking accountability of their laziness and blames it on a new person who was made to attended unrelated meetings as “training”, or made fake meetings to show me how to do their job instead of mine, causing me to miss meeting with other staff.  It was crazy!!!  I was set up to fail when I was hired as a scapegoat.  

A typical day consists of numerous processes in flow that require heavy attention to detail, team work, and self accountability. I have learned how to create the product we produce as well as all the necessary procedures from product formulation to packaging it for shipping. Management is constantly searching for new ways to make production more time and cost efficient, as well as speaking with employees to obtain advice for bettering procedures. Co-worker relationships are  typically healthy and everyone is usually willing to lend a helping hand. The hardest part of the job is following behind fellow co-workers and trusting their integrity to their duties because one mishap from any person can halt a production. The most enjoyable part of the job is being in a process with co-workers that you can trust to do their job efficiently and are able to complete a process flawlessly.

If you’re looking for a workplace where the production associates move at a snail's pace, you've found it! I worked in the Dye Penetrant Quality Control area, which felt like a nightmare. I encountered a co-worker who has probably been there since the place opened in the 1970s, and they refused to train me, often responding with a sarcastic tone towards new employees. Despite my efforts to address these issues with my supervisor and manager, no action was ever taken. There was an apparent lack of training for new associates, and the supervisors and managers didn't seem to care about our well-being.
Additionally, the buildings had a strong, unpleasant odor. Ultimately, I was terminated for doing nothing wrong other than trying to address these issues. PLEASE if you want to keep sane and have respect for yourself, do not work here. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Microbiology technician 4 salaries reported	$18.25 per hour
R&d engineer 3 salaries reported	$88,333 per year
Laboratory technician 3 salaries reported	$20.67 per hour
Manufacturing technician 1 salary reported	$16.25 per hour

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