quality assurance analyst

microbiologist

production supervisor

Exela Pharma Sciences

Management is the worst aspect of this company. During my time, they have hired incompetent outside supervisors and expect them to have the necessary experience to lead a team day-to-day without first-hand knowledge. The management needs to be more involved in learning what workers go through during the shift and make changes to make the work easier and more ergonomic. Some jobs to be performed are standing only for extended periods of time. Another observation I have noticed, there are employees who lie to their supervisors to get out of required daily work and the following shift must end up completing that work before the end of the day on top of whatever else they have to complete during their own shift. It leads to some shifts being overworked and treated differently than others. It would be as simple as the managers checking a logbook to see the task has been completed, the company has their own motto - "if it's not documented it didn't happen." Management needs to hold their teams accountable for tasks not completed and lied about being completed. 
My biggest suggestion is to STOP hiring outside supervisors and PROMOTE your good employees who understand the job and can lead a team to greatness. There are no signs of advancement allowed in this company. They will tell you that you don't have enough experience, however they will hire someone else with X experience at a different company who is completely oblivious about the job they are about to manage.

On top of supervisor level incompetence, there is also incompetence above them, shocking. People who have absolutely no idea what they are doing make decisions about the duties being performed. I understand people have experience at other companies before coming here, however, if you haven't stepped foot in the room or observed the work performed, how can you adequately make decisions for the good of the company? It's always one step forward and two steps back with management. There needs to be 2000% more training on all upper management. If you cannot perform the job itself, you should be learning how to do it. Management is willing to let teams struggle and sit in their office while their employees are unsure when their next break will be. There is no leadership in the management. A leader would jump in and help whenever possible for the good of their team. Instead, it's the workers who get blamed for the shortcomings during the shift. 

The next step of the company is to HIRE MORE PEOPLE. There are supposedly "statistics" that management is using for why there is no need to hire people, which is completely inaccurate. This company has a multitude of people who are eager to leave for a better opportunity whenever that comes. This is due to the management as said above, and the short-staffing - doing the job of multiple people simultaneously. More team members would not be people doing nothing as management has a belief of; it would lead to more tasks being able to be completed on each shift as well as more energy for the teams during the shift. 

Unbelievably, the job itself, I love doing what I do, I have a sense of purpose going into work. that changes as soon as I clock in. The work environment is terrible. Exela needs to do a survey of employees' happiness to see for themself. That may actually open their eyes to make some quality-of-life decisions for the better of their employees for once. 

Without the people at the bottom - there is no money being made for the people at the top. 

Changes need to be made, desperately. 


Overall, I actually enjoyed my position at this company for the past two (almost three) years. I knew what was expected of me and I enjoyed working with most of the employees there. The pay was decent and insurance was fine. However, after the twelve hour shifts were abandoned, the schedule changed all the time. Almost on a monthly basis. Surprise overtime was made mandatory, sometimes at the very last minute. Point system was also implemented. Made it to where a lot of employees with health problems had to apply for FMLA, so they didn't point out and lose their jobs. Very high turnover rate. Management of this entire company is a joke. Lots of movement of employees between departments and promotions given to people who weren't even qualified for the position. Then later on these same people are fired for unsatisfactory performance. Practically no promotions given to people in entry-level positions that were very good at their jobs. Management wanted people to stay where they were and hire outsiders for leadership roles. Probably because they couldn't afford to take people out of production due to the extremely high turnover rate. Favoritism and double standards definitely present. 

Only care about quantity not quality. HR lady will not help you and fails at her job as the HR manager. Avoid going to her at all cost. This place makes me 2nd guess about receiving injection products at the hospital after writing the deviation reports and actually being in the cleanroom to witness what really happens. Instead of better training, during FDA visits they train you to say, "Let me refer to my SOP and I will get back to you." Be prepared to work weekends. 1st shift you work regular hours on weekdays. 2nd shift hours were 2pm-10pm, everyday I left at either 1am or 3am. Worst is for 2nd shift prep team. One time during a meeting we told operations management we don't need 60+ hours at work, we want to be home with our family. His response, "Isn't work your family also?" If you take lunch, DO NOT take your walkie talkie and actually take a break or else you won't have one and will clock right back in. Remember, to a company you're just another employee, this place doesn't care about your work ethic. They prefer not to do promotions and rather hire other people. To show how much this company cares about their employees, the CEO didn't want to go commercial in the first place but had to.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The people in operations that I worked with were very pleasant and knowledgeable. Well the ones in the Michelle building anyway, Augusta was abysmal and I can't speak for the other buildings.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Time crunch for products, higher management even being fired for one product failure. Extremely poor management full of ultimatum situations to keep working but with low level explanations of how to meet expectations.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Horrible culture, which permeates from management leaving people in the dark with no discussions of their plans for the department. Michelle had a great ops department with great leadership so it was a pleasure to do work at that building.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Depending on if the machines were properly working I would spend about 5 hours in the clean room in a row before rotating out, try to take a lunch and then either go back in the clean room or collect water in the two buildings we provided service to. After that it was lab activities till the end of the 12 hour shift

Everyday that I went to work was literally a mystery. You never know what was happening/what will happen. You come in not knowing what will happen. There's no communication at all and someone will always get blamed at no matter what. One thing I will say is the employees that actually work and know what they're doing gets put down and gets blamed for things all the time and the ones that sit back and doesn't do anything gets away with things. It's a toxic environment where you're trying to do what you can to make sure people don't blame you or yell at you. Training-wise my experience I entered the floor not know what to do in my department and it's been like that for almost 2 years. I had to pick up things on my own and it's pretty stressful. Last thing is I got fired for something that was clearly a unintentional mistake and it wasn't something anyone should not have been fired for.

This company was great at the start, but after a few years everything has gone downhill. You put all your time and effort into this company, but for what? Dedicate your whole life to a company with no reward. You get promised a better work environment and get promised new roles and potential growth in the company, but then have it suddenly taken away from you for no reason. This company has hard working and dedicate workers, but any upper management takes any credit for hard work and all workers are just ignored and treated like robots. A typical 40 hour work week is 60+ hours here. If you have a life and family outside of work, you might as well forget about them because working here is more important. If you have any health issues, you better feel better instantly so you can be at work instead. This was a company I thought you could grow a career in and succeed, but it’s more so something you give your life away to. Sure, the pay is great, but the mental exhausted this company gives is not worth it. These workers deserve better. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Good people, growing company, owner is great and leadership is doing a good job. Lots of growth potential. Excellent starter for people as well. Overall a good place to work. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Fast growth, so high demand to get things done. That will settle out though.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
No place is perfect. However the company does promote a good culture. They do want to see people be successful, not just for the company, but for the individuals themselves. They are very good to their employees.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
8 to 10 hour work days, some times longer, fast pace, but most people are supportive and help each other. Then can be stressful days, however not as bad as most others. depending on your position, you can be on your feet 10% of the time to 80%, Just depends on the position your hired for. But there are the days it is easy going and our out in 8 hours.

Schedules change last minute; never know what your walking into.  Pay isn’t compensated compared to the work.  Pays decent for location though.  Could definitely have better insurance and better management.  No Pay raises are given unless your part of the ‘team’, which means your part of the upper management team.  A lot of loopholes for a company that makes ‘life-saving medicine’.   Depending on shift, you’ll get treated unfairly and ignored.

You will typically work 50+ hours a week on a short week.  In my case it was closer to 80 hours per week.  At my 6 month review I was asked to find a different babysitter for my child so that I could stay at work longer than 12 hours a day, 6-7 days per week.  Upper management had complained about me being on salary and stated that I needed to be dropped to an hourly rate, and when they did they gave me a pay increase of over 300 per week and didn't realize it for 6 months at which point I was switched back to salary again.  Upper management has no idea how the filling process works and tries to micromanage, which in turn sets back filling operations for several hours.  They do not expect you to have a life outside of work and will make you come in at all hours of the night and day to continue filling operations.  Extremely high turn over rate for such a small company, do not be fooled into working here.  I came in as the operations supervisor with absolutely no experience in this field, anyone can get a job here.

All the people you work with day to day are very nice and helpful. The company offers a subpar but ok amount of PTO. The compensation for any role though is terribly undervalued for what you should be paid and promotions and yearly raises are basically non-existent. Recently, benefits have been slowly cut down such as maternity/paternity leave, health insurance, and yearly pay increases.
 The work is mostly straightforward and averagely paced. I would not recommend working here though as career growth is unlikely and yearly raises even just for inflation adjustments do not happen. Even when promoted, pay raises may only be a couple percent. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Quality assurance analyst 3 salaries reported	$72,667 per year
Microbiologist 3 salaries reported	$28.00 per hour
Production supervisor 3 salaries reported	$71,667 per year

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