I’m a technical supervisor in a medical laboratory, overseeing technical and operational quality for general laboratories – chemistry, hematology, coagulation (there are other departments within the laboratory with their own supervisors; I’m just “lucky” to be overseeing 3 of them). Clinical laboratory scientists, along with other laboratory professionals, are the ones doing the testing, giving the care provider lab results to diagnose and treat patients. We’re especially overextended with the current pandemic, doing expedited testing for COVID 24/7 on top of an already overworked and underpaid culture. My boss retired, and before he did, he created a position of lead laboratory scientist to help me because there is no way I can do it all without delegation. It’s really a 2-3 person job all wrapped up in the supervisor position. When he retired, I took over his responsibility until we could find replacement; colleagues have approached me a few times about taking the vacant position. I didn’t want to at the time because I was barely able to do one job, let alone two.
New boss came in, and he seemed great. I worked with him, showing him the ropes, slowly giving back responsibilities that were outside of my job descriptions. He kept talking about the way he did things at his old job. Well, finally he said in order to reduce the labor budget, he was going to eliminate the lead scientist position, quote “at my previous job, there was no supervisor. Just a lead scientist, and I handled the supervisory responsibilities on top of my directorship. We have supervisors here so there is no need for team lead” Mind you, I am overseeing 3 departments, with many quality and regulatory requirements, with many new projects and tests on the book, and daily troubleshooting of problems and complaints. I am burnt out, dreading going to work, people texting me after hours because they don’t trust the new director who hasn’t stepped outside of his office and be visible. He hasn’t even come in to say hi to the night shift. Meanwhile, I’ve come to night shift 6 times in the last 2 months to address specific issues (bringing food and boba for the night shift too, of course)
Now he’s just cut the hours of many colleagues. I understand the position he’s in, under pressure from C-suites to stay within the labor budget. However, that means my hours are cut too, and unlike hourly staff on the bench doing work, they can just go to work and go home. I am still responsible for my responsibilities even if my work hours are cut.
So anyway, I’m being poached by the competition because my skills are valuable, and so are those of a few colleagues I’ll be bringing with me. Hope this helps with reducing labor costs.