Pros
- I had the best colleagues of my life at Abbott Molecular. The culture is phenomenal. Everyone does everything they can to see projects be successful, even if its not their project. People seem to genuinely like each other. I know that I genuinely liked all of my colleagues. The term "best and the brightest" applies. - The entire place is highly educated. Even the warehouse guys have degrees. - Lower-middle managers are excellent. They work hard to be supportive to their people, and work hard to be supportive of the company. It was incredibly easy to be supportive of my manager and to try and make them look good, because the managers make sure to give credit where credit is due, and ultimately they have the best interests of the company in their mind, not petty personal stuff. - this depends on the individual manager and the individual situation but generally managers work with employees to have flexible schedules for people with kids, people who need to go to the doctor, etc. Work from home, provided it is not abused, is usually on the table. - Pay was about what it should be. - Very ethical company. Management is always looking to do the right thing. Every day I left work, I felt that we were doing the right thing. - Quality is important. Every action has multiple controls and checks to make sure that mistakes are not made. - Safety is important. Management actively takes steps to make sure that people are behaving in a safe manner. When they say safety is number 1, they mean it. - If there is anything that happens by mistake, management generally does not blame / scapegoat the individuals, but instead looks for ways to prevent he same issues from recurring. -
Cons
- Upper management. Upper management is on a rotation here. People are always on their toes to try and meet the next demand by sr management for fear that they will be next on the layoff list if they dont. - layoffs. There is a culture at AM of people waiting for the shoe to drop. Might be PTSD from other divisions. the constant state of fear of being the next to be laid off starts to mess with your brain after awhile. And yes, if you are generally disliked, they will "lay you off". Doesn't matter if you are right. If you are seen as being a pain in the butt, next time they have a layoff you should expect to be on the list. -Attrition model. It is practically impossible to move up in this division. Most of the people have been in the same job function for 10+ years. This is partially due to the gridlock, in that nobody moves up. Whenever someone leaves, they either don't replace the headcount at all, or the replacement takes so long, they may as well have not replaced the headcount at all. Additionally, saw it happen multiple times where the hiring manager preferred to reach out to other divisions / other departments rather than moving people up. - Contract employment. I am grateful for my experience at AM. I would have loved to have stayed with the company. Would have even taken a pay CUT if it meant I could stop the contingent worker cycle of pain, where every six months your contract needs to be actively extended or you are gone. Even if you are well regarded and can get continuous extensions, once you hit two years by their agreement with Tapfin, your employment contract gets severed, and you cannot be re-employed as a contract worker for 30 days. I knew several people who went through this process more than once. And it was heartbreaking. - Morale. When I left I had a cadre of people be genuinely happy for me, and even more mention their jealousy in wanting to get out too. - PhD or bust. If you don't have a doctorate of one kind or another, whether PhD, Pharm D, MD, JD, your advancement is even more limited.