Formation Bio Reviews

3.5

61% would recommend to a friend

(74 total reviews)
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Ben Liu

66% approve of CEO

64% positive business outlook

Formation Bio has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 74 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Formation Bio employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

74 reviews
1.0
14 Mar 2025

The Definition of Dysfunctional

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you don't like the strategy it'll change in 2 weeks. It's a very easy place to hide if you don't want to work hard.

Cons

There is an alarming lack of knowledge and experience among decison makers about how to run a drug company. Worse yet, inflated egos prevent these decision makers from listening to people with actual experience. This lack of experience manifests itself in constantly changing strategies and priorities making it nearly impossible for teams to actually be productive. The lack of experience also manifests in unrealistic objectives and viewpoints that are disconnected from reality. The culture is dominated by gossip and favoritism. Those in the inner circle get preferential treatment and access to resources for pet projects even when it makes no sense. High levels of frustration among top performers has caused a high level of turnover. AI is the solution for everything. There is no actual thought put into where it actually makes sense to deploy AI. There are just multiple teams working on random demos and point solutions that generally have no practical use case. There are a few interesting things that are being developed, but they're usually poorly thought-through versions of applications that are available elsewhere.

1.0
26 Sept 2020

Don’t be fooled by recent good reviews

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A wealth of talent in the workers Unlimited leave (but you’ll never feel like you can take it)

Cons

Leadership is made up of gossip, unsupportive, male-driven egos. They have identified their favorites within the organization (men mostly) to lead initiatives despite many leading outside their areas of expertise, while more qualified workers sit on the sidelines time after time. Turnover has been very high and they are running out of ways to spin the reasons to pin it on the workers rather than admitting the company has an issue. The organization moves from idea to idea and business initiative to business initiative more at the first sign of adversity. Whether to try to fool investors or to avoid working hard is anyone’s guess, but it leaves everyone wondering what is next. Management says they want ideas, out of the box thinking and honest feedback, but they don’t. If you do it, prepare for some backlash. Oh and the slew of 5 star reviews is because they saw all the negative reviews and asked people to write some positive things. The other reviews are absolutely spot on. This is a company of smoke and mirrors and while it all sounds like a great idea don’t be fooled by the used car salesman tactics to get you in the door.

1.0
18 Oct 2024

The most toxic culture I've ever experienced

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are some well-intentioned, talented individuals, but they will all leave soon enough. Also, you can work from home if you don't live in NY...

Cons

I have serious concerns regarding the work environment at this office. The culture is notably toxic, characterized by excessive gossip and unprofessional behavior. Promotions frequently favor individuals who lack competence and productivity, and reporting inappropriate behavior is not addressed effectively by senior leadership or HR. Senior leadership appears more focused on maintaining conformity rather than fostering meaningful contributions to the company’s success. Additionally, the company’s strategic direction seems to shift frequently, and while the CEO excels at fundraising, there is a perceived lack of effectiveness in driving sustainable growth. Tech leadership also contributes to the problem with a prevalent culture of inflated egos and exclusivity. Talented professionals, particularly women, will find this environment incredibly challenging and should consider this before pursuing opportunities here.

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Formation Bio Response
1y
Thank you for taking the time to share your perspective about your experience at Formation Bio. We appreciate hearing both your observations about our talented team members and your thoughts about our workplace environment. We continually are working to build an environment where transparency, collaboration, and respect are fundamental to how we operate. Our goal is to continuously evaluate our strengths and weaknesses through employee feedback in order to strengthen our organization and processes. Our leaders are always looking for ways to improve and ensure we maintain an environment where all employees can contribute meaningfully to our mission. Your feedback will make a difference as we continue to grow as an organization.
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Glassdoor has 78 Formation Bio reviews submitted anonymously by Formation Bio employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Formation Bio is right for you.