In general the highest level executives at the Torrance site lack the education/training and/or demonstrated level of professional accomplishment typically expected for their job level. For example, many executives don't have advanced degrees. The people in management positions take very little personal responsibility for addressing problems and the atmosphere is highly political rather than reality based as a result. Lower level managers follow the tone set by leadership. The blame game is rampant with few problems ever getting solved properly and scapegoats are liberally utilized on a daily basis. The dysfunctional environment leads to poor customer service and ultimately customer wrath which is most often misdirected at employees who have no power to impact the customer experience which will likely be you. If you are a young scientist and need basic experience this place can work for a short time if you have the right attitude, but this is no place to build a career if you are an intelligent person. Don't be idealistic and expect life to be fair, logical or merit based. Keep your head down and pretend you are in a SNL skit and it is not too serious. Get some experience, every two weeks collect your paycheck, keep looking and when something good comes along be as nice to them as they will be to you. Plan to be used and use them right back. It goes without saying if you are an experienced professional used to working in an efficient merit based environment and you have a brain you will not be happy here. My advice is the same as the entry level worker. If you lost your other job and need to pay the mortgage then use them and keep looking for something better and when the time is right dump them. Keeping your mouth shut and collecting a paycheck will be harder than a young person. but you need to have a certain attitude going in. This is no place to build a satisfying career and if you go in with the right attitude you can survive the experience with minimal emotional trauma and get what you need out of it.
One other thing to remember is that this is a Swiss company and as part of the North America operation you will be treated as second class in that the needs of the Swiss site will always be prioritized. It isn't really racism. I don't know what the term for it is, but it won't be a nice feeling. Don't waste alot of effort making intelligent comments at meetings. This is a top down place and not a matrix organization. The highest level person/people will have already decided what they are going to do no matter how idiotic. These are not very smart people. Don't fight it and raise your blood pressure. Its not worth dying from a heart attack. Succeeding at Bachem is about knowing when to just shut up and accept things. Don't expect a democracy. Realize going in you are joining a dictatorship run by morons, accept it,enjoy your weekends and you will be O.K. as long as you have an exit strategy.
