misdirected management - Engineering Merck Employee Review

2.0
Oct 11, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

still decent benefits. some empowerment for smaller things. the company is generous to the needy (free or discounted drugs).

Cons

Management's first priority appears to be promoting minorities. If you're a white male, don't bother applying. This strategy has left the company with leaders who can't lead, or develop a workable strategy. Their intent is to save their way to success, and the only way they know how to save is to layoff employees and outsource. "We have to cut costs to compete", yet Merck has built a new hanger to house their new larger jets. They talk empowerment, but everything gets approved by many layers of management and worse, committees.

Explore other reviews about Merck

5.0
Jul 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work Life Balance, Benefits, Remote Work

Cons

Easy to stagnate if not being proactive about building skills and networking

4.0
Jun 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits like medical/dentist/vision, pension, stock option, 401k match. Co workers are excellent, pretty good on site symposiums, lot of diversity clubs/activities. Innovation is extremely welcomed. Diversity in research portfolio. AI/ML is heavily invested to make databases more efficient.

Cons

Micro managing, especially within the biologics department, potentially others. Promotions are limited, and pay bump is poor. Company invests too much in buying companies rather than keeping talent - lay offs let go of great talented people. Merck is afraid of investing into exploratory biology and doesn’t take risk - they even admit they would rather see other companies clinical data or R&D data rather than taking a risk. Although it’s slow going in building new software, current databases are slow and needs much improvement. Extremely poor work/life balance.

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