Pros
Important note: Glassdoor’s form would not allow me to select a year earlier than 2022. I actually worked at this site from 2012 through the end of 2016, beginning when the company was Watson and remaining through the Actavis, Allergan, and Teva transitions.
My first several years were positive. After about 10 days of training, I began cleaning glassware in Analytical R&D. I enjoyed the work and did not mind occasionally staying late during the year-end pharmaceutical inventory period, since many companies are busier at that time.
In 2013, I moved into physical testing using an Instron machine. I found the testing easy to learn and enjoyable. Since some tests took time to run, I could use that time efficiently by cleaning glassware. I gradually took on additional responsibilities, including inventorying reagents and HPLC columns, replenishing a deionized-water machine, and cleaning other equipment.
After another employee was hired to handle the glassware in 2014, I focused fully on physical testing and my other duties. By 2015, I had developed a good rhythm and understood the department’s workload patterns. The beginning of each quarter was usually lighter, the middle months were moderate, and March, June, September, and especially December were the busiest.
Participating in pharmaceutical inventory also gave me occasional opportunities to visit other parts of the facility, including the warehouse and loading docks. It was refreshing to see how other departments operated.
The high point of my time there was probably 2015. Early that year, I received a special bonus for helping support the launch of a pharmaceutical product. At that point, I could genuinely imagine remaining with the company for decades.
Cons
Conditions began to deteriorate during 2016, particularly after the transition to Teva. More workers were brought in as contractors, and contractors could not remain in the vault without a full-time employee present. As a result, full-time employees had to divide their time between their regular responsibilities and supervising frequent maintenance work in the vault.
Overtime gradually became routine and was often presented as an opportunity to earn additional money rather than as evidence that staffing was inadequate. When I stayed late and needed access to the vault or safe, I sometimes had to ask security to send someone because no other qualified employee was available.
There were also rotating projects that required brief weekend and holiday visits, sometimes for only about 15 minutes. The individual visits were short, but they still interrupted personal time.
The company culture also became increasingly impersonal. The September picnic and Christmas party were eliminated in 2016. Losing the parties alone was not the main problem, but it reflected a broader change. The barbecues, fundraisers, and other activities that had once made the workplace feel more human gradually disappeared. The company increasingly felt like a colorless corporate operation focused primarily on the bottom line.
The worsening workload affected my health. I had an emergency-room visit in June 2016. Even after a sleep study had documented sleep-related concerns, there were occasions when I needed to leave early but still had to remain late because no one else was available. That was ultimately the last straw, and I resigned at the end of 2016.
Nearly a decade later, the reviews I have read have not given me the impression that conditions improved substantially. The company experienced serious difficulties and layoffs in 2018, and my former department eventually closed in 2024.
When I joined in 2012, my goal was to work there for more than 30 years. Even had I remained until the department closed, I would have made it only about 12 years unless I had transferred elsewhere. That says a great deal about how dramatically the workplace and the company changed.