The party line of "encouraging work-life" balance is not something that management actually wants their employees to do. It is not uncommon to be asked to work 50 - 60 hours a week on a project for months at a time. Not only did this lead to burn out among employees but it also caused us to produce and market an inferior product with known bugs as part of our flagship clinical trials system.
While I understand that the company needs to stay profitable, management did not seem to have any concerns or to implement corrective measures when it became obvious that they had scarified "quantity" for "quality".
I was a permanent employee of the Q for 15 years and left at the end of 2013 after the department I was in descended into dysfunction of epic proportions. Management within my department was ineffective and short-sighted and played "favorites" with staff.
Additionally, when the new CEO (Tom Pike) was brought in, the establishment of a corporate environment where back-stabbing was common was born. Pike changed the corporate culture to one where your performance review, while still rated on a scale of 1 - 5, had to be at least a 4 in order for you to be seen as productive enough to receive a bonus. This was different from previous years where the base rating for receiving a bonus was a 3. Because of this, everyone felt compelled to show that they were productive and producing, and so people began to take credit for ideas or the work that others had done, making for a very unpleasant work environment.
It also didn't help that management would set performance goals and then not provide employees with the tools necessary to make meeting the performance goals a reality. Professional development was basically a joke and was only encouraged if it could be done on your own time and out of your own pocket.
Another issue (although this may have been common only to IT - the department I was working in when I left) was that people were put into positions of management/authority without having been provided training on the appropriate methods of employee management, or even basic ethics.
Leaving Quintiles after 15 years was hard, but it was the best thing I have ever done for myself professionally and personally. When I joined Quintiles, the company had a distinct "family" feel that managed to stay professional and team-oriented. People supported each other and were not afraid to share ideas with each other (which in my opinion is what made Quintiles emerge as a leading force in the Pharmaceutical CRO industry a decade ago). The Quintiles corporate culture as it exists now does not encourage collaboration or innovation since people are wary of having their ideas stolen by others since everyone is under pressure to show value within the company.
I understand that times have changed and companies must change with them. I just find it unfortunate that when Quintiles changed its corporate culture, it seemed to forget that while it was there to make a profit, they also were there to assist in the conduct of clinical trials and the betterment of their fellow man. Dennis Gillings (co-founder and former CEO) seemed to be able to balance profitability while providing quality clinical trial services, something that Pike with his non-Pharmaceutical background does not seem to have the capability to do.
