Lonza reviews

3.5

67% would recommend to a friend

(1,748 total reviews)
avatar

Wolfgang Wienand

73% approve of CEO

57% positive business outlook

Lonza has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 1,748 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Lonza employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
1.0
Jun 13, 2016

You're out of touch, I'm out of time...

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefits: 100% vested 401k @ 7% match, 3 weeks vacation to start, paid sick time, good bonus tier for base employees 5-10%, good medical. The Alpharetta campus is scenic and offices are new, free coffee and soda, free latte and espresso machine. Good place to get experience for a few years. There are excellent people here and certain managers will mentor and champion their employees.

Cons

Lonza is an OK company that could be good, dare I say great. Unfortunately, management has zero ability to identify who the actual performers are. There are many desk jockeys with minimal or unknown function. Individuals who put in long hours yet their actual work output is no different (some cases less) than 9 to 5'ers, are seen as hard working. Please realize that people have jobs to facilitate a life away from work. Lonza's new motto is: "Lonza, the place to go, stay, and grow" yet ironically they don't foster employee growth or longevity unless you're a 'chose one' or have a manager who isn't afraid to go to bat and fight for you (those are rare, unfortunately). Middle managers are the Achilles heel of Lonza, please listen to your employees and root out the bad ones. It takes one bad manager to spoil an entire group! Managers routinely set edicts that contradict HR policies and rules can differ from employee to employee. There are managers who openly threaten employees with disciplinary action for "talking too much" while working, taking vacation/sick time. Very toxic and demeaning environment. Favoritism and unprofessionalism runs rampant. First hand evidence that HR routine low-balls new hires into agreeing to less vacation time and/or bonus tier even though time off is dictated by service dates. Compensation below industry averages. As others have posted, I could go on for paragraphs. TL;DR - See Advice to Management Section

1.0
Aug 28, 2023

Worst Company, Terrible Leadership, Steer Clear

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You will learn a lot in a short time (out of necessity, turnover, and lack of appropriate staffing). You will learn about the business side of big pharma Global teams are intelligent and sincere professionals, but severely understaffed. Local site teams are ignorant, unprofessional, and ego-driven.

Cons

Lack of resources Extremely unethical Everything is about the bottom line, profits over people Leadership is corrupt - poor performers stay in positions or get promoted because management doesn't want to deal with performance improvement plans. People get fired over innocent mistakes or misunderstandings. They will "manage you out" if you have a strong quality voice because you aren't "pragmatic" or "flexible" enough for their business deals and customer relations. Sexism, sexual harassment, grooming, and racism is still alive and well. The "good old boys club" is still going strong. The site leadership team feels incredibly entitled and powerful and their egos and competitiveness are immediately apparent. If you know how to play the game you can make it very far in the company - I did - and I still don't have really any positive things to say. You will give them your blood, sweat, tears, marriage, life - and in return they will give you sub-par pay, multiple jobs, no time off, years you can't get back in your life.

1.0
Aug 12, 2021

WOW (not in a good way)

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Big company benefits. Not much to say in favor...need to clean house and get rid of toxic people.

Cons

Uncaring, management favoritism, backstabbing and lying. Overall management useless! overworked, stressful environment, under staffed, HR useless and discriminatory, incompetent and unqualified staff according to job desriptions, lack of staff promotions,. Supervisors use profanity and yell when mistakes are made. Head of departments play favoritism based on race and give family members(with different last names) position they are not qualified for. Frequent turnover at highest levels of organization—leads to lack of vision and consistent objectives. Planning does not coordinate with production to account for staffing level capabilities. Production department feels strong whiplash and burnout. Managers are encouraged to propagate toxic positivity and lies. Lip service is paid to developing employees but it is not a real goal for managers. I’ve read most reviews and they are mostly accurate.

Viewing 10 - 12 of 1,748 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,352 Lonza reviews submitted anonymously by Lonza employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Lonza is right for you.