Merck reviews

4.1

82% would recommend to a friend

(1,277 total reviews)
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Rob Davis

82% approve of CEO

72% positive business outlook

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1K reviews

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3.0
Mar 18, 2013

Beware of Corporate Politics

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Almost all salaried employees are entitled to a yearly bonus and salary increase. The culture in the Charlotte, NC Shared Business Services location is young, hip and generally fun. The location on Microsoft Campus comes with perks such as access to free Coca-Cola products and a cafeteria.

Cons

Working at a large company such as Merck comes with the risks of dealing with corporate politics. I learned very quickly that it's WHO you know that gets you places, and even that doesn't always help. Some managers were slimy and only looked out for their best interests, while smiling in your face. It is also very difficult to be hired at Merck unless you come in as a contractor, at least in the Charlotte, NC location. It can take a minimum of 1 year as a contractor to be hired permanently. They almost always promote from within the organization. Advancement also seems to be very limited unless you are willing to relocate to a different location.

1.0
Mar 12, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I used to be able to say a relatively stable work environment, however with severe downsizing, head count freezes for several years and several sites being shut, that's no longer the case. since the site i work at is not in the US or Europe, and there's relatively few large employers here, this is one of the few big fish in a rather desolate sea. Safety is a big priortiy, and everyone's safety concious

Cons

-Corperate strategies rarely make it to the 'shop floor' and if they do, they don't have buy in from middle management, creating haphazard at best initaves that are doomed to fail. -Lack of transparancy in pay reviews and obvious favortism to others, getting double diget increases for gound level work, because they've been given the opportunity to 'expand' within thier roles, while others not only are just forgotten, but are 'squeezed' call it efficency drives but trying to get more from staff without investing more resoucres, ie time/support from other teams upstream/downstream- it is IMPOSSIBLE to achive 'at standard' when the bar is already set higher for you than others, let alone 'excellence' -High staff turn over rate, especially those that aren't 'trapped' by morgages or are highly mobile staff. -Poor staff moral accross the site. The majority of people are downtrodden, and are ground down like the nib of a pencil that you are still trying to use-depite it being too small. Forget about the employee engagement survey the results of the higher corperates iniatives don't reach the ground floor -Little cross team on the job training - There are limited opportunties to learn new skills. Exteral training is very rare and little investment is put into the human capital of the site.

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