IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. Reviews

Former Employee – worked at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Decent money if you negotiate right, benefits, stock options

Cons – Incredibly disorganized, lower employees are all treated like dirt, HR is inept and incompetent.

I worked with this company as a technician and supervisor in several of their locations for years only to leave in disgust. I was tired of having to hire people at insulting wages while employees that had an "in" with management got paid ridiculous amounts of money. I didn't like forcing my employees to work six or seven days a week because we weren't allowed to hire an appropriate level of staffing and then hear about increased overtime wages and not meeting TAT at my monthly business review meetings. And I REALLY didn't like HR doing a piss-poor job of investigating any and all personnel conflicts until their own jobs were threatened.

Each reference laboratory has its own set of rules and guidelines. Some labs (usually the smaller ones under the radar) have decent managers and supervisors and are pretty nice to work at. Some of the larger labs use employees until they're completely burned out, and then discard them. And God help you if you work in the Memphis lab. I mean, seriously, God help you.

Upper management (GM and directors) have no clue who you are, but that doesn't stop them from coming by once every couple of years to stay in nice hotels, eat out and gamble every night, and drive expensive rental cars while simultaneously telling you they can't afford a new hematocrit centrifuge. All employee parties and events were cancelled many years ago out of budget restrictions and travel was also restricted a couple years back (sometimes they'll let you have a holiday potluck). They tell you in one breath that they can't afford any of these things, and then force you to sit through staff meetings where they pat themselves on the back for having a record year for profit.

Don't even get me started on LEAN. Useless, money and time wasting program with zero follow through.

If you are a doctor, have a decent title in Westbrook, or work as an upper manager you are treated extremely well, but if you're a regular working joe you are treated like absolute garbage - which is why half the reviews are great on here and the rest are awful. IDEXX has this fantasy that they treat their employees decently, but that's because anyone who complains is labelled as a negative troublemaker and denied advancement opportunities and promotions. Unless you are full of sunshine and rainbows, for the love of god don't open your mouth if you want to keep working here.

Upper level managers and directors will often be found on their computers chatting, leaving early, coming in late, taking hour or so long lunches. Bottom level employees can be found working 12 hour shifts, not taking lunch or even bathroom breaks, and getting berated for missing TAT or getting too much OT. "We work hard so you don't have to" should be IDEXX's slogan.

They offer just enough money above what other companies offer just to entice people in the door and then keep them at that wage for years. I have been forced to give employees literally 2 cent raises. A "good" raise is probably around 30 cents for most technicians. This is why you see reviews stating people get hired in making more than people who have been there for years.

I wouldn't recommend working here if you have an active family life. It is VERY frowned upon to take time off or leave early for family functions, and they will NOT pay you your sick time for any reason other than you being sick. If your car won't start, or the lab is open in a snowstorm and you can't make it, if your child is ill or you don't have daycare for the day, you will not get paid for that day. Some labs MAY let you use vacation time if you have any left, but they are within their rights to make you take it unpaid. And they will.

However, if you are a motivated person who seriously wants to dedicate your life to your job and don't care about corporate culture, IDEXX is the place for you. They do offer good benefits and stock options, as well as 401k matching. They are happy to promote you as long as you are fast and efficient to their guidelines and always tell them what they want to hear, and fire who they want you to fire, and hire who they want you to hire, and agree with all of their policies.

Advice to Senior Management – Actually care about your staff and employees, don't just give lip service to this ideal. Completely overhaul and rework your HR department. Have some compassion and listen. And for the love of god, STOP telling us how you can't afford basic things that are necessary to do our job. You are a billion dollar biotech company. Grow up and start acting like it.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. full-time

Pros – Stable employment in a State where there are very few opportunities for real careers and earnings.

Cons – Eight years ago this place was too good to be true. Over the last three to four years it has taken a turn for the worst. Like many other reviews, most of the departments are run by managers with personal agendas and clearly look at employees as easily replaceable in a downturn economy. The company has tried to offset some of the negative employee issues with a "My Voice" survey given to employees the last two years. What I have seen is a lot of talk about some of the key issues and no tangible movement to resolve any of them.

In my department, Facilities, the same key issues of trust/respect, accountability and the willingness to speak up were repeat issues. The managers in Facilities are clueless on how to even start to deal with these items. Our department has essentially been leaderless with no clear direction for over three years. Our former Director left about 6 months ago but prior to this he allowed his middle managers to run amok and sending employees off in all directions with no purpose or common goals. We get things done out of necessity but in a manner that is dysfunctional and costly with back stabbing, gossiping and undermining each other the norm. There is a current effort to replace the Director, which most are hoping will get us back on track. Unfortunately there are a few of the dysfunctional middle managers that have applied for this position. If any of them get hired for the position it would be a disaster for our department and the company. We NEED someone to come in and clean house, clean up the lack of accountability, stop middle management personal agendas from guiding us and get everyone in Facilities pointed in the right direction. We are hoping to have this new leadership in place by Q1 (2013). I am optimistic that things will work out. In the meantime I am looking outside of IDEXX for opportunities if the slide continues in our department.

Advice to Senior Management – It's too bad that you cannot put yourself in your employee's shoes to see what is really going on at the ground floor. Not sure what you are going to do when the economy does really turn around and you have a mass exodus of employees walking out the door. Now is when you want to fix the problems before things are too late.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Very complicated and intellectually challenging work. Clean, modern facility. Freedom to do your work how you like. Some departments are amazing, creative, and professionally exciting. IDEXX is a good place to ride out the bad economy.

Cons – Corporate culture:
IDEXX is made up out of at least a dozen tribes with very different levels of ethics and treatment of employees. Where you wind up is completely dependent on the skills and vision of the managers in your reporting line. Some groups (esp R&D) are very Laissez-faire. This is nice as far as freedom, but communication and accountability are lacking. One department will undermine another. There is not enough alignment regarding tools and methods resulting in significant wasted effort and energy.

Management culture:
Many managers are good people who have no management knowledge/skills, but have learned how to survive by controlling the information that goes to their manager. Some managers avoid accountability by evading integration tools that would optimize company performance by creating metrics. Survival is very political, and managers who have outlived several rounds of senior management have become sensitive to anything that reveals problems that need to be fixed. (Survival is dependent on making your peers look good). Several abusive or incompetent managers have been allowed to continue to operate for years, and years, and years despite complaints.

Working environment:
Some roles are highly matrixed. Some people provide deliverables for 6-12 managers/projects/products, but don't report to any of them. New people with zero experience are hired in at a higher rate of pay than than your peers who have been working for years, and who are then expected to train the new college kids. New staff is always hired through temp agencies, not through HR and therefore are not what the company needs. Managers are surprised when the new hire isn't interested in the work they were hired to do.

There are often no goals or baselined expectations for many employees. When goals are set they can be crazy or difficult to manage because of changing objectives, and impossible to manage with unskilled managers. (EX: One person I know was told they needed experience presenting, and was given a goal to present their coworker's project updates to management. Another was given a goal to manage the interns in their department because the manager who the interns reported to did not even try to manage them). Annual reviews are roulette, and don't seem to have any correlation to effort or deliverables. Reviews are highly dependent on 360s, and the people filling out 360s do not know what has been asked of you.

Advice to Senior Management – Ethics: You are taking the right steps by trying to improve the culture, but you need to accelerate it and create accountability to it. Stop holding managers accountable to having an "action plan" to deal with problems - hold managers accountable to the RESULTS that plan gets! You need to hire middle/upper management that is more entrepreneurial/ will be more engaged with their staff. The gentlemen you have been hiring from giant bio-med companies are great guys, but they are accustomed to not know what is going on at the front line and very slow progress.

Line of Business: LOB managers are held accountable for product and project team deliverables, but none of the staff on teams report to them. This creates a complete barrier to accountability. This is a common matrix organization issue, and there are a battery of potential ways to deal with it. Work with a matrix consulting firm to develop a plan so your teams can get traction. The initial growth curve of the company will flatten or will only be possible to maintain through acquisitions unless you replace the flat tires.

R&D: Promoting brilliant technical personnel into management should only be done when the person exhibits strong managerial capability, they should be supported by mentors/HR, and be able to step away from their technical roles. Many people aspire to management, but very few will excel at it. Unless you develop standards for management, R&D will continue to be less efficient and cost effective than it should.

HR: The highest ethical standards need to be demanded of HR while the company develops an integrated culture. Low standards of the past must be dispensed with immediately, and HR staff that has earned distrust with the employee population must be shifted over or out if you want to remove barriers to progress. Hire HR personnel with high standards only, empower and listen to HR. Without a stellar HR team, we will not improve.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. full-time

Pros – Numerous benefits beyond medical/dental/401k, professional work environment

Cons – Salaries, advancement possibilities, management, adoption of new technology

Advice to Senior Management – You need to promote merit and tenure advancement of current employees to senior positions.
You should look within the company for senior management.
The numbers of non-management to management employees are skewed too heavily towards the management side (at one point I was directly reporting to five different managers at once)
You need to accept the fact that you are in direct competition with Boston and Southern New England for talent and your salaries need to reflect this. Currently they are too low to attract top level talent away from biotech centers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. full-time

Pros – Gain lots of lab experience. Work odd hours. Also, it is a job.

Cons – Managers think they are running a sweatshop. On your feet all the time. Running around. Hardly meeting crazy deadlines. No breaks

Staffing is inadequate. Must be able to handle three people's workload. You will be wiped out by the end of the shift. Not to mention the work-week.

Advice to Senior Management – A little compassion.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Lots of opportunity to improve outdated standards and make your mark if you can navigate the water. Departments have freedom to decide what they should do and how to do it, which makes a few parts of the organization world class. Economy proof so far.

Cons – Poor to nonexistent (not SMART) guidelines, goals or development in the majority of the organization.
Reviews are roulette (bad reviews in high output years, great reviews for doing little).
Many incapable people get promoted, while those striving to raise standards are in trouble.
Many managers have been here for over 10 years lack vision, and don't want ideas from the outside.

Advice to Senior Management – There is not yet any consistent level of middle management training or standards at IDEXX. You need to find a way to make your managers accountable, or you will continue to lose the mobile portion of your best talent despite the poor economy. You need to teach your managers how to manage effectively in a matrix, and measure it! IDEXX has good ideals, but they are "optional" to your middle managers as long as you let it be. Stop the PR and lip service, and set some clear standards. We need better leaders. Empower your HR group to be able to solve problems ethically.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc.

Pros – Being a part of an interesting and growing industry
Exciting innovation and change
Working with such a talented group of people across the company

Cons – Lack of strong, effective leadership
Need for effective management training
Poor communication
Lack of work/life balance
Lack of employee development
High turnover and the loss of great talent because of the above

Advice to Senior Management – IDEXX hires many strong employees with amazing drive and work ethic. It's sad to see so many of them beaten down and walk out that revolving door. Any manager who leads by bullying does not belong at your company. Try to have the vision to retain your employees and develop a culture of honest communication and effective management.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc.

Pros – A company that is fortunate to be in an industry that is growing. IDEXX is full of bright, energetic people. It's progressive in the sense that being a BioTech means constant product innovation. If you like to be in a "change-industry" this is the place for you. It's also one of the very few large corporations in the beautiful state of Maine, and one of the only that are not banking or insurance. It's a very nice look facility on the inside and most positions have pretty decent work environments, including professional cubicles that allow you to feel "important". (The office space is changing though, see below.)

Cons – IDEXX prides itself on the fact it seeks to create long term value for employees. In fact, they even put it in the mission statement. There are huge banners in the building everywhere talking about empowering employees. If only that were true. IDEXX is designed much like a caste system. Directors, VPs and above sit in beautiful offices while the rest of the staff are in cubicles. And the building is kept at 76 degrees during the summer. That means a lot of people, in a confined space, sweating as they try to build the empire. And just when you thought this was bad, the company is seeking to tear down the cubicle walls and cram more employees into smaller spaces via their "collaborative work environments". This means your 8ft. by 8ft. cubicle is now about 3ft. by 5ft. and includes no walls, just a desk in a giant open space with a bunch of other desks. Many large companies are heading in this direction for a whole host of reasons, but they do something different. What do companies like Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and Intel have in common with their "collaborative work spaces"? EVERYONE sits in them from top brass to entry level worker. Not at IDEXX, it's very apparent who's important and who's not in the building. The compensation and benefits at IDEXX have also gotten much worse since 2008-2009. While many employees might not yet realize it, the new health insurance plan has essentially been gutted as IDEXX moved to a low cost provider. The company worked closely with the new provider to arrange a number of mailings and propaganda talking about how great its going to be, but thats far from reality. Many employees (myself included) now have to sit in our Doctors office on the phone, fighting with the new health insurance provider to pay for prescriptions and tests that we've had run and covered with the previous provider. The new look of IDEXX benefits package is cheap, cheap and cheap. That includes smaller increases and bonuses, despite consistent growth that's above industry average (even in this economy.) IDEXX has also recently chosen to implement a new strategy where they are eliminating tons of job descriptions in favor of "job families." This means titles are essentially very generic and quite often do not reflect anything you actually do, just the organizational structure you report to (e.g. Operations Specialist I/II/III, Customer Support Consultant I/II/III, Shared Services Manager or Financial Generalist I/II/III.) Although these might seem like valid titles on the surface, many of these people are in more mid-level positions and don't even work in finance or even speak to customers. They just happen to report through that particular area. This change means making life very difficult on employees trying to leave IDEXX. Your title is no longer, relevant, professional and personal. It's generic and usually sounds like much "less" of a position that your actual function. They fiercely defend this by encouraging employees to just ignore the new titles and keep calling yourself by your functional title. This was even recently posted on the internal, intranet, website. The problem with this (as we all know) when you seek a job elsewhere, background checks confirm your exact title, not what you think you did while employed.

Advice to Senior Management – Care. Smile. Take a fresh approach and actually care about your people. It's great that IDEXX is growing, but its on the backs of its employees. Ask employees how they feel about changes. Locally it's now known as one of the toughest places to work. And recently, its started to get the reputation of being some of the worst benefits for a large corporation. IDEXX management keeps taking away from it's employees with no consideration of the impact (cubicles, cheap health insurance, smaller annual raises, etc.) And worse, the leadership doesn't even smile in the process. Just today in fact I was walking out of the bathroom and one of the companies officers just happen to push by and give me a dirty look as if I was a piece of trash and shouldn't be breathing the same air. That type of aggressive and negative encounter is common practice at the halls of IDEXX's Maine campuses.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc.

Pros – The business is growing, pay is good, fellow employees bright and capable. The customers they serve help animals. This could be a great place to work.

Cons – Senior leadership caught up in petty internal conflicts that have nothing to do with delivering a quality product to the customer. Judgements are made about both people and ideas based on those slanted views.

Advice to Senior Management – People are valuable, invest in them. People skills are important, value you them. Think about the good of the company, not your own personal success.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc.

Pros – A very easy going casual environment.
Fun, energetic employees.
Market leader in the veterinary diagnostics industry with incredible growth.
Brand new facilities in many cases.
A great Maine success story.

Cons – No real competition in the marketplace allows IDEXX to remain fat, dumb, and happy. The lack of competition in the local economy also means they don't have to provide competitive employee compensation and benefits.
IDEXX is not a very nimble company and probably couldn't react quickly enough if any real competition were to surface.

There is a complete lack of innovation. You have to look no further then their current product line up to see this. Everything is a re-hash and repackaging of existing systems and platforms. The biggest break throughs are things developed 15 - 20 years ago. There is little consideration given to customer needs during development it's all about driving consumable usage.

Instrument design and development is easily 10 years behind the times. They are always looking for new tools to assist in product design but haven't yet developed a competency in basic design principles.

Much of the management has been with IDEXX "from the beginning." This means the demands of company have grown faster than their abilities.

Little to no focus on employee development.

GROWTH AT ALL COSTS!

Advice to Senior Management – Management talks a good game about caring about the employees but are continually making concessions in the name of growth. Put your money where your mouth is.