Abbott Labs Reviews in Abbott Park, IL

Pros

Abbott is an employer that values its workers, patients, and stakehodlers it serves. At the undegraduate and graduate level, Abbott has management development programs in the ares of HR, Finance, Marketing, Science, and research. While it is hard to generalize about Abbott, due to its size, I would say that most individuals are go getters. We have many individuals with Top 20 MBAs all over the company.

Abbott's diverse businesses do give ample opportunity for career movement. Also, opportunities working abroad are available.

Cons

If its size is a plus, it can be a downside too. Many times it is hard to get things done with multiple layers. However, Abbott does realize this and attempts to eliminate red tape. It is a far commute from Chicago if you live in the city. Pay is not on scale with other pharma or companies in the Northern Burbs considerdering its great benefits package and overall benefits

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on identifying those that make a difference and bring them towards the top. Eliminate the culture of needing sales experience.

Pros

Benefits and recognition of company name on resume.
Generous vacation time.
Abbott has the potential to provide an interesting career filled with a variety of positions and develop a wide range of skill sets making it possible to experience a fullfilling career

Cons

Employees are not sufficiently valued and there is very limited opportunities for professional growth.
Too much office politics and unprofessional conduct from employees is tolerated by management.
Low work morale due to constant layoff announcements by management.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide better career opportunities for employees to expand skills.

Pros

Great people make Abbott a great company to work for. Benefits package is very competitive. There are some opportunities to move in internally. Company also has a leadership program that seems to attract very bright individuals. There are people that have been over 20 years with the company and have tremendous institutional memory, and they are willing to help newbies. If you are working in project management, there are some limited opportunities to move between Abbott Park and smaller divisions. Good work / life balance.

Cons

Performance appraisal process does not account for much. Human Resources not the best department - or maybe I have not seen many HR departments before. Some politics are to be expected.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what you are doing - share price shows that you have some magic ingredient. On the other hand, where is all the R&D going? Any blockbuster products in the pipeline for Abbott?

Pros

At Abbott, there are lots of opportunities and it easy to move between areas if you are willing to network.
The benefits are good (healthcare, 401k, on-site fitness center, Clara Abbott organization offers classes such as financial management).
It is easy to achieve a good work-life balance.

Cons

Abbott loses many good people because it does not provide opportunities and salary for those that deserve it.
The company is slow to change.
There are significant culture and resource differences depending on the group you work for.

Advice to Senior Management

You should invest more in your people, especially those that want to make a difference and have the qualifications (education, drive, etc) to do so.

Pros

It is a great and stable company. People are great for the most part, but there ar a few bad apples like any family or company. It has ample opportunities and offers anything and everythi9ng to its employees.

Cons

It is a large corporation and there is a fair amount of red tape for a quick career advancement. You need to be in the right place at the right time.

Advice to Senior Management

Not all divisions are created equal as far as work environment. I would really like more effort to make it seem like you work for one company and not have the feeling of "division" between divisions.

Pros

Abbott pays well and generally has good benefits. Abbott has the muscle to hire from the upper percentiles of the applicant pool. People are proud to work at Abbott and it is a leader in Lake county. Abbott has deep pockets and can affrod the best in technology.

Cons

For IT professionals the availability of training varies depending on the budget climat in your specific area. Abbott tends to place resources in "in favor" areas and neglects others. Sometimes the Lake County atmosphere can overwhelm the advantages of being near a world class city (Chicago). People can be a little too self satisfied with "Mother Abbott". Abbott IT can tend towards the one of each in a category mish-mash.

Advice to Senior Management

Please consider the impact on individual contributors of your strategic decisions.

Pros

Abbott has a strong philosophy of work-life balance that shows in both policy and practice. There is also a strong culture of promotion from within, and with such a large and diverse company, there are always new career paths to pursue.

Cons

Abbott has a somewhat "plodding" mentality where change does not come quickly or easily. The high rate of internal promotion tends to limit the amount of new ideas introduced from people with experience in other companies or industries.

Advice to Senior Management

The focus on the our pipeline is clear and evident. It is great to see a management team so keen to invest in projects that won't show returns for at least 10 years, well beyond the scope of next year's bonuses!

Pros

location, good people to work with (non manager type), good general benefits but low pay though. good place to work for working mother, especially if you know how to work the system. on site day care, on site banking,

Cons

Abbott likes to low ball people on salary, especially when they know you have limited choices. General HR mentality is to hire 10 cheap labor rather than hiring one quality labor. HR is lousy. big recognitions always given to the senior managers, but the poor guy who worked 60 hours week to complete the project didn't get squad.
cafeteria is lousy, half-ass ethnic food, high price.

Advice to Senior Management

the middle managers are useless, and insecure, all rose through the rank quickly from the PDP program without knowing much about the business. achieving diversity by selective hiring/promotion? what a joke, show people what true performance excellence is all about

Pros

Great culture, Good place to learn people skills, great benefits, good brand name, Stable job usually, great work-life balance (one of the best you will ever find). A few years here will get you many friends that could be resources for life. Great place for minorities as well. They have an onsite daycare and a good community.

Cons

The work sometimes gets slow as you wait for other departments to give you some deliverable. You could end up with a bad team or a not-so-good manager and that could affect your overall performance, reputation etc. The key is to learn to manage expectations and people (even your superiors). A confident person is seen as a leader and that's what you need to blaze your own path through the company. Many stalwarts work here. You need to identify them and once you work with them, you will be taken up in the organization, provided you have what it takes to perform well.

Advice to Senior Management

Take time to listen to your direct reports and their direct reports. There is some free-riding that takes place in some departments. Make sure you know the actual source of a good piece of work (and not assuming that your direct report is responsible for it). Conduct more training sessions in MS office suite because many people spend too much time on simple stuff, they can be more efficient that way. Recruit hi performance people from other organizations, because they will bring about a culture change in your department. To do this, ensure the new recruits have the personality to influence others ever so slightly and sincerely. This can go a long way in improving performance. Good luck.

Pros

Innovative company -- always great products in the pipeline -- Great place to work -- they take care of their employees!

Cons

large company - -red tape comes with the territory

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate. Value Employees at all levels.