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

They pay you, albeit below industry average.

Cons

Management is incompetent and unknowledgable about their position. The trend is to hide stuff from FDA during audits, not to actually do things appropriately the first time so that FDA has nothing to find. Quality is seen as an annoying hindrance that needs to be circumvented. The only way to advance is to suck up to the right people. It's very much an "old boys" network. New products are not being researched or designed.

The Office of Ethics and Compliance is known as the "Abbott Police" because of how often they interrogate people. People constantly feel like they're being watched and can't say anything to anyone about anything because the "Abbott Police" will come after them. During investigations, you are informed you can't speak to anyone about anything, you are told you can't take notes about anything said by the investigators, and if you do take notes, you must destroy them. People are investigated on a regular basis and when an investigation occurs, everyone in a department is brought in and interrogated. There have been instances where Abbott employees have made up false accusations (everything from fraud to harassment) in order to get rid of co-workers. It's a guilty-until-proven-innocent investigations where the investigators are co-workers at corporate headquarters in Chicago. They are not trained investigators. They could be people who hold the same job as you and who you have interracted with on previous occassions related to actual job related matters, not an investigation. The general approach by employees is becoming such that they quit as soon as they are informed they are under investigation. Many employees are currently looking for employment elsewhere rather than remaining in such a hostile work environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Start doing your job, respect employees, become competent, learn to communicate, get rid of the hostile work environment, get rid of the "Abbott Police"

Pros

Still offer pension plan and 401k and their stock is fairly stable. They are very socially conscious and they try to do the right things for customers and employees. Great gym with personal trainers available to salaried employees. Company is family friendly and offers a few flex-time options (though, many managers don't allow flex-time).

Cons

They like to say "quality", but have little clue on how to actually achieve quality. Senior management tends to hire former auditors to determine how to get quality product. While auditors know how not to do things, they are typically poor at saying how TO do things. They have difficulty doing long-term planning beyond 2 years. Middle management is incompetent and/or afraid to communicate upwards or step out of their comfort zone. New computer systems (documentation systems, databases, etc) often are compliant to regulations, but fail to implement gains that could be had with electronic systems (systems are usually much less efficient than even a fully paper-based system would be).

Advice to Senior Management

Hold people accountable not only for poor decisions, but for lack of decisions. Give a long-term roadmap where each division is going (not heavily detailed, but at least a plan). Less cheerleading in communications and more substance would be appreciated.

Pros

Abbott is a stable company that provides opportunities for those that seek it. The management team is strong, knowledgeable and can be great mentors to the employees. In addition, there are a lot of networking opportunities through organizations (Women, minorities, Toastmasters, etc.)

Cons

Since Abbott is a large company, it may be difficult for those new to the company to adjust to the culture and learn the relationships to make.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide more communication on the status & direction of the department, division and company.

Pros

Opportunities to change course in your career. A large, diverse company that is willing to let employees move into different positions. Benefits are generous. Recent efforts to boost work-life balance are great.

Cons

On the science side, many of the managers are great scientists given promotions solely boost their salaries into acceptable ranges. This means many of these people lack management skills.
The HR department is sub-standard. Difficult to deal with HR in manager-employee disputes or internal job search. They tell you don't meet job qualifications and then 3 months later you find out someone even less qualified was given the job.

Advice to Senior Management

If senior scientists need better pay then give it to them. Promoting them to management positons to achieve a proper salary range is counter productive.

Pros

Some place to experience a very large and dysfunctional corporation. The company has remained profitable, but, has done so as it continues to 'off-shore' good paying jobs at all levels of the corporation. The CEO has routinely placed amoung the highest paid of his peers in Big Pharma. If, you are a young, female college graduate, then the company is actively filling its quota system with your gender. The company financially is managed very well. Just don't let employees stand in the way of meeting the next quarter's dividends.

Cons

The corporate culture is one of total myopathy. The company breeds management to believe they are the brightest, most stellar managers in their industry. They are not.The management seeks no one's opinion but their own.The corporation does not have an effective vision and its long term strategy is best summed up by sending jobs off shore ASAP.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit.

Pros

Big company with broad product lines. Easy to stay forever by keeping a low profile and warm, fuzzy relationships.

Cons

Lack of patient focus in the medical device area. Very poor interactions and synergies with different units within the company. Has lost its past reputation as a strong scientific innovator. No trust of people, and job security is based on "sucking up" rather than individual contributor performance. Senior management are the same people who just get shuffled around from position to position. Marketing people continuously changing, as they come to realize that most products have poor design and service. The design engineering strengths left with the departed. Too much focus on regulatory compliance, without consideration of doing the right thing for health care.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on the products, not your own income and job security.

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

Balance between work life and family life.

Cons

Career opportunities for males and lack of direction from Senior leadership.

Advice to Senior Management

I believe Miles is doing a good job leading Abbott down a path of growth and stability I would hope that would filter down to some of his directors and senior level managers.

Pros

Abbott is a solid company, with a diverse product line and pipeline. The company promotes movement within departments, which is good if you want to try something new every few years. Work/Life balance is important to management, and efforts are made to provide employees with flexibility to telecommute and/or modify work hours based on desired schedule.

The retirement compensation is fantastic, with a 401k 2% contribution/5% company match AND pension, it's really unheard of these days.

Cons

Abbott's base salaries are a tad on the low side compared to other big pharma/device companies.

Medical coverage is not the greatest, with the best plan costing ~$300/mo for family, and only covering 80% of costs. Even labor/delivery and hospitalizis only covered at 80%. This can really add up.

Advice to Senior Management

There is a demand for better insurance options.