Allergan Reviews in Irvine, CA

Pros

Great team work, support from management, and drive for success. I enjoyed the learning opportunities and left the company with a wealth of knowledge.

Cons

Senior management changed direction frequently and sometimes made questionable decisions. I was never really sure what the top 2 managers contributed.

Advice to Senior Management

Be careful of initiatives you implement that will greatly benefit your competitors. They are always watching us and tend to take credit for what we do.

Pros

Great pay
Great work environment, always very helpful
Great co-workers

Cons

If you come to work everyday and do your job well, thats not enough. When I said there was corporate politics, you need to make friends with upper management to get heard. Some of the veterans do not not deserve to be there but since they have been there so long the newer, fresher candidates loose opportunities because they do not have seniority.

Advice to Senior Management

They should listen to their employee suggestions. Job hires should be based on job performance not how long you have been with the company.

Pros

Flexibility, conservative casual dress albeit slightly more "business" than other company HQs in southern California. Pay, on average, is slightly less, though many positions will provide you with a broader range of experiences across different areas than large pharma, weather, clean and beautiful campus

Cons

Less exposure to the more expensive consulting firms, less services and benefits than large pharma, company gym

Pros

Working at Allergan has many pros such as good healthcare insurance, nice Irvine campus, employee benefits such as discounted products.

Cons

A couple of downsides to working for any big company is the difficulty of getting promoted within the company. It is very hard to climb up the ladder.

Advice to Senior Management

It would be nice to have more visibility to upper management and their decisions that may affect employees such as cutting down on healthcare benefits.

Pros

The Salary is very competitive
The Benefits are competitive (but could be better)
Retirement Package is competitive (but could be better)

Cons

No work-life balance
No team work
No support
No training

"Sink or swim" mentality. Mass Exodus and Mass Hire. No compassion for their employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Realize that human beings are human beings. Need to be more organized and care about their employees. They definitely have a "revolving door" and to say "high turnover" is an understatement. Employees are just numbers that can be replaced. Who cares about "you" type of attitude should be changed.

Pros

Brands name, company recognition in the field.

Cons

Terrible communication from senior management to lower levels, global and local strategy doesn't exist or hasn't been deployed properly. Promotions based on seniority not performance.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve communication and empower lower levels.

Pros

Allergan has a great senior management team who set up reasonable goals and directions.

It's about the right size that tele-conference is not yet the norm and you get to work and communicate with team members daily.

Promote learning and growth.

Have great teams that takes responsibility of their individual functions.

Cons

Workload can be heavy.

Compensation is sometimes below industry standard especially for junior level employees. When combined with the high living cost and fewer pharmaceutical job opportunities in southern california, it can be quite discouraging to attract talents.

Pros

The workload at Allergan is fairly low and so are expectations by management. The RDIS department in particular spends a substantial amount of money on contractors that deliver nothing to projects.

Cons

Complete lack of accountability and direction. Promotional opportunities are based on time at the company instead of performance and successful delivery of projects.

Advice to Senior Management

Start providing clear leadership and strongly consider a drastic restructuring of the RDIS department. Focus on retention of new employees and begin transitioning work away from the 'close to retirement' staff. Enforce consequences relating to missed delivery on commitments and gross overspending.

Pros

- Interesting, diverse, fast moving projects
- Opportunities to grow and learn
- Great campus and overall location
- Decent compensation

Cons

- Some in senior management roles are out of touch
- Some people in key decision making roles seem to be there because they have paid their dues and not necessarily because they are the best fit for the current company culture

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the dead weight. It is demoralizing to see people who are openly negative and poor performers continue to do OK while you are working hard to meet company goals.

Pros

Allergan supports work/life balanace, senior management communicates to subordinates very well; benefits are withing industry standard.

Cons

Allergan's senior management communicate well to employees. Unfortunately when senior level management leaves the company, incoming management replaces or find the reason to get rid of employees who have been working in the department for a long time. I am not sure if it is compensation related, but senior level employees provide stability and value added knowledge to the company. On the other hand, a new chief would rather bring his/her own soldiers to make sure that he/she does not get stabbed at the back.
The company is very political to the extent that the branding of Allergan being one of the best company to work for becomes qualified, that is, you are happy only if you are not affected by the politics.
The emphasis on the business bottom line has made R&D and Sales as the only departments that are worthwhile to be funded. All other departments are not important. The company can get by by outsourcing or hiring temporary employees, creating a feeling of uncertainty to the not-so-important employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Management should commit to providing the best working environment by balancing life, work advancement, and the business. Lately, much emphasis has been on the business side, creating a feeling of uncertainty amongst its employees.