Bracket Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Bracket full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Peers and opportunities for travel to interesting locations

Cons – Sadly, there are alot of cons to working at Bracket. First, management is overall ill-equipped and untrained on the core responsibilities such as mentoring, feedback (positive and negative), and team building. I report unhappily that the work environment is fear based and blame based. Managers tend to deal in crisis mode only and always focus on what's wrong/mistakes rather than what is right and working. This leads to people afraid to take chances and take responsibility. Bracket is also not flexible, institutes a core hours policy that is antiquated if not ancient, and overall has a management philosophy and style that is paternal in the worst sense of the word (think of the father as authoritarian). It's depressing since there is so much potential and so many great people working there and silently wanting and needing change.

Advice to Senior Management – Invite someone into your management ranks that hasn't been there since the company was 25 people--get some fresh and new ideas and incorporate them. Don't be afraid of change--listen to your employees, they are your bread and butter and are smart and savvy. Management--please take training courses on modern management style and approach. Bring those concepts back into the office and into practice. Be a trailblazer, be innovative, meet the challenges of a modern workforce who offer so much. Strive to be better at serving each other and at serving the client. And finally embrace respect for differences in how people choose to live and work--there are many roads to getting to the same result. Stop forcing people to follow one road only. The company and believe it, you, will be better for it.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bracket full-time

Pros – Business never slows down. Opportunities for advancement exist if you are eager. Co-workers are great and everyone in general is helpful and tries to get the job done. There is a good feeling that you are working to help patients towards a better life

Cons – Business never slows down. I do believe salaries are lower than the average per position. work schedule can be very demanding with calls at all times of the day due to global clients. This is a job for dedicated and ambitious people

Advice to Senior Management – Get a real corporate culture. There is no feeling that upper management is trying to carve any identity for the company except that it is a vendor that provides services to big pharma

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Bracket full-time for more than a year

Pros – Profitable Company

Many openings available at all times.

Previously had decent benefits but anything respectable has been phased out (see below)

Cons – The following is my opinion so take it with a grain of salt as I'm sure not everyone feels the same. I felt almost everything at Bracket, except their growth, is significantly below industry standards.

Salary and Benefits are embarrassingly low. My pay was just over 50% of the national average for my position and experience. I am currently looking at non-profit positions that pay significantly above what Bracket pays. It is embarrassing that even if I stayed at Bracket for several years and earned several rounds of promotions, Bracket still wouldn't be able to compete with the non profit sector for compensation.

Benefits have been slowly reduced or stealthily removed over the last several years as Bracket has sought to maximize their profitability. Healthcare insurance is a joke . Prescription medicine is only being covered in a pharmacy for a max of two months. After this you have to pay full price if you don't start ordering through their mail delivery service. Get ready to pay hundreds of dollars for routine blood work and appointments. I was shocked to see my bills after signing up for Brackets "top tier" health plan. You can find better, AND cheaper individual insurance than getting ripped off by Brackets health "insurance".

Bracket will advertise their very generous vacation and days off policy which is also misleading. They have slowly removed most of the paid days off so that there are a total of 5 days off in a year. You have to use vacation days to not have to come into work on Christmas Eve. Most other holidays that you would expect to get off you won't. There are also no paid sick days so you must use your vacation time fo this. When you look at the big picture, you would be getting more time off almost anywhere else. They have also reduced maternity/ paternity leave. Overall benefits here have gotten worse and worse.

The type of work performed by Bracket teams can only be described as glorified tech support as someone else so eloquently put in another review. Bracket is used by pharma companies to do some of the most mindless and tedious tasks that pharma companies don't want to waste their own employees time on, knowing that they wouldn't be able to retain bright individuals if they did so. There are inflated titles used to describe the tedious, unskilled work which Bracket is used for. "Scale management" whose function is to photocopy pages and put them in binders for the pharma companies is a major responsibility of many project teams. Other Bracket team members will be tasked with calling up sites for weeks on end telling them how to restart their computers and install software. I'm shocked that Bracket isn't located in India, or have large operations based outside of the country for this type of work.

Sponsors will often times treat Bracket teams very poorly. They look down at Bracket and its employees due to the type of work that we do which they view as unskilled and undesirable. Due to this permeating view, any mistakes that are made are treated harshly resulting in stressful encounters and blame being shifted around unfairly amongst employees.

People at Bracket are generally nice and simple. I've found that since Bracket has such high turnover the only people that stick around are those who do not have options outside of the company or who are not qualified for more desirable work. This has resulted in a culture where many managers who have been promoted are not those who are most qualified. They are the ones who are not bad enough to be fired but also not good enough to leave. I found it difficult to take orders from people who I would have never hired for entry level positions at past places I have worked but have risen to middle and upper management at Bracket.

Overall I found Bracket to be an unsuitable workplace for myself and could sense the unhappiness and misery in others. If you wish to be underpaid, overworked, and disrespected on a daily level then Bracket might be right for you, otherwise look at the many companies who have learned to treat their employees well.

Advice to Senior Management – Honestly describe positions and responsibilities to prospective employees. Project Specialist should be an entry level position straight out of college. Project managers positions should be geared towards those under 30 with no more than 5 years of work experience. Hire directors and other middle managers from outside of the company who have learned management skills in both b school and in practice rather than promoting unqualified individuals from within. Eliminate the Project Assistant position as it would take no more than a few developers to automate their data entry tasks. Compensation for most positions needs to be nearly doubled to attract, recruit, and retain bright individuals who can help expand the company outside of tech/site support. Bring benefits in line with the industry. Relocate Wayne campus to Philly or NY or make use of superior talent pools.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bracket full-time for more than a year

Pros – Flexible hours. Decent location in San Francisco.

Cons – Dry, unfriendly, and cold environment. Moral is an all time low. Company under divestiture, however nothing is being communicated from management. Old school management style. No shift to modern technology. Very paper heavy oriented. Wasteful and environmentally inapt. Terrible benefits (i.e. only 6 Holidays, Medical Plans)

Advice to Senior Management – Get with the program. Your employees are unhappy. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. Inform new hires that the company is under divestiture.

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 Bracket full-time for more than a year

Pros – - There are some people who are genuinely nice here.
- If you know how to make friends with the right people, you will advance quickly.

Cons – - Middle and senior management is BIASED and SUBJECTIVE when selecting employees to promote.
- Promotions are not consistent within divisions and are based on who you are friends with rather than on merit or quality of work.
- Turnover is extremely high (around 1-2 years) and it is clear the company does not care for retention. They would rather hire another person to do the job half as well as you in a higher position than promote from within.
- There are never enough resources to get the job done on time without every department getting very stressed out about it. Low resources also means low quality by-product and results.
- Pay and benefits are horrible and at least 25% below competitor and market rates.
- Leadership is unwilling to listen to our suggestions or complaints.
- Morale is the worst I have ever seen at a company.
- People will throw you under the bus to avoid responsibility or blame on projects.
- Training is poor and lacking and everyone is too busy to help each other.
- When reaching out for help, most of management is extremely condescending and unhelpful.
- There is little to no communication between departments and it creates interdepartmental tension.
- R&D launches new products without consulting the end users, namely project managers and developers. New product training is lacking and new products are thrown on us while we are expected to learn it on our own. Product feedback from the rest of the company are not acknowledged or considered.
- Company is unprofessional and management does not promote professionalism.
- There is no such thing as work-life balance here.

Advice to Senior Management – Promote within. Look at your current employees and promote those based on merit. Leadership needs to provide better training to train managers on how to be managers. Managers need to be the leading example of professionalism in the workplace. Re-evaluate salaries and market rates for San Francisco. Work with the company to communicate better interdepartmentally and to help each other grow. Hire more talent so we can support the amount of work we win from our clients. Focus more on employee retention and less on putting money in your pockets.

Do not tell us "shame on me" if you get involved with our company. Shame on you for not caring. This is your company and you need to be more involved to inspire us as your leader and to lead us in a better direction.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bracket full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Competitive salary and I have no more pros to meet the 5 word requirement. sorry.

Cons – Developers are abused on all levels. They are the scapegoat when things go wrong. When a project manager complains, development managers institute a policy to keep them happy. When testing is not happy with the project (they actually have to work to earn their salary), Developers are told they are not doing their job PERFECT enough. On top of that, the company has a Quality Assurance department full of executive decision makers who wave their wands pointlessly creating SOP on top of SOP to make the company appear compliant. The end result is mounds of paper work and yes, it all goes to the Developer. Developers are made to track their project milestones in an excel spreadsheet, a sharepoint page, an in house bug tracking app, emails to their managers, emails to the project team, risk assessments, database specifications, design specifications. Many redundant documentation practices that invite mistakes. If you suggest this is a bit much, you are immediately reminded of the corporate culture of compliance. This is what should concern you when you realize this is the companies approach to compliance, it's apparent that they rely heavily on a buffer to keep upper management away from the true hard work. The redundant documentation serves the needs of people who refuse to query a database or ask their IT guy for remote access to data. Developers are over tasked! We don't complain. Every other department can but development keeps their mouth closed and pays attention to the demands from the unsatisfied testers and project managers. It is ridiculous being told that you should humor the tester asking you to do something that does not need to be done. It is beyond ridiculous seeing the poor grammar used by some of these testers and then having to abide by their demands just to keep them happy. Many testers latch onto this culture of anti-developer, they find reasons to complain just to throw more bad things our way to make our lives more difficult. There is an under current of developer hate at this company and it is disturbing. The testing leads are constantly gossiping as if this is high school. I've heard one say they hate developers. Is it no wonder corporate outings and company parties are short of developers? If you enjoy abuse, get a job here. Your esteem will flat line with time.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop appeasing Testers and Project Managers. Start respecting your Developers. They don't need all the redundant documentation. Mark my words: you will regret the redundant documentation soon.Teach your lazy management staff how to query a database. Quit writing a new rule every time a project manager whines about their job.

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

Current Employee – been working at Bracket full-time for more than a year

Pros – Bracket was the only place that hired me at the time. I should have still rejected their offer and kept looking.

Cons – Poor managers, poor executives. Everything here has a temporary feel as turnover is embarrassingly high. Very few people stay more than a year unless they are very uncompetitive candidates or grossly unqualified to move on to other positions outside of the company. Overall this is a company to avoid at all costs even if it means remaining unemployed longer in this economy.

Advice to Senior Management – Project mangers here do the work of entry level workers at other companies. Duites and responsibilities should be made clear in interviews so job seekers can make an informed decision. I personally will be leaving the company the first chance I get in the summer.

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

Former Employee – worked at Bracket full-time for more than a year

Pros – Free soda machine, and people are generally nice

Cons – Salary and benefits are at best at 75% of market rates. Job is grossly misrepresented during interviews and in description. People who are vastly overqualified for positions are brought in and put in under the management of individuals who have worked at the company for many years and would be unable to find employment anywhere else. Extremely high turnover that is hidden by Project Managers and Directors to new employees. Dissatisfaction of employees is very high and almost everyone that is capable of finding a position outside of Bracket soon does. If you want a job that is not challenging and wish to be underpaid to perform it ,Bracket will be a great fit for you.

Advice to Senior Management – Instead of bringing in people that are overqualified for positions, bring in people who will be challenged and can grow into their positions.

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

Current Employee – been working at Bracket full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Growth business allows for promotions and additional positions within company

Cons – Salary disparity evident across positions. Management not clear on expectations for advancement. No forum to voice concerns. Company hasn't caught up with the growth of their businesses to remain competitive for applicants and employees.

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

Current Employee – been working at Bracket

Pros – Very easy technically, not challenging

Cons – Technically boring, unrealistic deadlines. Not challenging.

Advice to Senior Management – Document your processes

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend