Merck Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Pros

The compensation, benefits and work-life balance are all top-notch. Fellow employees are all highly intelligent and driven. The possibility for visibility across departments is usually not hard to come by, which helps your development.

Cons

The competitive environment sometimes get in the way of cooperation. The industry is redefining itself now and for the past few years and the employees are suffering to keep their jobs.

Advice to Senior Management

Retain top talent, especially at the BS level and provide more opportunities to fund PhD programs so those employees are come back after graduate school. The time and resources spent to constantly hire new BS-level employees would be reduced with a larger PhD program (not just pointless satellite classes from second-rate institutions).

Pros

Good experience with a large pharmaceutical company, Merck fits the bill. It is the typical large company who has large resources and for a college grad a good starting job to learn about the basics of working in any large company.

Cons

Many. First of all the Morale is at an all time low. This used to be the envy of all big pharma companies. Having a history of never having had a sales layoff. Now layoffs across the whole organization are a norm. The pride once felt here are completely gone. There are few new products coming to market and recently those that have been discovered have been rejected by the FDA. It is sad an unfortunate to see a once dominant company crumble. The main blame lies at the feet of Sr. management who has failed to recognize the changes in culture and accountability from the top down. There is a massive disconnect between the realities of the field and the decisions made in Marketing and Sr. Management. Also poor performers are often recognized and awarded. It has really turned into a negatice place to be. It has become quite a political enviornment on the inside.

Advice to Senior Management

Get back to dealing in reality. Listen honestly to the field and communicate with strategies that are basit in reality. Promote people who are want to be in the jobs and reward those who have acheived on the job, not who have become politically saavy.

Pros

Merck has a very good mission and vision. Good Company overall. Our Vaccines are the tops! Good pay - but I think other companies are catching up or surpassing us.

Cons

People are overworked, under appreciated, and morale is very low. The communication is inconsistent and Sr. Mgt. relies on a "whisper down the lane" approach which is very risky for errors. Who do I work for? What should I be doing? There is too much ambiguity right now. Change is good but it has been constantly changing and we are not sure what our end goal is.

Advice to Senior Management

Appreciate your employees. Ensure you know all that is going on behind the scenes. My senior management seems to have crawled under a rock lately due to overwork or -- well, I am not really sure, but they don't have any meetings with us in months. Feels a bit out of control.

Pros

Very understanding when it comes to taking time of for family, emergencies, etc. Very respectful of work/life balance. Good health benefits. Full vestiture of 401K on your first day of employment. Good 401k match.

Cons

Advancement doesn't really seem possible. Everyone who's there has been there for a very long time. Advancement isn't based on achievement or the quality of your work, just seniority. Middle management (at the West Point site in Lansdale, PA) is completely incompetent.

Advice to Senior Management

Give clear direction to middle management. Give them the tools to get the job done, and if they can't hack it, fire them.

Pros

Family focused, work-life balance, the nicest, most professional team members around

Cons

Change management is a struggle right now - where are we going to be in a year is unknown?

Advice to Senior Management

Get the pipeline opened up, get us back on track.

Pros

Employee development, opportunity to do different things

Cons

Poor performance of the company, too much protocol, poor work life balance, stagnant culture

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to innovate, need to change the culture and get ride of those who will not change, lawyers continue to run the company

Pros

At Merck you will have the opportunity to make a difference. There are many different aspects within the current environment that are open for development by someone who is willing to put forth the effort.

Cons

The environment is somewhat sober. Most people are so busy that it is difficult to develop close or personal relationships. There are also many new changes and processes that must be followed. The first time through can be somewhat painful, and when you think you finally have it, the process gets changed. We are moving toward standardization, which should, eventually, make the business run more smoothly...for now, though, there are growing pains.

Advice to Senior Management

The world seems to be headed in the direction of more natural products and going green. The more Merck goes in this direction, the more successful it will be.

Pros

Good compensation was my primary reason. I received a healthy weekly paycheck. However, my job was salaried and I did a lot of overtime, but there wasn't any compensation for that.
One of the other reasons I chose to work at Merck was that their current research areas are in fields that I eventually want to get into, so its helpful to start out in a similar field. Also, because its a huge company, you can move around a lot within the different deparments: antiviral, RNA, drug metabolism, clincial trials etc. This also makes it a good place to work.

Cons

There are very few opportunities to advance within the different departments. You can be a master's degree employee and you might just stay at the same title for 7 to 15 years. They prefer to advance the Ph.D over the employees who've been working there for a long time. Also, people aren't that good at Merck. Some supervisors too ambitious to give credit to those under them. There's hardly and unity or sense of community within Merck.
Also, you need to be careful of your money. Merck will really encourage their employees to invest in their stock. Stay away from that, unless you really like Merck.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep your doors more open to other employees to get a feel for what is going on in your department. Sometimes, the senior management is so out-of-loop that the right person, doesn't get credit, doesn't get a chance to get published, or something else happens. More communication and fairness is necessary.

Pros

The retirement benefits are pretty good, 401K match & pension, a rarity these days.

Cons

Senior leadership doesn't have a clue right now. They roll out a new strategy that will save the company only to change direction 2 years later. They tend to jump from Fad to fad.

Advice to Senior Management

Pick a plan and stick with it long to see the results it's supposed to bring. Be open and honest in evaluating yourselves. Some were promoted too fast (too little expereince) or have the wrong backgrounds. We'll onyl succeed if we have the right people in the right roles.

Pros

I have a great supervisor. There are a number of good 1st level supervisors. Unfortunately the 2nd level and above management have no absolutely no concern about supporting the 1st level supervisors and the day to day operations. The pay level is competitive and the benefits are good and there is an active after-work sports program for employees to participate in. The company is slowly phasing in flexible work schedules.

Cons

turmoil about the future, inconsistent forward looking by upper management, Merck is contracting out work to other companies for manufacturing of products rather than reducing internal cost structures to make the company more competitive.

Advice to Senior Management

Thin the managment levels of employees who are bad leaders and require managers to work at least 40 hours a week. Too many employees (labor grade 6 and below) feel that 35 hours a week is a long week.