Roche Reviews

Pros

Knowledge sharing between departments and collaboration with colleagues was always excellent. Good communication between global teams using very modern technology. Up to date tools and always process improvement on an ongoing basis. Telecommuting was excellent, dependent on the department and the type of job you had it was possible to negotiate some work from home time. Very accomodating with work-life balance. Exceptional benefits,

Cons

Since GNE integration the management structure is not as secure as in previous years. Not always willing to acknowledge star performers due to the budget. Found merit reviews were always depressing and fell short of expectations since everyone is really thrown into one budget bag and it is then divided.

Advice to Senior Management

Dont' throw away the Baby with the bath water. Need to think about the global company profile with other pharma and biotech companies since the Genentech integration.

Pros

The campus was beautiful. Local Management was good. Training was encouraged. My department consisted of great co-workers who worked well in teams.

Cons

The headquarters in Basel were frustrating to work with. The North American headquarters in Nutley were frustrating to work with.

Advice to Senior Management

Palo Alto leadership was very good. The Advice to management at other sites would include better communication and more respect.

Pros

Professional and enthusiastic people , Great infrastructure and IT services

Cons

Weak management style, fairer recruitment

Advice to Senior Management

More communication and attention to feedbacks from employees

Pros

Job security is good. Business model is sound. Senior management is new, fresh and optimistic. Work life balance is acceptable.

Cons

Business model is in transition leading to some levels of chaos. Middle management is not experienced enough to manage this.

Advice to Senior Management

Get outside help to assist middle management in adopting changes to our processes and organizational set up to align to changes in our business model.

Pros

Lots of travel opportunities and innovative products

Cons

In any working environment, the focus of employees dissatisfaction stems from the inability of leaders to manage office politics that affects productivity/ quality of work in the long run.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to manage office politics and always validate information.

Pros

It is a good company to work for. It offers a great opportunity for career growth/development.

Cons

It has a very busy/ hectic working environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more intuitive to promote open communications w/ coworkers

Pros

Roche Palo Alto had such a beautiful campus. Most importantly, the company had intelligent, hard working, and pleasant employees which made it so easy to come to work everyday. Roche offers careers across the U.S. and around the world for people with passion who are looking for great satisfaction and great reward from their work.

Cons

Management needed to communicate more efficiently and it was very unfortunate that with the site closure, a lot of employees were dissatisfied with the communications regarding the events leading up to the closure.

Advice to Senior Management

The employees are basically the engine of the company. A little more consideration would have been much appreciated and would've made the transition so much easier.

Pros

Good large company to work for.

Cons

Senior management changes direction often

Advice to Senior Management

Stick with one direction longer than just a few years!

Pros

Family oriented company. Can maitain the work life balance. New benefits are great. No complain

Cons

Too crowded and very chaotic these days. lab space is very limited as palo Alto people moved in. After the headquarter move to San Francisco the stablity of this site is not sure.

Advice to Senior Management

Please do not promote the squuky wheels

Pros

Big company, very good R&D, good products, acceptable pay, people are nice and gentle, say nice things to each other. This might change after acquired Gennetech.

Cons

Too gentle and soft, not aggressive enough, slow compared with other competitors, promotion ladder is somehow not clear and fair.

Advice to Senior Management

With great hope for the new CEO who is young and with lots of new ideas. Hope to invest more on people development.