Pros
Abbott still has a very good benefits package, including pension plan, profit sharing bonus, cheap (to the employee) health care plans, minimum of 3 weeks vacation going up to 6 weeks depending on years of service. If work load permits, to take unpaid time off in addition to vacation is not a problem. Interesting work
Cons
Generally the company seems to go from a good place to work at towards a so-so or even bad place to work at. Decisions and policies made by upper management (quality director or vice president?) and implemented at the start of 2010 which had a huge impact on morale from people I spoke with, included that non-exempt employees have to use punch clocks, after years of being able to fill in time card on the computer. This, with no apparent abuse of previous system, made us feel like we're not trust worthy. Added to that was implementation of point system for taking sick days and not being on time: Whenever someone had to take a sick day and didn't give at least 24 hours prior notice, one point was added to your account (like you know 24 hours in advance if you're gonna get sick). If you were sick this week and then the following Monday you were still sick, a second point would be added. If you were late more then 15 min (5 min for production workers), half a point would be added. There were some more things that would add points, which I don't remember anymore. After getting 4 points, a scolding meeting was to be had with the manager. If more then 6 points were accrued in 6 months, a permanent mark in your personal file, etc., up to suspension or termination. Non-exempt employees not allowed to do ANY overtime (even 8.1 hours/day instead of 8.0 more then once every 2 weeks, resulted in a stern talking to...) while exempt employees had to take up the slack (like working 10 -12 hours) since they were not getting paid by the hour. Impossible to achieve goals added to the goals that were determining the yearly bonus (in an apparent drive to lower bonus payouts) Laying off full time employees while at the same time hiring contract people. There are several more policies that were implemented this year that severely restricted or eliminated work place flexibilities that we had since I started working there. Maybe it doesn't sound bad if you never had those things, but to change them with no reason other then some director or VP had the genius idea that it will work better with this or that changed, just sucks.