Some positives, a lot of cons - Anonymous employee Merck Employee Review

3.0
Aug 10, 2012
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Salary for the region is average if you hire into the company. Flexible work time is good if you have a manager that is willing to let you use it.

Cons

The onsite daycare is not a benefit. Most employees do not use it because it is overpriced even with the employee discount and is not managed appropriately. Location is not good. On my first day, I was told to adjust my work schedule according to the season because I did not want to walk through the parking lot at night. I witnessed a gun battle about 1 pm on the street in front of the building. People are shifted into new positions frequently with no imput from the employee. Often the job does not match the employee's strengths or experience.

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5.0
Jun 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits and pay are great

Cons

Depends on manager and organization is how your experience and work life balance will be

4.0
Jun 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits like medical/dentist/vision, pension, stock option, 401k match. Co workers are excellent, pretty good on site symposiums, lot of diversity clubs/activities. Innovation is extremely welcomed. Diversity in research portfolio. AI/ML is heavily invested to make databases more efficient.

Cons

Micro managing, especially within the biologics department, potentially others. Promotions are limited, and pay bump is poor. Company invests too much in buying companies rather than keeping talent - lay offs let go of great talented people. Merck is afraid of investing into exploratory biology and doesn’t take risk - they even admit they would rather see other companies clinical data or R&D data rather than taking a risk. Although it’s slow going in building new software, current databases are slow and needs much improvement. Extremely poor work/life balance.

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