Great or terrible place to work depending on where and for whom - Director Merck Employee Review

3.0
Jan 5, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great near term growth thanks to Keytruda, ability to learn a lot on the job, facilities outside of PA/NJ can be good to work for if you happen to be at a facility with a dynamic plant manager, benefits are very good, some good decisions on acquisitions have been made, line employees generally well trained and care about doing a good job.

Cons

Can be uptight and hierarchal, refuse to prioritize in some areas despite calls from CEO to do so, leading to confusion about how to get EVERYTHING done, some openly unethical senior managers that are allowed to remain in role, culture of punishment versus learning from mistakes, very old school style of management with diversity and inclusion “bolted on”, creating and obvious but weak effort to try to be an employer of choice, haven’t figured out how to retain millennials mostly because senior leadership won’t take advice from experts.

Explore other reviews about Merck

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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