I worked at VWR / Avantor for over 8 years, the bulk of that time with VWR. Legacy VWR was all-in-all a nice place to work. While the culture was a little conservative, the people were nice to each other, management was generally very good, and you felt valued.
Then came November 21, 2017, AKA doomsday, the day when Avantor completed its acquisition of VWR. In case you didn’t know, Avantor supplies the chemicals it manufacturers through VWR, a distributor. Prior to the acquisition, Avantor had as bad of a reputation as you could with VWR people – a horribly run company that’s only mechanism for survival was passing on ridiculously large price increases to its customers.
As expected, it only took a few months for Avantor’s toxic culture to permeate its way through VWR. Despite legacy VWR leadership trying to teach Avantor about distribution, the self proclaimed analytical geniuses at Avantor decided they knew best, firing all of the talented people who dared to question their asinine ideas. The new Avantor leadership also put in unattainable cost savings goals with its suppliers, leaving everyone overworked and miserable. By the time I left, everyone was depressed (and I don’t throw around that word around lightly).
Here’s the bottom line. The new Avantor regime only cares about making their numbers so they can sell the company to another investor, or take it public. They do not care one bit about the people. They will work you to the bone and then fire you if they think that is more valuable to making their number. The crazy part is that they do not hide this one bit. There is no future with this company if you are not an SVP.
I would not recommend working for Avantor even if you have been unemployed for a year and have a negative balance in your checking account. It’s THAT bad.