Unusual set of priorities - work is supposed to be recognized and rewarded as per their PRIDE values but in practice the management and HR seem more concerned with other issues such as cultural fits. I have been told in no uncertain terms by the HR that taking my lunch break at 3pm once was unacceptable, even though the contract only states that employees are granted a one-hour lunch break, without the time of that being specified, and even when I told them I had to have a late lunch because of work-related constraints. Apparently following a rigid set of (unwritten) rules is more important than productivity. This is all the more surprising in the context of the recent hits the company has taken, with their two major allergy products failing phase III and subsequent closure of the allergy program and ensuing redundancy of half the R&D.
This general attitude translates also in being very penny-conscious, in that it is easy to get approval for > £1000 PO's but takes a lot of effort dealing with the administration when much lower amounts are involved. Middle management frequently complains about having to manage the upper management's expectations rather than working with them (it is their way or the highway). Sadly many good people have opted for the latter.
Some business decisions of late have been questionable. In the context of failure of two allergy drugs the allergy program was shut down and naturally many redundancies followed. It would seem natural then to want to protect the other major R&D program (inhaled products), but that was also cut back to half, to the point the labs are nearly empty now. I would not recommend taking a position in their labs now because you would be swamped with work that would normally be done by twice as many employees. In many other companies when this happens, it would be the upper management that would be replaced by the board of directors rather than have half the R&D made redundant.
The CEO, Steve Harris, has a business but no science background, which is problematic for a company dealing primarily with science concepts such as pharma. A recent deal with Astra Zeneca where they extended some patent rights to Circassia for them to manufacture and sell AZ drugs in exchange for Circassia shares means this previously promising biotech company is becoming mostly a generics-producing company than a succesful R&D enterprise, and possibly paves the way for a future take-over by AZ. As such many of the remaining employees (ones that have not been made redundant recently) are frantically looking for jobs elsewhere.