An old-school employer who tries to improve presence in the Bay Area, but still retains the Chicago mentality - R&Amp; D Scientist AbbVie Employee Review

1.0
18 Sept 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very good team of scientists.

Cons

The company has a caste system. The caste is divided by grade. Managers have grade 18 and above, while minion employees have grade 17 and below. Minion employees are the life blood of the company, yet have no stock, 8% bonus with no performance modifier, and will have to jump through many layers of politics to get promoted. Meanwhile, managers will qualify for stock, 15% bonus with performance modifier ( up to 200% modifier), and exclusive access to fast-track promotion. As the company tries to consolidate three sites in the Bay Area and move to SSF, in the words of Tom Hudson, the company’s CSO, this move will bring more opportunity to everyone. Yet, what we saw in the past three years were fast track promotions to all the managers. Now there are a lot of Directors, Managers, Senior Directors, etc etc. The minion employees are left behind with no clear vision of advancement. At the same time, the managers have the privilege to work from home in their little castles for a foreseeable future, and the minion employees are all recalled on-site to work. To add salt to the injury, the company took back the free lunch benefit for onsite workers, and leave the employees struggle to find lunch. The implementation of Eat Club has been a disaster.

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AbbVie Response
5y
Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. We have a strong commitment to employee satisfaction and wish to discuss your feedback in more detail. If willing, please reach out to us at HRConnect.northamerica@abbvie.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

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5.0
1 June 2026
Anonymous intern
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CEO approval
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Pros

Abbvie is a good company.

Cons

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4.0
23 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

I learned a lot while working this job. The systems like Veeva and Workfront were difficult to learn at first, but once I got the hang of them it was great. There were a lot of great people working around me that wanted to see me succeed.

Cons

Working as a contract worker had it's cons. At times, it felt like I was a little bit of an afterthought in the company with some superiors because I was not a full time employee. Communication suffered at times as well.

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