Alector

1.0

9 June 2023

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Alector is in a great area; the Bay Trail is within walking distance and serves as a great escape for an afternoon walk. For the company's size, Alector has modern equipment, nice office space, and is readily stocked with snacks. Alector provides a $40 stipend for Forkable (food delivery), which can cover three days of the week if spent wisely. The People team tries to have events for team bonding onsite that are not always well advertised and have about 50% attendance rate. Many people who work onsite are friendly and easy to work with. If you do choose to accept a position here get a MacBook.

Cons

There has been a high turnover rate of leadership ranging from Associate Directors to C-level executives and individuals across the company. Chances result from poor decision-making and encouraging the wrong people to lead or have an essential say behind closed doors. No/go decisions were constantly getting pushed, spending millions more on programs that should have been terminated. This was further enabled by individuals patting themselves on the back when their performance was poor and inconsistent. There is a culture of double standards, blaming others for incompetence, and a constant need to outsource their work to academic collaborators. Favoritism is rampant at Alector; promotions will depend heavily on what group an individual belongs to. It will be made extremely clear if an individual is not a favorite, and their future at Alector will be short-lived. Many who do not quit suffer in silence. I have seen quite a firing happen to several people at Alector. Being a "yes man" will get a person far at Alector and completely contradict one of Alector's values of "question convention." Individuals who fall in line and mindlessly follow directions will fit in just fine. Those that constantly deliver are taken for granted and expected to maintain or work harder to be considered loyal to the company. I have seen several people passed up for rightfully deserved promotions and others promoted for the promise of what they will deliver. IT services aren’t great everywhere, but they’re especially bad at Alector, and no one is doing anything about it. Alector has in-house IT personnel and a 3rd party that can help with the small stuff virtually. The in-house IT people are rude and often close issue tickets without resolving them. They’re so inadequate that we currently do not have access to the internal internet, and it has been over two months.

Alector Response

Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback. While I’m glad to hear you find our colleagues, workspace, and employee benefits to be positive, it’s clear that you are feeling frustrated with some other aspects of your experience, which is not what I want for you as part of our Research team. We are an evolving company working to transform the way neurodegenerative diseases are treated -- and that sometimes requires strategic shifts in priorities and areas of focus, which does drive change and as a result, could result in turnover. We have greatly strengthened our leadership bench across all departments with seasoned and industry leaders from diverse backgrounds and are very confident in their management, direction, and ability to develop new programs and to drive our existing programs through the pipeline. I will say I am saddened to hear your perspective on our culture. Respect and elevating each other are core values of our organization and we expect all team members to embody these values each day they show up to work. As a science-based organization, our job is to respectfully question everything and remain as objective as possible and I see this play out each day throughout our teams and I’m disappointed that has not been your experience. As for our promotion process – we have a transparent process based on business need and performance that is applied throughout the business. Also, 360 input is part of the performance review process so that managers consider the feedback of peers, direct reports, and cross-functional colleagues. Enabling career progression and ensuring that everyone has access to opportunities and growth during their time at Alector is essential throughout our entire organization. Lastly, I have shared your feedback on our IT services with our Head of Technology and we are seeing how we can improve our communication, tools, and processes to make this better. The IT team invites feedback on every ticket and monitors that feedback to ensure any issues are addressed; please provide feedback directly to the team using this avenue, when possible. I would welcome any additional details and feedback. If you are comfortable, please reach out to me directly. - Peter Heutink, Chief Scientific Officer

Squandered potential and toxic culture - Research Scientist Alector Employee Review

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