It's an assembly line - superspecialized (mind-numbing) roles, lots of layoffs (small numbers every month), LEAN is in! - Anonymous employee Genentech Employee Review

Jobs are super-specialized. Its an assembly line. If you want to variety, innovation, exciting, new, different things to do - it may not happen... Medical benefits are not as good as many companies. If you have $35 copay for 12 physical therapy visits that adds up to 420 - not cheap! Once you put your child in their daycare, you are stuck. The thought of finding another childcare is daunting! Daycare is open 6.30 am - 6.30 pm so you will end up spending unhealthy amounts of time at work. Infant care teachers are constantly leaving. Teachers quality is spotty. But your child is familiar with the center and comfortable - why disrupt that!!! 401K matching and bonus are in late March so you are stuck there till then. Stock options vest every quarter - how deep can those hooks go! They make it hard to leave. They give us flexibility because they have too. Most days meetings will start at 7 am (working with Europe). You may have meetings with Singapore, Shanghai. So you might be working at 7am, 7 pm, 11 pm ! Open working environments - no walls, no sound or visual privacy. Can be very stressful for extroverts also. Hard to find people. Compa Ratios are low. Hierarchical Favoritism by some managers