Pros
My review is only pertinent to the Hopkinton, MA site. There are some great things about working at PerkinElmer(PKI) and they are few. The company gym(with showers and locker rooms) is a great amenity and the new cafeteria with catered food is very nice, albeit a bit expensive. There are discounted fitness/yoga classes offered through partnerships with local Crossfit gym. They have a very nice volleyball court and a shoddy basketball hoop. There are a few employee holidays through out the year like the Christmas party and Summer BBQ's. PKI does match up to 5% for your 401k. I also want to mention that overall, the facility is clean and well maintained.
Cons
The part of the review is going to be a bit longer so I will put this into a list. Please note that I'm doing my best to keep this unbiased. This is my opinion, but it's based on what I've observed and if I thought this was a great place to work, I would say that. - High turnover rate for upper management and low turnover rate for middle management creates no room for growth. - The whole culture is a facade. This company only cares about money. So much to an extent that they brought an outside consultant to come in and give us pep talks about how it isn't about money. Even the company motto, "For the Better" should be changed to "For the Dollar." - All of the departments butt heads with each other. Everyone is unhappy and the only solution is to blame other people/departments which leads to nothing getting better. This includes managers. - Compensation is average, maybe slightly above, the term upper management uses is "competitive" and they refuse to give decent raises. The pay would be fair if not for the work load. Every person has so much to do that it isn't worth what they pay. Since they offer benefits, have company BBQ's and built a volleyball court, that excuses them from paying us more. - The CEO is a complete joke. The only way he communicates with his employees is through terrible quarterly videos full of hollow thank yous read off a script that you tell he is reading from. Seriously, they're embarrassingly bad. He is a former CFO and accountant without the slightest clue of what's going on in the biotech field. There is a huge initiative going in the company to find ways of saving money and cutting costs, but this is all for naught due to our CEO giving himself millions of dollars(cash, stock etc) in bonuses. Greed is embedded in this place. - The summer intern program would be great if it wasn't an "in" for the sons and daughters of managers to get their kids summer jobs. The feeling of listening to your 19 year old intern tell you about how they go on ultra expensive vacations and that daddy is buying them new cars is just flat out insulting. - Sexual harassment is subtle, but it's there. I feel sorry for many of the women that work here. - The IT dept is one guy for 400 people. There are a few others, but unfortunately, there is a huge language barrier with all of them so everyone tries to go through the one guy. - Health insurance is terrible, but recently we were told that our benefits provider has gone to bid so this may change "for the better." - No stock options plan that make investing actually worth it. - Incredible conflicts of interest in the company. Many managers and employees are related which leads to rampant favoritism. For someone like myself who got the job without knowing any one within the company, I'm treated like an outcast and have had my job threatened many times. Overall, employee morale is low. Many degrees of separation between managers and employees. Everyone is only concerned with themselves and some will even lie about others to get ahead. It's really just like high school. The core values and leadership are stuck in a time where old men think the new generation has nothing to offer. Compared to 2 years ago, this company has made many huge improvements, but there is a long road ahead and it will be slow for those who choose to stick around.