Huge international company with old German mindset - Anonymous employee Bayer Employee Review

4.0
Sep 24, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- One of, if not the highest paying company in Germany. Fantastic bonus structure, fair working hours, 6 weeks leave standard. - Some great opportunities to interact with people from all over the world and, if interested, take expat assignments to other sites. - A lot of internal opportunities if you're looking for upward mobility (and extremely secure positions if not).

Cons

Huge companies equal huge and slow bureaucracy. Nothing moves fast and nothing is flexible. If you're lucky enough to work in the HQ, you may have a shot at contributing toward new ideas, but if not, you're SOL. The countries outside Germany are looked down upon and the general mindset is that no one but Germans are smart enough to know what's best for the company. Middle management is always very concerned with image and leadership is driven more from fear of reprisal than anything else. The amount of manhours spent appeasing the higher ups is astounding. Because of this mindset, the blaming of mistakes on others and personal attacks against competence of coworkers is very prevalent.

Explore other reviews about Bayer

5.0
Jun 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

compensation, team, boss, best technology, strong pipeline

Cons

bureaucracy, tough to influence change, slow to adjust, burn out,

3.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Better pay than other companies My team - full of hardworking and knowledgable individuals.

Cons

Leadership/Management - can be micromanaging at times and not a lot of guidance/resources being provided. Projects can change swiftly at Bayer, and most of the times there's no background context given. Work/life balance - asked to be "flexible" with schedule for last-minute requests, then criticized for having life/responsibilities outside of work. Also, these last minute requests reflect poor planning on management. Lack of team morale - seems like it's all work and not a lot of play. Burnout culture and not a lot of incentives to perform better.

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