Not what it used to be - Sr. Automation Engineer Genentech Employee Review

3.0
Apr 20, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-nice benefits -good commute provisions (public transportation reimbursement, GNE ferries and buses) -decent bonuses on good years -can park on campus for free when flying out of SFO!

Cons

-extreme politics. Management heavy -leadership completely disconnected and out of touch with individual contributors, top down leadership approach. Lack of appreciation for employees. Saw one director cancel $200 awards sent to some senior employees for a grueling 1.5+ year project with non-stop 12+ hour work days sent by another leader as a thank you, because it "didnt fit within their dept budget". Dozens of other employees outside of that dept did receive their little award for putting in 1.5 FTE time for more than a year. Not even a verbal thank you or congratulations other than an email sent out to the large (~30 person) team. Project was on top of normal day to day responsibilities. -over proceduralized, very hard to get work done within expected timelines -most days now mandated on site, for many people this means 3-4+ hours of commuting each day unless you can want to move to the area, leadership tracking attendance with threats against performance reviews, even for employees who already work extremely long days at home. Knew of many employees commuting 5+ hours in a day without ample salary to live in the area. -leadership with no knowledge of work processes, bottlenecking, hurdles -non-existent resource management for project loading -extremely hard to influence change, lack of decision-making causing extra workload for individual contributors -significant waste on outlandish projects and fun items people dont need, instead of hiring enough employees to get the work done properly -not enough staff to support GMP facilities, often no backfilling for lost headcount

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Genentech Response
3y
Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us! We’re sorry to hear that you didn’t feel appreciated and supported by your management team. As a company focused on tackling some of the world’s most serious and life-threatening diseases, it’s important that our management team can establish clear unifying goals and create an environment where our employees can thrive. Furthermore, we believe campus environments are essential magnets for dynamic innovation, designed to enhance our highly collaborative culture. It’s even more important for job roles like automation engineers that need to be onsite to support the GMP facilities for making medicines. We do have increased flexible working options across our organization to enhance productivity and innovation as well as our comprehensive commute options for our employees ranging from buses, vanpool, ferries and much more. Thank you for your inputs and the 10+ years you have dedicated to helping us bring breakthrough medicines to patients.

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Cons

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2.0
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Cons

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