Filled with vampires, but not in a good way - Anonymous employee Medscape Employee Review

2.0
May 7, 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great health insurance, compared to other places. Mid-upper management really does try, even if it doesn’t go anywhere.

Cons

Since being bought by Internet Brands a few years ago, a lot of the effective managers left. In some instances, whole departments abandoned ship. This means that the people who are now in middle-to-upper management positions didn’t get them because they earned them, they got them because they were the only ones left and IB was desperate to keep them from leaving, too. IB’s way of keeping this from happening again appears to have been by making each role SO specific that it becomes essentially useless. There is no overlap between departments and teams, so no one understands what anyone else is doing or how their role contributes. It is basically an assembly line with very few people even knowing what the finished product is. You will learn no skills here, and the skills that other companies expect a role to have are not going to be present here. IB is also unwilling to promote or offer salaries. If you come in after a merge (which is how Medscape seems to acquire most of its employees), your title and salary will remain the same. Even if someone else with your title makes more than you, HR will refuse to give you a salary adjustment because your currently salary is too low and they can only go to a certain percentage. If you want a promotion, it has to be one step up, not more. Which means in a lot of cases, people have entry-level positions but are performing managerial roles. But they won’t change your title because your salary is too low (wonder what the solution to that could be). It just goes in circles like this unless you have someone higher in management fighting for you. If you’re a client — you’re probably not getting what you pay for, and the company regularly bends the rules of CME in order to make sales happy. The sales team doesn’t bother looking at any of the product specs they have, they sell things that can’t actually be done and then make other teams find a way to fake it so they don’t have to go back to the client and tell them they sold them something the company doesn’t actually create. The CEO regularly sends out insensitive video communications that managers — and sometimes even the company president — have to follow up with company-wide apologies on his behalf, telling everyone to ignore him. It’s ridiculous. If you’re in desperate need of employment, go for it, but keep job-hunting and don’t feel guilty about leaving for a better opportunity, no matter how soon it comes up. You’ll be better off.

Explore other reviews about Medscape

5.0
Dec 30, 2024
Anonymous contractor
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Loved my time there. Technology is a bit slow but the brand still resonates. Brand is world renown.

Cons

Company has grown resulting in more process.

1.0
Jun 14, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some of the lower-level associates and frontline managers are hardworking, capable, and genuinely trying to do the right thing. The best parts of the company are the people closest to the actual work.

Cons

Medscape’s biggest problem is not the employees doing the work. It is the leadership above them. In my experience, many directors, VPs, and executives are out of touch, slow-moving, defensive, and poorly equipped for the modern digital, technical, and data-driven environment the company claims to operate in. The company talks about innovation, automation, AI, and data transformation, but there is often a major gap between the story leadership tells and how the work actually gets done. Too often, work that is presented as automation, AI, or technical advancement appears to rely heavily on manual operational labor behind the scenes. That is not real innovation. That is old-school labor arbitrage dressed up as technology. Leadership also feels deeply impersonal. Many leaders seem unable to sustain a meaningful conversation beyond surface-level small talk like the weather or where someone is from. That matters because it reflects a broader culture where employees are treated more like replaceable resources than people. The culture is political, fear-based, and allergic to accountability. People point fingers, avoid ownership, and protect themselves instead of making decisions. Important initiatives stall because leaders seem more focused on surviving internally than solving actual business problems. I also observed what appeared to be a behind-closed-doors power culture, where senior leaders influenced others to act on their behalf while keeping themselves insulated from direct accountability. In my view, this created the impression of hidden agendas, internal puppeteering, and leadership operating through proxies instead of leading transparently. Employees can also feel pressured and intimidated. I observed situations where recorded conversations or prior statements were referenced as leverage, with the implication that they could be escalated to upper management. That is not accountability. That is intimidation. In my view, the company has a serious pattern of employee-relations problems, and leadership knows it. Concerns are not handled with real transparency or accountability. They are handled quietly, defensively, and in ways that appear designed to protect the company and its leaders first. Ask around, and I would not be surprised if some exits involved private financial resolutions because of how employees were treated or pushed out. From what I observed, the company’s pattern appears to be less about fixing the underlying leadership problem and more about quietly managing the fallout after good employees are damaged, burned out, or forced out. The harsh truth is this: Medscape does not have a talent problem at the lower levels. It has a leadership culture problem at the top. Until that changes, good employees will keep burning out, leaving, or being pushed out while the same leaders protect themselves and call it business as usual. I'd only take a job here if I'm fresh out of college or in desperate need of employment.

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