Until the Merger's Over... - Manager Pfizer Employee Review

2.0
Jun 27, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you want to just show up every day, do your 8 or 9, and go home, this is the job for you. "All-nighters" are few and far between and happen at fairly predictable times of the year. The medical benefits can't be beat.

Cons

It's starting to feel like the ex-Soviet Union around here. Every few years, our division re-organizes from top to bottom in some grand scheme that's supposed to miraculously save us all and bring us back to the "good old days." Of course, we can't get there without "doing more with less" and sacrificing, which will of course be eventually rewarded once we accomplish our near-impossible goals and beat impossible obstacles. Challenging the wisdom of any of this is strongly frowned upon. Constant cheerleading and jingoism replace any real strategy that may actually change anything. And, just when we thought we were out of the woods after the LAST reorganization, the Wyeth merger comes along. This means more reasons to keep everyone looking over their shoulder, looking busy, and looking out for the knife in the back. The newest motivational phrase around Pfizer is "shut up and be happy that you still have a job." The end result is that the people who are the backbones of their departments--the people who get work done--are kept in their positions with no hope of promotion. Anyone really good either leaves the company or the truly lucky switch departments, but vertical movement within divisions is a thing of the past. Against all of this, Pfizer seems to be churning consultants through jobs every 6 months as opposed to investing in the employees that they already have, or hiring permanent staff.

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Pros

Good life balance, good compensation

Cons

Instability, upper leadership often decides to change direction.

2.0
Jun 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

A good amount of remote monitoring, which depending on how you view can be a positive.

Cons

Changing systems and inconsistent standards are applied to people. There are many differing models that often muddy how you are supposed to do your job, especially when other staff members don't quite understand. How do you interface with the changing models? There tends to be a lot of blame and foisting of responsibilities. Sometimes you can become overburdened with a lot of work, where people do not respect your time and think that their tasks should take priority. It is possible to be contacted late at night with work to do and then be criticized the next day for not being able to keep up.

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