Alcon reviews

3.7

66% would recommend to a friend

(458 total reviews)
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David J Endicott

77% approve of CEO

63% positive business outlook

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458 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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1.0
Mar 21, 2015

The Bizarro World of Med Device Companies

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great pay, great benefits, and at the site I am at, definitely focused on developing the talent that they have.

Cons

However, while they are focused on developing the talent they have, management seems to have a knack for choosing the wrong talent to develop. The talent chosen to be groomed are enabled to bully their peers and essentially run wild at the company as they "develop" into leaders. Unfortunately, it shows as when they do become leaders, they oftentimes are ill-prepared to manage people as they turn out to be downright rude and make decisions to the detriment of the company. An example of this is during my compensation review, my own boss indicated that since my salary was relatively high, it would be good justification to raise everyone else's salary to match mine. I was from a company that was recently acquired by Alcon, and after moving to an established site, I've noticed the people working at Alcon have a certain arrogance. They believe their systems, processes, and talent are better than others when in fact it's the exact opposite. Their systems are outdated (and warped to the point that anyone with any bit of experience in other medical device companies would not quite understand how things are actually run), their processes are bloated with red tape, and their talent is so sheltered that many are unaware of best practices or what one actually can or cannot do. The worst is that many of the engineers and managers are unwilling to change as they believe they are "best-in-class"...if you benchmark to other Alcon sites. The training is almost non-existent as processes are taught through tribal knowledge and are really dependent on the training engineer's "cliff notes", despite the fact they have procedures for nearly everything, except for maybe which restroom to use.

2.0
Mar 11, 2015

Beware!

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefits being under Novartis!

Cons

No work and family balance. No recognition for hard work and loyalty towards the company. Management and HR are closely intertwined with one another. Poor management. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Too much favoritism and NO ROOM for advancement. A very bad work environment. Supervisors and Lead Technicians doesn't even have a four year degree. That in a nutshell should tell you something about the poor leadership in the company. No confidentiality within the organization. Supervisors discloses information with subordinates.

2.0
Feb 9, 2015

Change Happens

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Alcon was one of the premier Eye care company. Most employees had worked for the company for a number of years. As happens when you are successful the company was bought by a larger company. Most everyone that was part of what made Alcon the company that it was is gone. The new company culture is very different and it will take time to see if the change will be a positive move for the company. Company executives made a lot of money in the transaction.

Cons

After recent acquisition the company has been gutted. It is unclear what will come out of the ashes. Many thousands lost jobs in the merger and many have left on their own. The company is rebuilding and for the right skill set there may be opportunities to be part of the rebuild.

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