It is absolutely true that if you have a good manager, he/she will support you, challenge you, and promote you. There are a few very good, high-EQ managers at Biogen. Many of the managers have been promoted because they were successful as individual contributors, but they are lacking in developing and recognizing strengths in their people. It is unfortunate. I had seven different managers in my career and of the 7, only one was truly a people manager who wanted to be a manager (not just on the way up the ladder).
The new office configuration is trendy and on the plus side, everyone is near the windows and even the senior management sit in cubicles. On the downside, the noise is quite distracting and it can be difficult to concentrate.
As the company has grown, the culture has suffered. So many silos exist and the sense of "we are all in this together" has decreased. New hires want only to scale the corporate ladder and the attitude (set at the very top) is that as long as a project gets completed on time, it does not matter how many bodies have been left behind on the way to completion. The company says they want team players but nobody has ever received a huge bonus for being a team player.
Although Biogen is very generous with vacation time, etc., it is nearly impossible to take that time off. People work and work and work and then go home to work more. Burnout is extremely high. It is not uncommon for people to work early into the morning at times. Biogen talks about work-life balance but in reality it does not exist.
