Promega reviews

Promega has a difficult time getting rid of people in leadership who are toxic or ineffective. I'm aware of two who were the primary reason at least 10 really high performing people left the company and there were several more that were on the verge. That's unacceptable. The first was finally let go after much too long a process, despite constant and consistent feedback from his direct reports. The second is still there, and is easily the most toxic person I ever worked with. People universally talk about her with this sense of disbelief that someone so awful could still have a job. It's a problem, and it's amazing the company doesn't address it more promptly. The self-funded medical insurance is crazy expensive and doesn't cover as much as previous insurance did. Compensation is pretty lackluster, opportunities to move up are scarce, and the closer you get to working with Bill, the more you are at the mercy of his current opinions, which seem to change pretty frequently and often lead to people being let go. There's little sense that he trusts his leadership team, and he still operates in the details of entrepreneur mode rather than the vision of CEO mode. This whole thing with the Usona Institute is also fairly baffling that he allows there to be any obvious connection between Promega and a place that's exploring hallucinogenic drugs. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the company when he finally retires.

Promega does not offer a highly competitive wage and doesn't give you many options for trying to negotiate a better salary when you already work for them. Any real wage increases come from promotions only. They generally offer the standard 3% average raise for each department so in order to get a raise higher than 3%, someone else has to get a raise lower than 3%. The politics are also incredibly strange and it is one of the only places that I've encountered in Biotech that retains its workforce for 15, 20 even 30 years. While this may seem like a good thing, it actually stifles innovation and tends to just make people cling to outdated procedures because that's the way they've always done it. Some managers are also very willing to throw their employees under the bus if it suits their purpose. It's more common than it should be, but isn't endemic to any particular department.