Abbott reviews

1. Poor work life balance — In some teams, people are not set up to succeed. My department was largely comprised of contract associates doing the same job that I was doing as a full time employee of Abbott. The stated expectation was generally that contract employees could only work 40 hours per week. As a full time employee I was told it was an expectation for me to work more than 40 hours per week regularly due to our department structure. Logging in to work every Saturday or Sunday was standard expectation to manage the workload. 2. Poor culture — Be prepared for the chance that you might work with some very difficult people who can get away with mistreatment of others just because they have worked at Abbott a long time and have always gotten away with their behaviors. I had an uncooperative internal stakeholder to deal with. In spite of me working hard to please her, she often complained and was unreasonable, including issuing a complaint about me sending her multiple emails after 4:30 p.m. Leadership was rarely willing to help confront this behavior. 3. Poor management - If you have a toxic manager, you’re pretty much stuck dealing with it. I had a manager who was unprofessional, and borderline bullying at times. I never said anything about it to anyone because the culture is such that you’ll be labeled a complainer and they will look for reasons to get rid of you. 4. Lack of flexibility — I understand the value of working in an office, but Abbott’s rigid rules for being in office were over the top. Mid-2020 during pandemic I was told to go back to the office to work. I would sit in my cube on a desolate floor, maybe seeing another person or two all day, and not even anyone I worked with. Post-pandemic, a weekly work from home day was permitted, but it had to be reapproved quarterly by leadership and it had to be same day every week. On top of this, in my department, Wednesday couldn’t be chosen as a day to work offsite. Very limiting, old school views on where you can work.

Constant restructuring for underperforming team. For finance, nature support overseas entity thus expect you could work everyday exclude public holiday. If closing fall on public holiday include festive holiday, you need to come to work in office or at home and work as usual. Finance need to close by third working day (US working day) which is stressing. Staff usually staff until 9pm on closing on normal months , quarter and year end is even later. Replacement leave are given but need to use within a month (30 days). Can't afford to fall sick or plan for nice travel with friends or loved ones as everyday got ad hoc task from internal management report request, audit or etc. Not really suitable for working parents who doesn't have support to take care of their kids. Even during closing, parents still need to work in office. Regardless daycare close or child admit to hospital or child finish school. Not really flexible for working parents or those who want work life balance. If travel, best to bring laptop around to answer emails from division otherwise when return, alot of email. Too much of policies to follow and a simple request will be routed many levels. Different department got different politics, so pick your right team to side with. Side the wrong team, you won't last long there.