Two years I'll never get back - Anonymous employee PerkinElmer Employee Review

1.0
Oct 12, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The check is direct deposited into your back account every two weeks. There is a parking garage.

Cons

The only way you should take a job at this company is if both of these rules apply: 1. You currently do not have a job - AND - 2. You have completely depleted any financial reserves that could've otherwise carried you over to finding another job that is NOT at PerkinElmer. Securing another job and leaving was the best thing that ever happened to me in my working career. Outdated software - You'll be working with the latest and greatest... as of 1997. IT and (insert other department... Operations,Finance, HR, whatever) work so poorly together nothing ever gets moved along in terms of implementation or development. IT department installs tracking software "ZSCALER" on every laptop. You've been warned. Each webpage you load, internal or external, will take a painful time to load. It actually detracts from productivity. And they're watching you. Outdated hardware - When was the last time you saw a floppy disk? In the supply closet at PerkinElmer you say? Exactly. Be prepared for major frustrations with your Lenovo laptop from 2001. Outdated policies - No working from home allowed, period. Managers with the "preference of one outweighing the benefit of many" attitude. CEO Friel is too much of a coward to take the initiative at his level. He allows managers to handle it themselves. Since these managers are outdated and stodgy in their ways, no WFH. Working through midnight? Doesn't matter, see you in the office at 8am. Better show up in a snowstorm too, that's expected. Again, not hyperbole. Reality. Outdated people - Stodgy old workers averaging in their early to mid fifties. Goodluck finding any camaraderie if you are 40 or younger. There are NO fresh ideas at PerkinElmer. "Its how we've always done it" they'll say to you with glossed over eyes. You have to print EVERYTHING. EVERY SINGLE DOCUMENT. Sending a report off to a business partner? Better print it off, because none of them can turn on a computer let alone navigate Excel. Other negatives - Winter Street (specifically the 300 or so yards by PerkinElmer HQ) will add at least 40 minutes (each way) to your commute. It doesn't matter where you are coming from, simply choosing to work here adds 1hr20m to your commute. Again, no working from home, so you can forget about that. No 360 reviews or reviews from sources outside of your manager. Have a terrible manager? Doesn't matter. Prepare to have your mind and soul crushed by his or her deviant tactics. If your 2nd level manager - your manager's manager - is a director or VP, this is especially true. Their heads are so high up in the clouds that they could have 8 people turnover underneath them for the same reason. 0% care given. This is not hyperbole. This is reality, I saw it happen 9 or 10 times in my 2 years at the company. Burn and turn. Misc Tips - If you've chosen to ignore the 2 golden rules at the top of this "Con" portion, at least abide by the following: ~Avoid working in Finance(general incompetency, turnover).~ Avoid working in HR(vengeful, potentially downright evil human beings work here).~ Avoid the Waltham location entirely, if you work at a satellite office (Boston, Hopkinton) the working environment is more productive. ~ Rob Friel is a finance man and to say he is anything more than a moron in terms of CEO aptitude, would be a lie. ~ Just work until 630pm. Yes it means you'll be putting in 10.5 hour days, but the traffic is so bad, it's the lesser of two evils. You'll get home at the same time if you leave at 630 instead of 500.~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hope on the Horizon? It's my understanding they brought in a HR Consultant or have a new HR leader to make the company more forward thinking. My inside sources tell me thus far nothing has changed after 4 months. I am happy in my new job and harbor no vengeful feelings towards PerkinElmer. I left on my own accord, after all. The above are my true observations. They are not exaggerated for emphasis, nor to prove a point. My comments here are an attempt, from one decent human being to another, to prevent you from wasting your precious time on this planet at PerkinElmer... like I did.

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PerkinElmer Response
9y
Best of luck in your new job and hope everything works out for you.

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