Management is incompetent and unknowledgable about their position. The trend is to hide stuff from FDA during audits, not to actually do things appropriately the first time so that FDA has nothing to find. Quality is seen as an annoying hindrance that needs to be circumvented. The only way to advance is to suck up to the right people. It's very much an "old boys" network. New products are not being researched or designed.
The Office of Ethics and Compliance is known as the "Abbott Police" because of how often they interrogate people. People constantly feel like they're being watched and can't say anything to anyone about anything because the "Abbott Police" will come after them. During investigations, you are informed you can't speak to anyone about anything, you are told you can't take notes about anything said by the investigators, and if you do take notes, you must destroy them. People are investigated on a regular basis and when an investigation occurs, everyone in a department is brought in and interrogated. There have been instances where Abbott employees have made up false accusations (everything from fraud to harassment) in order to get rid of co-workers. It's a guilty-until-proven-innocent investigations where the investigators are co-workers at corporate headquarters in Chicago. They are not trained investigators. They could be people who hold the same job as you and who you have interracted with on previous occassions related to actual job related matters, not an investigation. The general approach by employees is becoming such that they quit as soon as they are informed they are under investigation. Many employees are currently looking for employment elsewhere rather than remaining in such a hostile work environment.
