Novartis reviews

- Race/nationality bias: Advantage if you are of certain race/nationality. You just get more opportunities. Pretty disconcerting to hear certain HR make blatant comments biased towards own nationality. - Identification of "talents" questionable. If you cant perform on the job but are good with your mouth and putting on a show, this might just be the place where you thrive. - Work/life balance out of the question (though dependent on department and how accountable you want to be) - No Job mastery due to excessive job rotation/rotations which were not thought through. Some folks who have been rotated are placed in roles beyond their capabilities but are just smoking through. - Some processes/systems are very inefficient, resistance to change with "this is how it's always been done" mentality. Some decision makers have the "i'm not sure what is adequate so let's just do everything to play safe" mindset. These add on unnecessarily to an already high workload. - Weak managers: Some weak placements through lower/middle/senior mgmt roles. Ability to lead and serve as good role models questionable, resulting in low morale/people leaving. - Plenty of good people left/looking to leave. Yet, many who are not doing their jobs are staying put and even identified as talents. - Some employees are very rude, arrogant and disrespectful to people deemed "beneath" them, because they feel invincible having the backing of mgmt to be groomed into future leaders of the organisation. However, they become very nice to the people "beneath" them when the right people (aka middle/seniormgmt)are around. This creates alot of distrust and dampens employee morale. After all, why bother being a good employee when these are the type of people that mgmt seems to appreciate? And is it a good idea to stay put when these people are going to be the future leaders? This used to be a better place but not anymore. Unless there is a major cultural shake-up, you will not want to be working here.

This company is not interested in people who have a difference of opinion or even an opinion for that matter. You are expected to just say yes and keep your nose to the grindstone. Communication: during the induction training (more than 25 new hires started at the same time as I and the new hire tendency will only increase by the looks of it) I was literally the only person who asked questions. I was then told at the end of the 3rd and last day of training that at least one of the trainers had complained that I was asking too many questions. In a normal company how is that possible and how can that kind of feedback be taken seriously? If you cannot ask questions when you are new, then when? Open communication/open door policy simply does not exist. People will eat with you in the cantine and smile to your face but then stab you in the back and complain to your manager without blinking an eye. I was disparaged and verbally threatened by Novartis management and therefore went on long term illness. That is why I am no longer there. Labour laws in the Czech Republic are very different than in other EU countries. The fact that most employees are not aware of their legal rights (mainly those who are not Czech but not exclusively) gives Novartis a very strong upper hand. Already told during the interview that you are expected to remain in the role for at least a year i.e. job opportunities based on merit are not a given. This is a prime example of yet another company who moved a good chunk of their business from an expensive country to another country simply to find cheap labour. They are not interested in the well-being of their employees and since they seem to believe that they control the job market that they can do whatever they please with employees. Working at home was also sold as a perk even though everybody knows that if or when you are given this option, it is clearly with the expectation that you will work even longer since you will not have to travel. Trying to get the necessary rights in order to make it possible to use the laptop at home requires a PhD in IT knowledge.