This is one of the worse companies I have ever worked for. Granted, I have not worked for many companies. Perhaps, coming from a great company to this place heightened the ridiculousness that is Alcon. In a space of 1 and half years, I had 3 managers. The first one who was great by the way, quit abruptly after a reorg placed her under someone she didn’t want to work for. The second manager I had was as clueless as they come and the last manager was terrible.
The team was very sexist/racist. There was a Caucasian team member who was seriously lagging behind. He literally had no idea what was going on 90% of the time. The manager of the team couldn’t be bothered. She literally babied him; however, the non-Caucasian members of the team were given a rough time when they fell short. There is no flexibility at all. They act like working from home is playing at home. News flash, when people work from home, they are actually working. Imagine an organization in 2017 that frowns upon IT working from home at select times. Complete ridiculousness. Even when you have a sick child, they expect you to come to the office.
My final manager was just terrible. She had no idea of what was going on and would never listen. She’d contradict every single thing you say to the business partners to the point that it just got sad. You could be an Information Specialist performing as a Lead and she will say too many people are top performers so I can’t give everyone a raise. She never really fully understood what managing people was. The rest of the team which consisted of men, who were flat out sexist. They would make very inappropriate sexist/racist jokes and I will just be in awe -thinking to myself, is this really an American workplace?
At this organization, there is no place to go but be stagnant. People are in the same position for years. By years, I mean at least 7 years. There are people who have been in the same role for over 12 years. No mobility at all and that is the culture they portray. The manager comes to meetings discussing personal developments or concerns about specific team members with other team members. There is no privacy whatsoever. Several team members quit the company because of the lack of mobility and because of the way this manager managed terribly.
You are expected to be on call, which was never communicated during the interview process. The kicker with this is the manager said to me: well but you have a nanny to look after your child, why can’t you be on call in the middle of the night. I didn’t know the nanny was supposed to raise my child. The lack of decency is appalling to say the least.
I mean, this is just a terrible company. No wonder Novartis doesn’t know what to do with them.
