Alcon reviews

3.7

68% would recommend to a friend

(2,521 total reviews)
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David J Endicott

77% approve of CEO

64% positive business outlook

Alcon has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 2,521 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Alcon employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Farmacéutica y biotecnología industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
1.0
Sep 6, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Met a small handful of good colleagues from the office, but they also have thoughts of leaving soon/are preparing to leave. - Provide company transport for employees (understandable as location is far)

Cons

- Reviews below are based on my experience and my colleagues experience in the office, not shopfloor. - Terrible company culture (very traditional, perhaps worse than SME, management believes in old ways of working). Malaysian culture, many Malaysians from the office. - HR department do not even have the background in their function, they all came from admin background, in short they are not qualified, but they can work in the function and slack away. Rude and disrespectful people with bad attitude. - Please do not be tricked by their certification - Great Place To Work. Do not believe what they tell you or sell you when they say it is a great place to work. It is not. They kinda forced employees to take the survey. Shall not reveal details; you will know how this is not a great place to work once you join the company. This opinion can be confirmed by new joiners (less than 2 months) as well as people who have stayed in the company for over 5 years and 10 years. If the company is really good, people will not share the same sentiments as me (at least 12 people). Advise not to join especially if you are in your 20s and 30s, dont waste your precious time. - Leadership team is made up of people in their 50s, 60s, some in mid 40s. Age is not an issue, the issue is these people have boomers mindset. Some can be rude and arrogant too just because they have stayed in the company for over 15 years. Some can disrespect your time and call for meeting at 5.30pm or 6pm. - The company and leadership team always talk about digital transformation and culture change, but amusingly they still prefer to be in their comfort zone and each do things their own ways, including the managers. They do not believe in new ways of working. What's the point to hire people or urge people to transform and make changes then? What a joke! - Some people here do not have the drive to excel, so if you are a bummer you can just stay here all the way and rot until retirement. It is really toxic based on the working attitude of the employees. - The work attitude of the employees here can be really toxic, they do not really care, they do not want to own projects, hence those projects are chuck aside with no progression. In short, there are SO MANY things in AML that have no real owners, whether project, or process, or little stuff. Many things do not have a workflow or SOP. You can determine how you want to do it - all you want. If a person left the company, the next person can do the way he/she wants it to be. It is a messy organization. - Although Alcon is a MNC, but in AML, the company operates like a family business, worse than SME. Slow paced environment. The funny thing is they think they are a fast paced big MNC company and are so proud. Yes, perhaps Alcon US offices are great, but not here. - High turnover rate - If you are hired to do job task ABCD, you will be told to do EFGHIJKLMNOP as well, and you won't be appreciated. - Employees here can be very delusional, including leadership team. Despite the turnover rate, they believe there is nothing wrong in their management and culture. In fact, they think they have a very good culture. Ha-Ha! - Little to no growth and progression. - This company likes to search for internal employees to fill up roles whenever someone left. But those people they get, some are people who dont have much experience or relevancy to the role. And they are accepted to do the job. And guess what happens after? - People who have put in efforts and hard work in their job are not promoted or recognized. People who slack away are promoted. - As much as they try to portray that they can accept WFH, no! The boomers really hate it. They'd rather see you physically in office doing nothing or drinking coffee, than let you do serious work in WFH mode. Strange bunch of people.

3.0
Jan 7, 2015

Invasion of the Novartis Body Snatchers

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Outstanding benefits under Alcon; unclear if this will continue with Novartis/Novartis Business Services and their "harmonization" process. That said, for the time being: * Excellent 401k matching and retirement account. * Once outstanding health insurance now downgraded to "pretty good" thanks to ACA adjustments * PTO and holidays are outstanding with an extra week off at end of year(betting we lose this week when "transitioned" to NBS) * Decent work/life balance, but that likely depends on the group you are in. * Onsite doctor saves time/hassle with minor doctor visits * Good-to-outstanding cafeteria, depending on how much Alcon/Novartis micro-manages their menu in the name of keeping us healthy. * Excellent on-site gym * Easy-to-get-to location if you live in Tarrant county * Good mix of people to work with if you aren't a Fort Worth-hating bigot like the idiot in an earlier review who seemed more interested in critiquing Fort Worth than Alcon.

Cons

You'd think with all the pros listed above, I wouldn't have anything to complain about, right? Wrong. There's a reason the benefits are so good - they wouldn't be able to keep most of their employees otherwise. * Heavily regulated industry creates impenetrable, needless overkill bureaucracy that crushes productivity, innovation, and any possibility of good morale. * No career path for non-management positions - either become a PM, or wait for your job to be sent to India. * The stagnant career mentioned above also translated into stagnant pay - laughable raises, if any, which do not keep up with the cost of living. * Unmet site goals used as an excuse to keep raises at laughable level. One could be the most motivated, productive employee of all time, but if the site you are at doesn't reach some unobtainable goal set by executive leadership, you get the same crappy raise or non-raise as any mediocre performing employee. * Constant "moving of the goal posts" when trying to comply with processes and procedures, as everyone seems to have a different interpretation of compliance requirements. * If your are in Finance, IT, or HR, have fun worrying about your future in 2015 as you become part of NBS - the new "service company" split off from Novartis under the veil of "enabling Novartis to focus on pharma". Translation - we're going to have more RIFFs, ship even more jobs to India, and probably just outright sell your position off to third party companies, turning you into contractors with little to no benefits. But thank you, former employee for your sacrifice and contribution to the success of Novartis! (They actually had the nerve to say something like this to survivors of the last mass layoff) Overall, it isn't horrible if you have no ambition and have the temperament to deal with a suffocating bureaucracy and stagnate career. Benefits are outstanding and it is generally a good place to work - you could do much worse than Alcon. However, the future under Novartis/NBS is unclear.

5.0
Jul 16, 2016

Positioning for success

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Alcon is on the road to winning in business and with its associates. It is an exciting time to be here.

Cons

Previous lack of innovation, but that is changing. Change can be tough for some and energizing for others. Alcon will reassert itself as a leader in medical surgery and eye care products.

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Alcon Response
9y
Thanks for your comment. We agree that it is an exciting time to be here! We love our associates and appreciate your support.
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