ICON reviews

To preface this, I was told by my manager that I was one of her best employees, yet I was never given a raise and ultimately was let go. ICON does not protect their employees in the slightest. The whole pitch they offer you is that you’ll have them to back you up and support you as you work with another company. Safe to say that is not accurate. Throughout my two years there, I experienced harassment and bullying from the Takeda side. I was told repeatedly by my ICON manager to stick it out because things are “always changing.” For the last 6 months at my job, I could feel the tides turning. I was being asked by Takeda to make workflows for all of my jobs. It was clear I was going to be let go. When I brought this to my ICON manager- repeatedly- I was dismissed every time. Well. I got let go. ICON had always promised there would be ample time on the bench to place me in another job if this was the case. Safe to say they couldn’t find anything for me. I interviewed, didn’t hear back for a solid week, and was told they were going in another direction and that was it. Out of a job with no severance. Everything I was told about job security and ICON “working for me” was completely inaccurate. Save yourself the pain.

Pretty much every job we get is a rush with no heads-up about it coming. The tasks I do as an editor (especially fact-checking) are difficult to rush, so it's stressful. Upper management is very focused on "productivity"--we're supposed to be billing the vast majority of our time to clients--but in reality, we sit with no work at times, then when we get work, are forced to rush and don't get to take the time we should. Account does not attempt to manage client expectations--they say yes to everything and don't bill extra for rush jobs. As a result, quality suffers, and we have lost a lot of our clients. Most of my close coworkers have been laid off in the last couple of years--many positions were moved to "lower-cost" countries. Other employees have left on their own. I was moved into a different division--new boss, new coworkers--which has also been stressful (though the coworkers have been compassionate and helpful!).