SLOWLY becoming a better place for women and minorities - with caveats
Pros
Overall, Pfizer is doing amazing things in the world, and I am proud to work there. Kalamazoo is not a fantastic place to live, but the surrounding areas (within driving distance) are gorgeous. Though we are definitely still in the minority, I work with some amazing female colleagues here who I admire and take inspiration from. Women do try to be supportive of one another's careers in spite of being stuck in a difficult environment that changes very slowly. The culture of (physical) safety is on par with the best of the best, and might be one of the top safety cultures in the industry. Pfizer takes enormous pride in keeping all workers safe, and everyone does their part to maintain that safety every day. That's one of the things I admire most about the organization, and even the Kalamazoo site in particular.
Cons
Even though Pfizer is, overall, a great company with a modern outlook, Kalamazoo is still very much a working-class "good ol' boys" environment. Most of my male colleagues were fine, some were even great to work with. Unfortunately, it only takes one or two bad apples to create a hostile work environment. There were several in particular who decided to go after a young, single female contractor. It was awful. They were seeing who could get her in bed first, making bets. One of them started bragging that he succeeded, and there was some scary male aggression between the guys once she was "taken". One of the guys was fired, though I don't know if it was related to what happened. The female contractor became withdrawn and seemed depressed and then she eventually disappeared, not sure if she quit or got fired. I later found out that the same guys had been making comments and bets about me, too, but I am married, so thankfully I was less of a target. Another female contractor disappeared more recently without a word, so I'm not sure the situation is fully resolved. Also, the pay is good for Kalamazoo, especially now that I am in management, but not necessarily on par with other pharma companies. We are losing a lot of amazing people to retirement, and I think we are going to have to pay more to attract talent, especially with the on-site work requirements. Understandably, not everyone wants to relocate to Kalamazoo, Michigan. If we want to keep innovating and sustain our current business, we have to make some organizational changes.
