Avoid - Clinical/Regulatory Writer AstraZeneca Employee Review

Unclear processes or no processes at all. ‘Training’ entailed reading the processes, which per the aforementioned, equates to essentially no training at all. This lack of processes and inadequate training resulted in inefficiency due to time spent trying to figure things out. Work-life balance was a challenge due to unrealistic deadlines, which were driven by pressure from the top; this may be the nature of the competitive pharma industry and not unique to AZ though, but the lack of processes and inadequate training exacerbated the work-life balance problem. Compensation was low compared to competitors. Benefits were okay, but there are competitors who have similar or better benefits. RTO is a dicey topic for many companies post pandemic, but this company’s handling of it has to be one of the worst. The company could have provided a clear and reasonable RTO policy with clear expectations and an effective start date, but instead chose to approach RTO in an unclear, unfair, inflexible, shady, and dictator-like way with surprise bonus cuts and termination threats. Managers, department heads, and HR were even blindsided by the mishandling of RTO, and there was a scramble to clean up the messes of leadership. This revealed a dysfunctional, toxic work environment and a leadership that cannot be trusted and who does not care about their employees, and consequently there was a lot of turnover.