Promega Reviews

The pay is low, and the raises are terrible. When you advance they base your raise on the average of that level, regardless of how long people on that level have been with the company. It's frustrating to see the CEO spend millions on art, landscaping, planes and trips to party; all the while getting paid a terribly low salary to make the products he uses to fund his image. There's no accountability; poor performers are protected by poor managers. You'll often hear "that's not my job" coming form departments who's responsibility is exactly what you're trying to get out of them. Managers avoid innovation because they don't want to take chances that something might not work, so they just tow the line for terrible ideas coming from their managers and directors. It's completely a top down company.

Promega has a difficult time getting rid of people in leadership who are toxic or ineffective. I'm aware of two who were the primary reason at least 10 really high performing people left the company and there were several more that were on the verge. That's unacceptable. The first was finally let go after much too long a process, despite constant and consistent feedback from his direct reports. The second is still there, and is easily the most toxic person I ever worked with. People universally talk about her with this sense of disbelief that someone so awful could still have a job. It's a problem, and it's amazing the company doesn't address it more promptly. The self-funded medical insurance is crazy expensive and doesn't cover as much as previous insurance did. Compensation is pretty lackluster, opportunities to move up are scarce, and the closer you get to working with Bill, the more you are at the mercy of his current opinions, which seem to change pretty frequently and often lead to people being let go. There's little sense that he trusts his leadership team, and he still operates in the details of entrepreneur mode rather than the vision of CEO mode. This whole thing with the Usona Institute is also fairly baffling that he allows there to be any obvious connection between Promega and a place that's exploring hallucinogenic drugs. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the company when he finally retires.