Not perfect, but an ok place to work - Anonymous employee AbbVie Employee Review

3.0
Jul 13, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Motivated (and really nice) colleagues, excellent science, competitive salaries. Good collaboration across sites.

Cons

Too much bureaucracy, even at the Redwood City site. Individuals and teams are not empowered to Few opportunities to advance once you've hit the "glass ceiling". Poor work/life balance - employees are overwhelmed by the amount of work to do. Company has down-sized but did not reduce group's performance expectations, which is not sustainable long-term. Company uses a lot of contract employees instead of hiring full-time employees, which harms morale and culture.

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5.0
Jun 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great place to work. Competitive salary and benefits.

Cons

It has been a great experience for me.

1.0
Jul 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Big Pharma Name Recognition: Having Allergan/AbbVie on your resume provides industry visibility.

Cons

Extreme Governance & Bureaucracy: Allergan is paralyzed by red tape. There are far too many governance layers just to get basic regulatory strategies vetted out. Flawed Compliance Infrastructure: Product approvals are heavily dependent on documentation. However, current records are completely inadequate. Management fundamentally fails to understand how these systems are interlinked. Unqualified & Absentee Leadership: The leader with department oversight completely lacks the expected knowledge and experience for this level, making her a massive liability. She is rarely in the office but knows exactly how to work the system. She aggressively pushes for unnecessary, in-person regulatory meetings solely to accumulate personal travel points rather than to mitigate actual business risks. Disastrous Transition Management: The leadership transition wreaked total havoc across the department. Negligent HR Department: HR shows zero interest in investigating why good talent is leaving the company. Alarming Job Security Signs: It is a massive red flag when a leader encourages employees to apply for roles entirely unrelated to their expertise, or receiving automated AI notifications about job openings outside your department.

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