• First and foremost, the company’s leadership does not keep its promises. I was lied to about on-boarding time of 7 weeks (it was 0), contractual non-discretionary bonus pay-outs (the VP, not even my FM, ended up scheduling a meeting with “Good News” – no agenda – unexpectedly one morning to inform me I wouldn’t be getting any non-discretionary bonus and would instead get a discretionary bonus of about ~35% of what I’d get otherwise), and career development (my FM ghosted me for 6+ weeks after I asked for a promotion and after verbally committing to sharing evaluation criteria with me; did not respond to emails, meetings, etc.) All of this despite a High Performer rating and countless positive reviews and feedback from both sponsor and internal Syneos colleagues to the equivalent of being “one of the best in my role they’ve ever worked with.”
• The company’s functional managers, at least many of the ones I encountered (my own included) are the most incompetent and unprofessional individuals I’ve had the displeasure of working with. My FM had no knowledge of clinical study processes and best practices, did not understand or know where my clinical studies stood and blurted out nonsense (to the point of thinking one of my well-managed projects was about to be canceled), and offered limited to no support during controversy or difficult situations.
• The existing Executive Directors and some of the newly hired Project Directors are not knowledgeable about clinical studies or assigned work, are rude (“shoot first, ask questions later,” shouting and not giving you an opportunity to speak, shutting down any process improvement ideas or preventing you from exploring career growth opportunities), and incredibly useless. I only had the brief fortunate experience of working with 1 high-performing Executive Director out of ~8 I’ve met. On numerous occasions the Executive Directors would blame me for a mistake I did not commit or warn me of not doing a certain activity I’d never in my life think of doing and never have. Again – despite years of High Performer / Outstanding performance ratings (inclusive of within the company)! It was absolutely ludicrous and highly unprofessional. The pointless micro-management is real.
• The IT systems, especially the dashboard visualization system they use, are awful. They are a waste of valuable time. One system was so slow and error-prone it would take you hours to make minimal administrative updates that should take minutes. IT support is non-existent. Process improvement ideas are ignored unless you advocate aggressively.
• There is pervasive abuse of the Unlimited PTO / Sick Leave policy by FTLs / SMEs. Numerous assigned FTLs on my clinical studies would do their utmost to avoid doing any work, decline meetings at the last moment, or push back claiming that the activities were not their responsibilities. Self-starters were rare. There were no repercussions despite FM involvement and numerous escalations (verbal and written) to leadership. One FTL constantly complained, challenged leadership, and did not keep commitments agreed-to in writing (this is an individual Syneos leadership in their brilliance promoted only 6 months prior). The quality of the FTLs for a CRO is sorely lacking, with any High Performers quickly moving on.
• Promotions are so discriminatory and non-merit based that it’s amusing. Numerous incompetent individuals are promoted due to tenure with the company. Obviously, this forces any new individuals or overlooked High Performers to leave… and creates a self-sustaining system of high turnover and over-cocky, unprofessional, and low performing leaders as the “core” of the company. After all, if your talent leaves, who is left?
• There is no life-work balance if you are conscientious and want to do a good job. You can either be one of the “low performers” barely holding down a job through aggressive tactics (abuse of sick leave, constant complaints and threats against your managers, push back on work and forcing the work unto your colleagues, etc.) or be over-burned and under-appreciated. I constantly had to work evenings and nights because of non-performing colleagues and excessively pointless senior leadership expectations, which were not at all aligned with the priorities of the clinical studies.
• Syneos DOES NOT UNDERSTAND the meaning of “Admin Support Staff.” Standard organizations such as IT, Contracting, Admin / System Support, Trusted Process Facilitators, centralized Project Associates/Specialists, etc. would constantly be either unreachable or forcing the admin work back unto the clinical study teams. Some of the Trusted Process Facilitators did their utmost to sabotage my presentations intentionally (why do you even hold Quick Start Camps, Syneos? The sponsor could care less and it’s a giant waste of time for your teams).
• There is NO process improvement initiatives that are tolerated. Management will “slap your hand” if you dare to question existing SOPs, WIs, templates, or processes even though they are so clearly NOT working! You either do as you’re told… or I guess you leave!
• The turnover is very high – I’ve had SMEs / FTLs leave and not have any back-fills ready or replacements available despite weeks if not months of notice. At the same time as my leaving, ~3-5 other colleagues had left.
