Pros
If you are going to join full time and are in your 30s, Roche is good. Good WFH policy, flexible hours for childcare, nice office, good coffee. Canteen food is bad though.
Pays well.
Cons
The attitude toward contractors at Roche is terrible. They are treated like second-rate colleagues, a resource to put work onto without being treated like real human beings. The contractors combined salary (4 of us) was actually publically shown in a meeting once labelled "costs"- indicating this mindset.
The attitude of the legal team in particular toward myself and other contractors at the company was appalling, even making comments like "if youre sick stay home, and even worse he's a (f word ing) contractor (followed by shared looks of digust and intolerance then a quick look of panic when they realised I was still sitting nearby)" Some contractors worked there for nearly a year and a half and others, in a team of 19, who pride themselves on having friendships outside of work and caring so much about each other they cry with passion in team meetings about each other's work prospects ( somehow a real story) , couldn't tell you the contractors names in 5 guesses. There is little compassion or personal attention given that is truly genuine- any acts of kindness are all face value to keep you on task and focused. Don't get me wrong, this is the same with alot of workplaces, but at Roche they pride themselves on being inclusive, friendly and like a big family and that dogma is so persistently reinforced that it makes the real-life behaviour of colleagues pale in comparison. This is further hypocritical given the toxic complaining you will hear in every meeting about how another function in the business are useless and/or incompetent.
The average age of the company is around 35-45 in my experience, so if you are a graduate coming into the role as a contractor you may make connections with other colleagues, but those that are FTE and significantly older will treat you as an inferior dullard. The training provided is terrible, and do not expect any compassion from managers or leadership if you are struggling with a task due to poor training- they will basically tell you to figure it out and suck it up.
There is also a member of the team that has made racist, sexist and suggestive remarks as well as displaying microagressive, overly flirtatious, borderline bullying practices in the work place, saying things that you couldn't say 10 years ago, let alone now. Even after being reported, he is passed off as the office clown with little challenge and apologised for with little personal culpability. If that doesn't strike you as problematic, I'm not sure what will.
In essence, if you're a contractor, stay well clear- it pays well but it's honestly not even worth it.
