High turnover, poor leadership - Anonymous employee BioMarin Pharmaceutical Employee Review

On the flip side, I feel that many of the cons mentioned in previous reviews are true as well. It’s was difficult to write this, but I think it’s important to share my thoughts and experience. I also think it’s important this is shared openly. I’m not a perfect person, but I have a clear conscience and nothing to hide. I feel the organization has not or does not want to address some significant on-going issues. In my opinion, BMRN is a top heavy organization with a battle of haves and have nots being played out between management and individual contributors. Most of the management seemed to have no experience, process knowledge, or leadership skills. They just like to be in control and 'manage' people. Many in leadership positions were quick to blame others and even quicker at taking credit for successes. This created a situation of chronic work fatigue, low morale, and toxicity in many departments. Many managers seemed to gossip among each other instead of doing actual work. I felt that this facilitated the formation of many different cliques and a highly political work environment. It didn’t feel like many departments created, fostered, or cared about an environment of equity or inclusiveness. Promotion criteria didn’t seem transparent and seem based on favoritism instead of merit. Bad managers and non-performers were retained, shuffled around, or promoted. People with good work ethic or knowledge get work piled on them until they become stagnant, burn out, or leave. It felt like high performing individuals were asked to do the impossible on a non-stop basis. If somebody exhibited genuine likability and competence that threatened an insecure manager or previous questionable management decisions they would be put under pressure, gas-lighted and sabotaged. There seemed to be a lot of bullies in management and they are allowed to run amok, gang-up, bully, intimidate, and manipulate those who actually did the work and knew things. Bad and unethical behavior seemed to be present among many departments, especially ones within the tech ops umbrella. The bad behaviors range from subtle to blatant. Many managers seem to enjoy flexing power, exerting dominance, and engaging in abusive behavior towards others they felt were below their rank. In subtle cases, clear disrespect or bad behavior would occur, but the recipient would get the situation turned around on them and told they were too sensitive, couldn’t handle criticism, or were being unreasonable for calling it out. Because of the political environment and cliques, once the bad behavior and bullying started, it would just pile on. Attempts to establish boundaries would then have you labeled as “not being a team player” and further ostracization. It felt like others weren’t empowered to speak up or take action it was occurring. Even in more blatant cases, if bad behavior wasn’t related to an EEOC protected class with documented evidence, people (including HR) would turn a blind eye. I have watched several times as valued colleagues were forced to leave the company while working under a toxic boss. They would be left to stagnant in a position with no growth, constantly sabotaged, and also prevented from internal transfers. This includes myself, I left the company with serious mental health issues after years of being constantly overworked, bullied, disrespected, sabotaged, and thrown under the bus. I engaged HR in good faith, because it wasn’t possible for me to resolve issues on my own. I was expected to engage in good faith discussions and set boundaries with a bully and manipulator who was also my boss. HR was aware my boss had issues with respecting others. They acknowledged and agreed that my boss’s behavior didn’t meet the organization’s “expectations of leadership” (their words). But HR also allowed my boss to retaliate against me after they found out about my complaint about unprofessional behavior that had absolutely no place in a professional office environment. I was not able to transfer out of my job and was denied for other opportunities (even ones that were below my pay grade) despite having years of experience and an advanced degree. I went through months of added retaliation on top of the ongoing bullying, sabotage, and “discussions” with HR before I quit to escape that toxic situation and protect my own mental health. Over the past few years there have also been many surveys and multiple internal career development opportunities, re-orgs, or transformation type initiatives. Some departments have had consistently bad turnover rates for years. But concerns surrounding employee morale, career development, turnover, or bad actors don’t seem to get resolved. As a result, I feel that most of the issues are the result of an organizational or cultural issue.