Idenix Pharmaceuticals Employee Review

Current Employee – been working at Idenix Pharmaceuticals

Pros – A very impressive resume of drug candidates have been developed here, and since it is small, there is generally no restriction to trying new things and helping in other areas to diversify your responsibilities. There are a lot of great minds and friendly people here, and the environment is like a big family rather than a bunch of strangers.

Cons – No corporate communication with employees means that even though the company is running out of money, we don't know if they are planning to initiate new programs, and we don't know the status of many of the current programs. Sometimes they even skip the "quarterly" meetings where we are given the only interaction with the CEO. We have no knowledge of forward-looking plans, and the rumor mill drives all knowledge of the state of the company. They use the poor cash situation as leverage to explain low salaries, and they never give out full annual bonuses, even though we have met and exceeded every corporate goal. They use money as an excuse for why they don't give out these bonuses, yet when the Executive Committee is awarded their bonuses, it's in full, and they accept them while telling us that the company is going through a "tough time" financially. This is a company that lives paycheck-to-paycheck and keeps its employees in the dark about what they plan to do to ensure another paycheck.

Advice to Senior Management – Provide transparency to your employees, resolve internal conflicts instead of ignoring them and hoping they will go away. Since the work environment is deteriorating under the weight of heavy quarterly losses and an uncertain future, offer retention packages after layoffs to the employees that you obviously find to be crucial. If we don't have the money, then reject your annual bonuses, or accept less to ensure that the company will prevail when money is tight. Make this company stand united, instead of making everyone feel isolated and like they have to prove themselves to remain employed. Currently there's a lot of back-stabbing and professional isolationism that is killing the environment, address this directly by rallying up everyone and ensuring them that we're all on the same team and will rise or fall together.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend