Aquestive Reviews

2.8

39% would recommend to a friend

(64 total reviews)

Keith J. Kendall

58% approve of CEO

43% positive business outlook

Aquestive has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 64 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Aquestive employee rating is 20% below average for employers within the Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

64 reviews
1.0
8 Jan 2016

The Truth

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There are no pros to employment within this organization unless you enjoy being a thoughtless minion to serve at upper managements every request including long hours and weekend work scheduled like everything else, last minute.

Cons

As a current manager with MonoSol Rx I wanted to put some truth and perspective to some of the posts found here about the organization. While it can certainly be assumed that most of the negative posts found here were written by disgruntled former employees that have chosen to leave or have been terminated by the organization for one reason or another. It also can certainly be assumed that some of the statements made by these individuals are undoubtedly true. As a current member of the management team I would like to share my perspective on MonoSol Rx. In a recent post by a fellow manager a statement was that reflected the attitude of colleagues indicating that they were dependable and understood the meaning of the word TEAM. Other statements were made about potential growth within the organization and hard work goes a long way and is recognized. I have a completely different perspective on these statements and the "manager" that wrote them should probably stop sampling the medication. As for the colleagues being dependable and understanding the meaning of the word Team, this is a true statement. The hourly colleagues are dependable for the most part. The management colleagues are very dependable. You can depend on them being in closed door meetings and unavailable to hourly colleagues for leadership and support. You can depend on them to point fingers and quickly assign blame for their short-comings. You can depend on management to make poor decisions and you can certainly depend on them to destroy morale, create controversy and drama. The word TEAM by definition at MonoSol Rx means "I don't want to do this and someone else will carry my weight". It absolutely does not mean let's work together to make the outcome the best it can be. The possibility for potential growth within the organization largely depends on the amount of unemployed friends upper management knows that may be interested in the available position. While this isn't true of every position, it happens more than one might expect. This organization will go out of its way to find reasons why you are not qualified for the position rather than invest a little time and effort into continuously improving and training their current work force to be able to fill future needs. This leads to the next statement that hard work goes far and is recognized. A true statement, if it implies that recognition means an occasional Starbucks gift card. Otherwise the organization employs a Janet Jackson philosophy with a "What Have You Done for Me Lately" approach. In truth the outlook of this organization is disappointing and shameful. What a waste of a great technology. Upper management can't seem to find their way around their own arrogance to get out of their own way. A complete waste of a vehicle that inspires the improvement of others well-being. The focus should be on continuously improving that vehicle, instead it is wasted on building a multitude of lies and deceptions. The "Leadership Team", which for all intents and purposes should rename themselves the "Lack of Leadership Team", seems to be more concerned with brainwashing the colleagues with fallacies of an open, honest and transparent work environment than it is in leading and mentoring some of the bright minds that exist within the organization. They believe that success is found through ethics, integrity, and morals. This is not a bad concept if they practiced the concept in day to day activities. Sadly, the reality is that dishonesty and deception spews from the mouths of every member of upper management. The constant dishonesty has led to the fact that upper management themselves no longer realize the truth. Ethics, integrity, and morals are non-existent and the entire organization is fabricated on a structure of lies and deception. Senior Management continuously deceives its employees without fear because their arrogance allows them to feel as though they are of superior intelligence and that no colleague has the intelligence to challenge them. Sadly, those that do challenge the often brain dead ideas and objectives , realizing they will contribute to confusion, disorganization, and are not likely to set the "TEAM" up for success, find themselves dismissed from the organization. Senior Management has little to no experience in a true manufacturing environment and are willing to gamble the livelihood of their colleagues and investors on their deceptive tactics and inability to make educated decisions. What a dismal approach to management and leadership. The writing is on the wall, an extremely lucky organization to this point, it will catch up and be catastrophic when it does. My advice to anyone seeking employment here would be to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction so that you are not sucked into the cavitation of a sinking ship.

1.0
10 Nov 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

1. It's a pharmaceutical company. There aren't many of these in northwest Indiana. 2. It's in northwest Indiana. For Hoosiers, its a much shorter commute than to Chicago. 3. Their product pipeline is exciting. Warning: their commercial business is limited to ONE product line. But the delivery of the product is very exciting: you place a medicated strip in your mouth and it disolves into your bloodstream. This may get you excited about working here, but DON"T do it. Not worth it. Wait until a real company buys them out and encourages the top dogs to leave with a handsome monetary incentive.

Cons

1. Top leadership is in New Jersey. They don't know the facts. They get to hear only what is told to them by a select few who happen to be greasy, unethical cowards who have, unfortunately, learned to become very politically savvy. (Watch Out! You may be their next scape goat.) 2. Manufacturing is VERY INEFFICIENT. This, I think, is the root of all evil at MonoSol RX. All groups supporting manufacture of products is EXTREMELY WEAK (operations, engineering, maintenance, R&D, product transfer, training, human resources, technical services and quality). 3. When in doubt, DEFLECT! Instead of identifying real project improvements within their own groups, the department leaders deflect the negative attention onto a scape goat. For example, say you had 30 hours of downtime last week mostly due to the use of non-optimized process parameters, machine breakdowns with no replacement parts in stock, and operator delays and errors. Let's also say that 2 of those hours (6.7%) were due to the lack of organization by manufacturing supervisors and delays due to excessive quality inspections. 30 hours of downtime is a lot of downtime! Well, guess who the Portage top dogs want to put on final written warning? Technical Transfer / Engineering, right? No. Maintenance? No. Operations? Training? No & No. They will and have always CONTINUOUSLY attacked with vengence the low hanging fruit - the group that did their job correctly but caused minor delays due to multi-tasking between two manufacturing facilities. This, my friends, did not only happen when I worked here, but also for YEARS before. See #4 below. 4. Manufacturing is SO BAD that instead of initiating improvements in that area, manufacturing required a QUALITY counterpart to serve as back-up for their Manufacturing Supervisor. The Quality Supervisor is ultimately responsible for the performance of operations, and NOT the Manufacturing Supervisor to which the employees directly report into. Yes, my friends, the Quality group must prevent all issues, optimize all issues, remediate all issues -- and without any delays. With an inefficient company such as MonoSol RX, there is no room for delays by Quality. 5. OMG - I forgot to mention that if you are hired to be an operator or supervisor, say goodbye to LIFE. They have been working 7 days a week, EVERY WEEK, for almost 2 years now. Ask them about their "5 day workweek" -- they will tell you "we work 5 days a week, plus 2 on the weekends". They laugh about it, but it's no joke, people. This is MANDATORY overtime. And if you are unfortunate enough to be a salaried employee (supervisor), you DON'T get paid for the extra hours. (Don't listen to their spin - they'll spin it every which way - it's a fact.) 6. It makes sense that the Quality group has had ~20 changes in top leadership in the last 9 years, right? There would be MUCH more if you included the Quality supervisors? Who could be successful in a company designed specifically and intentionally to ruin you? Deming and Juran are rolling over in their graves. 7. Lastly, they cultivate a culture of fear. Operators and supervisors are so scared to make a mistake & get fired, supervisors are expected to implement this culture of fear by writing operators up for mistakes that could easily be justified as a deficiency in the process or procedure. Instead of owning up to a mistake, people point fingers to DEFLECT! Why wouldn't they? That's how they survive in a culture of fear.

1.0
21 Jan 2015

Employed at Monosol Rx for several years...

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

1. It`s a pharmaceutical company in N.W. Indiana. Only one of it`s kind in the area. 2. Very exciting new way to administer pharmaceutical products. Similar to breath strips, it is placed on the tongue and dissolves into the bloodstream therefore greatly reducing the possibilities for abuse. 3. Clean work environment.

Cons

Top leadership located in New Jersey, hundreds of miles away from the actual production facility. This makes it easy for the on site supervisors to treat them like mushrooms (keep them in the dark and feed them bull feces.) They wish to portray an atmosphere of sweetness and light where every day is a holiday and every meal is a feast. Well friends, sorry to say, this is just not the case. When the sad but true reality is dragged out into the harsh light of day, it is an atmosphere of favoritism, fear, animosity and deflection. Lower level supervision continuously threaten the hourly employees with write ups and other disciplinary actions up to and including termination for mistakes that actually stem from weaknesses in the entire manufacturing processes and procedures. Therefore, hourly employees carry out their daily tasks as if the Sword of Damocles were hanging over their heads. They are terrified of losing their jobs, and as a direct result of this, are afraid to make any kind proactive moves right,wrong or indifferent. Supervisors (this group of inept,unethical and incompetent individuals..please stand up and take a bow, you know who you are) think nothing of treating people just like pawns in a game of chess and moving them around regardless of job title,standing in the company or seniority. And if they have to get someone fired to make an open spot for them to get their friends or neighbors a job, these sleazy individuals apparently have no problem doing that either. (I have seen it happen with my own 2 eyes) But wait! Believe it or not... it gets even better. That`s right folks, don`t touch that dial! They nurture what I like to call a (head in the sand) mentality. By that I mean they tell employees to do things a certain way and when they are called out for those actions, instead of owning up to their own lack of leadership, they deflect by saying "Oh i was not present when it happened or OMG I can`t believe that person is such an idiot. But regardless, the higher ups want someone`s head on a pike so at that point they choose a scapegoat and when that occurs, it`s only a matter of time. It`s like swimming with sharks, you know you`re going to be attacked and eaten.. you just don`t know when. By this mentality, I have personally seen more then a few EXCELLENT employees "thrown under the bus" and literally left for dead. Sorry to say, but this type of thing will continue to perpetuate itself until the individuals in charge are made to be held accountable for their actions(or lack thereof). And sadly, the company as a whole will never see it`s full potential because the folks in charge are asleep at the wheel. But SHHHH! don`t tell New Jersey. That would be a bad thing. Let`s talk about the work schedule for a quick second. If you`re hired as a machine operator or packer, kiss you`re life goodbye. More often than not, you`ll be working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you want to take any vacation time(provided they ALLOW you to take your OWN vacation time) you are responsible for finding coverage for your shift. A responsibility that should be handled by..(you guessed it) supervision or at least a scheduling supervisor. But yet again,these people shirk their responsibilities in favor of trying to be "drinkin and bike ridin buddies" with the plant manager (keep you`re friends close ect. ect.) The "training program" I use the term loosely, basically consists of nothing more then being told to read literature pertaining to a particular process, signing off on the literature..and that`s it! You are considered "trained" with literally no hands on or other type of instruction.Due to this lacksadaisical approach toward training,it`s no small wonder that when the time comes to implement said training, coating scientists and operators are hesitant and afraid to actually perform said tasks for fear of repercussions like loss of employment. Manufacturing and production processes literally change daily. Sometimes even between 8 hour shifts! There is no resemblance of continuity in these processes. It is literally up to the quality supervisors who by the way, are ultimately responsible for the performance of operations and NOT the manufacturing supervisor and THAT my friends is why during my tenure at MonoSol Rx, I saw no less than 12, yes your eyes do not deceive you I said 12 quality supervisors come and go or as management is so quick to call it.."moving on to explore other opportunities". Oh what a blessing to have such a superb handle on the vernacular huh?? When mixing and coating issues result in the loss of product, there is actually a sort of arguement" among on site supervision as to who will let the corporate office know what happened. Again, they try to present the false facade that everything is just hunky dory at good `ole MonoSol Rx. It is this "smoke and mirrors" approach that will inevitably lead to the company`s downfall. Communication is almost non-existent between floor supervision and production which is responsible for 99 and 9/10ths per cent of daily issues. They are quick to open their pie holes to criticize but not so much with the whole communication thing. Let`s touch on recordable machine down time. During a manufacturing run, if problems occur such as mechanical failure due to a broken part,because of lack of organization by manufacturing supervisors or no replacement parts, do they look to improve those gaps in the process? Of course not! They relentlessly and continuously attack the operators with final written warnings, termination ect. Yep folks you guessed it..(the beatings will continue until morale improves) In closing, MonoSol Rx as a whole is quite the literal circus of disfunctionality. The right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing and coupled with the fact that it is being run by a group of people that could not find their behinds with both hands and a map, No, I do not believe that I would recommend working there. As a matter of fact, as I read these words and relive some of those moments, I firmly believe I would rather crazy glue my tongue to a fast moving bus.....

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Glassdoor has 66 Aquestive reviews submitted anonymously by Aquestive employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Aquestive is right for you.