shipping and receiving clerk

intern

senior engineer

manufacturing engineer

quality engineer

Alcon

Some of the ratings I see here I suppose aren't exactly for the most part describing my experience as an assembler so I'll start off with what's obvious; some few minor ups and downs, then get into a lot more detail with my star ratings.  A few ups to mention is there is a nice cafeteria, a decent food concession, and free coffee...that is it...a few minor downs is that it takes a solid 5 minutes to walk from the work place to the cafeteria on a 15 minute break, and that is only if you are walking as humanely fast as possible.  On Fridays, it's even worse because the cafeteria is closed during 30 minute breaks.  You first have to clock out, then walk at a racing pace to the parking lot, then unlawfully speed to the nearest fast food place, get food (hopefully before anyone else), speed back, then if you're lucky, you'll have five minutes to eat.  So to avoid all that, just bring your own lunch.  However, should you decide to bring your lunch, you'll have to store it in a fridge with everyone else's, good luck with that.  I don't exactly know if anyone has had any problems with storing their lunch with everyone else's.

Welp, that's the minor stuff.  Moving on:

Job Culture: I've rated 2 stars:
The atmosphere I feel from the majority of everyone there is pretty stressful partly in fault of most supervisors' leadership style, but mostly the employees for having bad attitudes.  dn near everyone there is a temp, except for people who've been working there for at least a minimum of up to 6 months have been promoted to permanent employees of Alcon.  I've seen some hard working people work there for over 12 months and still are temps so yes there is favoritism at play here.  As for the leadership style I've witnessed there, they prefer to impose negative enforcement which is okay (I do however prefer a positive motivational atmosphere).  Quota is dn near impossible to meet, and that's definitely due to horrible attitudes I've witnessed there, and on top of that, supervisors are definitely not helping as far as incentivizing team work especially since it is an environment where team work is critical thus I do heavily put blame on supervisors.  As supervisors, they are in a leadership position.  Part of being a leader is motivating people.  Negatively or positively, it doesn't actually matter how you motivate, just so as long as they as leaders can meet their standards in which they fail to do so on a weekly basis. If I could rate leadership, I'd rate 0 stars.  The majority of temps are there just to go through the motions to have a job (in other words, they just plain don't give a).  My philosophy is that attitude is a choice, no matter how lousy your first line leader is.  The turn around rate is kinda high.  Lot of people quit, and a lot of people got terminated.

Management: 3 stars.
It'd be 1 star less if it wasn't for the most senior manager in direct charge of the temps' first line leaders and another supervisor who'll I'll mention shortly.  When mistakes are made, he addresses it and discusses simple actions to take to prevent them in the future.  He doesn't talk down to subordinates.  His subordinates; the temps first line supervisors however, if I could explain it with another word in addition to how I've aforementioned them in the previous paragraph....sexism.  The ladder climbing process of what I've observed is that employees climb the ladder through recognition and consideration of supervisors.  All first line supervisors except for the manager are females.  Furthermore, supervisors have the authority to place temps in minor authoritative roles, and of course all that were chosen were all females which personally despite sexism wouldn't be much of a problem for me if they could've at least placed someone without a language barrier, a bad attitude, and incompetence in these roles.  What ticked me off most is being told to work faster by temps and superiors who work half as fast as I, and having to correct their false corrections towards me time after time by showing them a very simple to read layout of the assembly.  Oh and I forgot to mention that when it comes to punctuality, they absolutely love to enforce double standards.  I think by giving this section three stars is being kind.  I do give three stars though because there's at least one female supervisor who has gave me recognition and moving me to a different area filling a position designated for those who are vigilant.  That made all the difference for me while working there.  Therefore if you catch the right person's eye as a male, sexism won't be an issue for you.

Job Security/Advancement: 3 stars
I haven't really any input as far as job security.  Advancement however, all input I can really give is having the potential to make it into a permanent position from a temp after 6 months.  This however is not guaranteed.  Observably, (much emphasis on "observably") if you're a female with a sub-par work ethic, you're more likely to have preference to a permanent position to a male with an exceptional work ethic.  Not trying to be resentful, I'm doing nothing more than to give the my utmost, utterly honest review to inform people of my experience and or what to expect if things there haven't changed.

Compensation/Benefits: 3 stars
I think even for temps, they do offer medical and dental after a deductible figure I can't quite recall.  It mattered not to me because I already had a better health and dental plan at the time.  As for pay compensation, starting is at $10/hr which would only be okay if you're single.  If you're lucky enough to get a permanent position, from what I hear, they'll give you a $3 raise after 6 months however, considering the issues I've mentioned, would it really be worth it?

Job Work/Life Balance: 4 stars
The position is full time and does enforce overtime hours.  For the most part while I was there, they gave us weekends off, and from time to time had to work weekends.

Overall rating: 3 stars
In summary, I wouldn't say it's an absolutely bad place to work.  It does have it's ups and downs.  Management could be a lot better.  I think it could be a lot better if people were to actually address these issues when they administer anonymous surveys for temps to have the opportunity to do so.  Problem is, most of everyone has a bad attitude and would rather not address any issues.  On that note, management can help this if they would only realize that in their position, they can actually influence morale.  Should anyone decide to work here, or anywhere for that matter, it is what you make of it.  Despite everything I've mentioned, I decided leave simply because better opportunity was knocking at the door and I took it.  I could have stayed for 6 months to a year or however long it would've took to get a permanent position, but decided it wasn't worth it.

Straight from the jump when I was hired I was given my insurance policies, 401k, PTO, etc. the workplace is pretty good, very relaxed and you can sit down most of the shift, I’d say 80% of the shift most days. The breaks are flexible and long, like hour+. Not to mention I haven’t had a single day where I didn’t get 2 breaks per shift. I’m the facilities there are cafeterias, gyms, vending machines, ice cold water machines, and free coffee/tea machines. Some of the people have attitudes but you find that everywhere and it seems like it’s far less here. I carry on great conversations and have made good friendships with just about everyone in my section. They also allow tattoos and dyed hair which is nice. I have many co workers with visible tattoos that don’t have to be hidden or covered up. The pay is pretty good for what the work is. This is the easiest job I’ve ever had and unlike previous jobs I actually don’t mind coming to work. They have team building days where you go out with your whole section and go somewhere fun and just have a good time whether that be a cookout, pool party, or whatever. If you work hard and prove yourself you will move up in the company rather quickly. Since I’ve been here I’ve seen more temps be hired to full time than let go. I myself received 3 raises and most recently a promotion with a raise in only 8 months of working here. As I said if you’re there to work and be productive you will have many many opportunities to move up and from my experiences the supervisors actually want you to progress and seem care about you. They will also pay up to a certain amount of tuition yearly for you to go to school and develop new knowledge to achieve a position higher in the company. You also get free contacts every year and discounts on eye sight correction surgery. They also have daycare discounts and health sections in the facility. I would honestly say my only cons of working here are that:  1. In some areas you have to wear a lab coat (my section) and it’s a controlled environment so it makes sense, just a nuisance and can get a little warm sometimes. 2. The cafeteria is not open at nights most of the time. 3. Day shift is a little snobby sometimes and more strict.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Premium brands and innovation. Customer facing and front line management is stellar. Good training. Senior leadership is cut throat. They say they want inclusion and a speak up culture, but these are the people they exit from the company regardless of stellar performance. It is very much a good old boy culture and a yes man culture. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
It is a selling organization. When Alcon spun off from Novartis and created an IPO, it is bottom dollar P&L company. Be mindful of this and keep your resume up to date as this is a company you will not retire with.  Personally, I was at 130% of objective with almost 20 years of tenure. They do not keep high performers who care about the company, make good money for their efforts, and provide honest feedback. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Good old boy club. Be political versus honest. If you want to grow in the company, results really do not matter. It’s about building your network. Try not to stay in the same role more than two years. What ever you do, be leery of being a high performer. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It depends on the role. In sales, It has a great call point. You will call on 6-10 accounts a day. These doctors and staff want to see and engage with you. Front line manager interactions are stellar and the field sales team is awesome. Customer care teams are responsive. If you are an elevated leader, you have a lot of meetings and are selling more internally vs externally. Very political and a lot of meetings that accomplish very little. IT annd systems teams are over seas and very difficult to work with.  In all, it’s a good company to work for, but it is not a perfect world there. Good products.

Alcon's Culture has created an unfair work environment for those who do not speak the lingo. I watched new Asian associates that would that would get much more help training and explanation in there own tongue than I received while I was starting, I was kind of left as (sink or swim). Also, when you have an English speaking Caucasian training other employees that don't really have a grasp on English, its very difficult and frustrating to have to go over information 3 times over. I worked over two years at Alcon and was amazingly surprised to find Documentation errors on a product line that had been released for over Ten ( 10 ) years. It wasn't a critical error, but it is something that is easily corrected, and it never got done. A lot of Alcon's manufacturing hang ups is do to process and procedures that need to be written  and worded differently. Example: Cycle Count, your process states that the individual who enters the data into the computer, is the person who does the actual count. So when assigned cycle counters come to work in the morning they will distribute the cycle counts to other employees to count and give them back results. Then the Permanent Associate inputs the data. Now with the heads up that an Auditor will be in the area the assigned cycle counter will have everybody help him early in the morning, and save 2 or 3 cycle counts for the Auditor, so they can tell them and say they follow the procedure all the way through, when its actually not there normal Daily practice. I could go on but I think that I have brought up plenty for Management to chew on. Also you cant tell Temp's that they can buy raffle tickets to support whatever, and tell them that they are not eligible for the winnings if picked. Pretty down grading

They hired me as a contractor.  Within a few months of my working with them they let one of the key team members go and gave me his responsibility in the project.  Not only did they not adjust my status or compensation but they did not even change the expectations of the project timeline.  All in all a lot of the people I have worked with are nice and friendly.  There are a few bad apples that seem to be rather prejudice towards contractors and really did not want much of anything to do with us.  The method of management and hiring is just absurd though.  I had my division manager (my bosses boss) screaming like a child in a group meeting.  He was berating one of our project managers because he didn't like how the format of a slide was.   He almost made her cry and had to have a subordinate step in to defuse the situation.  I believe that we may have even had some complaints to HR on the matter.  All in all it was VERY inappropriate for a multi-national corporation meeting and I would be very ashamed to be his boss.  As for hiring goes they will string you along as long as they can.  I have watched a number of contractors be told they were the Subject Matter Expert in a field just to then not have the contract renewed the following month.  While on the other side of things I have seen contractors that have failed at the project at hand get promoted into a full time role.  It seems like its more about who you know then what you know.  It also seems like no one really knows how to work with the system or company to get internal information.  I asked several times from my manager for assistance in several matters concerning how the company operates and I was not directed to an SOP or anything.  I was instead told that they would look into it and get back to me, several times.  I eventually just had to go ask random people with in the company to attempt to resolve my concerns and delays.

The benefits of working at Alcon are quite good.  The compensation includes, for territory managers, a company fleet vehicle with gas card provided as well as insurance and the cost of any maintenance or repairs.  The 401k plan is matched up to 6% with an additional 7% provided by Novartis regardless of amount you contribute individually.  Health benefits include medical, dental and vision.  The work requirements have increased over the years as higher and higher levels of productivity have been extracted from the employed base of service engineers.  Cross training among the many surgical platforms has enhanced job security, but deteriorated home life and free time beyond the 8 - 5 work schedule.  In addition to the expectations of working as a field engineer, much more has been migrated to the field from the corporate office to take care of what was formerly administrative functions carried out by the service support centers.  This added burden of time requirement does not contribute to "productivity" and is simply required as a part of the territory managers new, re-defined, job requirements.  This has made retention of new and older territory managers very difficult to maintain.

Co-workers are supportive and offer a team approach to solving customer service needs in a timely fashion.

Most enjoyable part of the job is the satisfaction of successfully repairing equipment so that the customer can be fully up and productive in serving their customers.  

The hardest part of this job is the additional hours beyond a full work day required to finish administrative tasks required.

As it mentions, they offer great pay and benefits, co-workers can provide a great environment and support resources.

For the cons the bureaucracy is outrageous, and I had originally started off in house and transferred to the field.  I couldn't get the actual offered salary for the position due to being an Alcon employee and they could only give me time and a half of my current salary for the position.  In other words, say a position starts off at 75000 a year and you currently make 25000 a year, they wont start you off at the starting rate of the new position or even 65-70k per year.  They will tell you we can only raise your income to around 41.7k a year, even though you're well qualified for the position and the manager wants to hire you.  Basically to say, they treat transferring to a different department and position as a "raise" and not accepting a whole new position.  They will tell you afterwards they'll try to "catch" you up to where you're supposed to be, but when you're raises are basically capped to 2% per year...it'll never happen.  Also, reviews and bonuses are rated for things out of your control, eg. software errors, parts being added to your inventory virtually even though it wasn't ordered or received, customer reviews in regards parts availability for repairs, which effect our yearly reviews, is out of a field engineers control, but we're still graded on it.

I was hired to work here from a 3rd party recruiter as a contractor for a Project Management position recently out of college. The pay was well at first and my responsibilities were clear from the beginning, however, the workload started to pile up (management began to implement tedious paper work) and there was no change in pay. The process to get projects approved by "upper-management" took a ridiculously long time and they were the same people "pushing" our team to get these projects done. The work was not hard at all, but I feel like the people in "upper-management" don't care and they don't even bother to share their feedback on projects during meetings until after the projects are complete and it the project is not to their "liking". There was a lot of unnecessary "back and forth" between the project management team and quality control/assurance - there was no clear "process/protocol" to follow which lead to both sides being confused and stressed with one another. This is just due to lack of training and communication.

A few extra "downsides" as a contractor here are that you cannot park "onsite" (you have to park on the street or in a reserved parking lot and take a shuttle), you don't get any of the company benefits, there is no room for growth (why else would they hire a contractor aka temporary worker) and lastly, lack of recognition.

I worked at ALCON-John's Creek and it is unfortunately a mirage.  It is built up to be an awesome place to work with state of the art equipment but with the current supervisors and managers, they kill the vibe.  If you're GREAT at what you do, you're going to be bullied because advancement is so tight.  From that point the feeling of being alone sinks in.  The starting pay needs to be higher because of how difficult it is to advance.  If you're coming into ALCON as an Electromechanic Technician, negotiate the pay you want.  Once hired on there's no guarantee of any raises.  My starting pay was $25.70 per hour.  Staying in Atlanta, that kind of pay is mediocre.  I figured the knowledge I would acquire by working on the new PLC programs they have would help compensate, but they already have people that works on programming.  So all in all, it's a great atmosphere to work in, but once you walk through the doors, you're on your own...no training, no tools, and if you're an outstanding tech, you'll be faced with many obstacles while trying to move up.  If anyone interested in an electromechanic position at the John's Creek facility, the grass isn't always greener on the other side if you're looking for greener pastures.  But if you're just starting off in this field, it would be an awesome first gig to learn and start your resume off right.

It's been a few years since I was part of the Alcon Communications department, so it's very possible that things have changed since I left in May 2014.

The biggest challenges I faced were:
* Poorly communicated and constantly shifting stakeholder expectations, time lines and priorities
* Daily or weekly brush fires that required large portions of the team to drop everything and address the immediate issue, regardless of its ROI or importance to the business
* Poor management / feedback methodology. The few times I received constructive criticism the issue(s) at hand had festered to the extent that the feedback from management often came out sounding like a personal attack. 
* No effort to utilize and cultivate the talent available in the department (again, this is only in Communications in 2010-2014). Lip service was paid to the concept of empowering and training existing staff, but the truth was that there were few opportunities to advance skills and move up the ladder.
* Tense, uncomfortable work environment that felt as though everyone was scared to death they would lose their jobs. (Some did, like myself).

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Shipping and receiving clerk 71 salaries reported	$109,000 per year
Intern 5 salaries reported	$28.60 per hour
Senior engineer 3 salaries reported	$131,667 per year
Manufacturing engineer 5 salaries reported	$44.60 per hour
Quality engineer 3 salaries reported	$92,333 per year

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