packaging operator

sales specialist

production operator

liaison

technician

Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals

The Hobart plant has a very bad turnover and brain drain problem among its office staff. The rural, economically stagnant area just can't provide or attract the kind of people needed to run a pharmaceutical plant effectively. A lot of vacancies get filled internally by unqualified people; some people with no engineering background are "engineers" for instance. The plant is decades behind in terms of science, quality systems, and computerization (arcane paper-based systems are heavily relied on). Some recent transitions to computer-based systems are actually making things worse, due to the general inability to implement or use software effectively. 

"Training" consists almost entirely of reading of poorly-written SOPs. Management is unwilling to spend money on external training. Major projects languish on for years due to a lack of technical knowledge and general common sense. A culture of bureaucracy and group-think makes progress slow when it isn't backwards. Official quality improvement efforts amount to six-sigma/kaizen cargo cults. Some of these problems are endemic in pharmaceutical manufacturing, but it seems they are especially bad in Hobart.

Most plant employees work on the production floor for hourly wages. I can't comment on these jobs first-hand, but my impression is that these employees are seen as replaceable by the company and treated accordingly. Mandatory overtime during busy times and people being sent home without pay during slow times are both known to happen. 

The plant is currently part of Covidien's pharmaceutical sector, which about to be spun off as Mallinckrodt and headquartered in St. Louis. The sector personnel from St. Louis assigned to work with Hobart are generally out of touch with the priorities and quality problems of the plant, and improvement cannot be expected to come from that direction. 

If you have any kind of a science, pharmaceutical, or engineering career ahead of you, this plant is a dead end. I'd strongly advise against moving for a job there. The "relocation package" they offer is basically trap. Many leave when their contractual two years is up.

What is the best part of working at the company?
💰 20 as temp, 22.77 when permanent. Only knock is we are labeled as pharmaceutical operators, not chemical operators eventhough we deal with dangerous chemical (in. nitrobenzene, ethomeen, toxomil, sulfuric acid, analine, catalyst). If we were labeled correctly, everyone hired permanent would be hired on $30. The risk of getting a chemical drip on you is too great to not be compensated for it.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Multi-tasking. You have to react quickly in stressful conditions. If a tank or line  plugs and you don't catch it, dangerous chemicals can spray out on the ground or on someone and you will be written up. What makes conditions mote stressful is no AC/heat until in control rooms, so 100 degree weather or freezing temps you will be subjected to.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Hectic at first. Production is first priority above any and everything. You don't know anything but you are trying to become permanent, so you have to learn quickly. Everyone starts on dryers, so ask questions about what the process is for your role. Everytime you get the process for your role down, start learning the next job you will run by shadowing people who can do it. You have 5 to 6 jobs you have to learn within a year to keep your operator title. Drive will get you far here. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Always changes. Every week you are on a rotation between 4 jobs: centrifuge, hydro, wasteside, and dryers. Conditions change in the plant everyday, so jobs have to run differently to adapt. There is downtime in between the hustle which is nice; however, depending on you role for the week, conditions can be awfully stressful.

A typical day at work involves prioritizing what’s deemed critical or time sensitive for the day; compliance related tasks are at the top of the list, and then CAPA, Exception, and / or Change Control action items are next.  Most ongoing capital projects require me to perform some kind of daily coordination efforts amongst the different groups to keep the validation related deliverables on track.

What I’ve learned is that flexibility and ability and/or willingness to communicate are tied for being likely the most important skills.  Not every situation can be responded to with the exact same approach; it takes critical though, and the weighing of the inputs, parameters, and details of what is considered critical to quality, and the business.

Management, by and large, has been in a state flux for the last several years, so there is always something new to adjust to; whether it be a management style, level of communication, priority management, etc.
My coworkers are professional, but we still work in our own silos for the most part.  This is not much alignment of priorities; it’s more about making the numbers look good, or moving the needle, regardless if the numbers actually translate into best practices or what’s right for the site and/or Quality organization.

The hardest part of the job is dealing with and accepting the varying level of standards that are used within the facility (to gauge progress and acceptability) and the associated lack of accountability that is pervasive through all groups.

My typical day at work involves a continuous flow of projects from Production Floor manufacturing issues to Product/R&D assistance. I typically have a list of priorities as well as being on call for any production floor issues that arise. I do everything from data collection for engineering projects to electrical and mechanical component design. I assist the technicians and quality inspectors to resolve any issue beyond their skill set. 
          I have learned a great deal about medical device design and verification. My current position enables me to work with a wide variety of employees with varying levels of knowledge and experience and participate in many cross functional team projects.
      In most cases, management provides room to work. We are usually empowered to manage our own time and projects with management support or intervention when needed.
      The hardest part of my job is the increasing workload. When I was hired into the Engineering Office, we had a nine engineers. The office has been streamlined to three engineers and a technical specialist. Additionally, I am constantly on loan to R&D for technical support and special design projects.
      The most enjoyable part of my job is being constantly on the move. I have never went to work and couldn't find something to do.

Management here is pretty clueless about what they are doing. This company only operates in crisis mode. No problems or concerns are ever addressed until they become critical to production. This makes it so that we are constantly under pressure to correct the issues on very short deadlines. Management doesn't care to hear about any concerns you have or even foresight into future potential problems that could be addressed before they cause a crisis. The generics business is an afterthought that the specialty brands uses as a piggy bank, they constantly are pulling money from the generics plants and trying to slash equipment and manpower to the bone in order to extract every last penny they can from us before either spinning us off into a separate company or allowing us to collapse under the weight of the debt they have saddled us with. Management does not have a clear direction or goal for the generics business and as anyone can see from our stock prices they are driving us into bankruptcy. 

In the few years I have worked here it is obvious that this place is going downhill fast and will fail before too long. Many of the most qualified and experienced people who have been with the company for extended periods have been abandoning ship over the last year. We are in a tailspin.

Autonomous opportunity to make own hours/schedule with tremendous compensation package.  There are 18 positions nationwide representing regional territories.
A typical day is either beginning at home or a hotel location close to an account.  I leave the home on my own schedule and drive to accounts and set up opportunities to provide a catered breakfast or lunch and discuss my expertise on disease states and opportunities to utilize our specialty brand therapies.
I have learned how crucial relationship building and time management lead to success as it is both internally and externally measured.
I am primarily self-managed with occasional conference calls and webex meetings with a direct supervisor, trainer or a marketing department.
On occasion there is the need to travel to a corporate office or national sales meeting.  
The workplace culture is that of autonomy and the expectation to be appropriately balancing work and life.
The hardest part of the job is the sales component measurements and goals that I don't always have control over corporate expectations of volume or outcomes.  
The most enjoyable part of the job is hearing the work 'yes', and being part of a patient's benefit from our products.

I loved my position at this company. However, the company had just recently acquired another pharmaceutical company and there were a lot of issues with the management, i.e. no training, behavioral issues, etc. I trained myself in my position, and I absolutely loved it. I wanted to have a stable, permanent job with benefits and longevity, so I voluntarily resigned.

My job duties were as follows:
Processing educational grant requests, ensuring that all paper work is submitted by grantee, and coordinating meetings with grant committee for approval or declines of submissions. 
Processing financial awards for educational grants, fellowship grants, and investigator initiated studies.
Processing all expenses and invoices for medical affairs department and following up with checks.
Tracking finances and making sure they are paid out in an orderly manner. 
Coordinating events for MSLs—-booking venues, arranging transportation, food, etc. 
Ensuring that training certificates for MSLs in certain therapeutic areas are up-to-date.

What is the best part of working at the company?
the co-workers are seemingly innocuous. work procedures are extremely regulated and organized, and for good reason. if you like that sort of thing you would like that aspect of the work environment.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
nothing really stressful, except like any other such business when you make mistakes in your work they have major implications. you have to be constantly trying to avoid mistakes.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
the work environment is typical of a highly regulated production facility. the management is a step above average. however the upper management seem to have come from the worst cesspool 3d world country you can think of. use your imagination and you won't be far off. for that reason, and the slimy things they DID to me, I would never, ever work for that place again and very much recommend against working there.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
work, lunch, work, leave. interrupted by weekly meetings.

Work assignments were given on a weekly basis.
Testing was completed on a day to day basis ending with a notebook write up and final results were entered into a sample management system.  Project work was also included.
Learning was a continual process at Mallinckrodt with training updates that where to be completed within 30 days.
I also continued to perfect my use of the Chromeleon data acquisition software that was previously updated within the company.
The management team I was associated with were extremely supportive and encouraging to their direct reports.
My co-workers were very professional and supportive, as well as some of the best people that I have ever worked with.
My career with Mallinckrodt was very enjoyable.  I have to say that the best part of my job was the type of work I performed as well as the people I worked with.
It was an all around great place to work.

The pay is good, advancement is easy if you work hard enough.  When I first started the job was much more fun and laid back, though you weren't often fully trained before they through you in.  The company likes to purge their employees every so often for the silliest reasons, most likely to set an example.  Also always expecting more work with less people. 
 They are ridiculously understaffed and can't find new hires often probably because they've been through everyone in the area who can pass a drug test.  Changing departments is almost impossible, expect 6months to a year or never if you're one of their best employees and they want to keep you where you are.  The work is redundant and boring once you've learned everything.  Music and podcasts help the day go by but they recently made that a terminable offense too! 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Packaging operator 13 salaries reported	$22.83 per hour
Sales specialist 35 salaries reported	$161,529 per year
Production operator 1 salary reported	$26.08 per hour
Liaison 10 salaries reported	$195,685 per year
Technician 3 salaries reported	$26.17 per hour

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