clinical research associate

research associate

financial analyst

senior financial analyst

senior clinical research associate

Parexel

PAREXEL used to be a great place to work. It is no longer so. If you take a job at PAREXEL be prepared for 80 work weeks, poor training annual looming layoffs and a soul crushing workload. 

PAREXEL was acquired not terribly long ago by a private equity firm. Once acquired sweeping changes were made to PAREXEL's business model. 

For the role of CRA this role was eliminated and a role called CSM was implemented. A CSM is a clinical site manager. This is a single site manage model. What this means to you as an employee is that all your inhouse support has been removed, with minimal concession for workload. 

You will be expected to complete 8 visits a month while handling everything from site payments to document collection. It is a horrible model and one of the last stats shared with me before leaving was that PAREXEL had lost 70% of its CRA's as a result. 

During the transition an obscure share point site was implanted no formal trading provided and several major issues has since been identified. 

This is a dramatic shift from a once great company that would fly employees to the corporate headquarters for a month of intensive training. It is really a shame. 

PAREXEL is attempting to tout this as an industry standard which I can assure you is not the case. I have since worked for 2 CRO's with higher pay and inhouse support. 

Additionally, PAREXEL has missed earnings projections with has resulted in sweeping annual layoffs. Ever hear these are announced and everyone is terrified. 

Once great now toxic.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The other patient lab techs enduring the suffering with you, sharing a common enemy.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Management having control of day to day operations despite not being willing to communicate, collaborate, or even be competent. Rampant nepotism and favoritism is crippling the company from the inside out. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
By far the most toxic I've ever worked for!

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Solve the days scheduling errors and communicate those errors along with solutions to the staff members affected so that their productivity is unaffected. Don't tell management about these errors or else you will appear against the company, and will not be shown kindness or respect. Next, set up as many mitigation steps as possible for the upcoming work load, within the cryptic and antiquated computer system you will be forced to use. Throughout the work day the management will come into the lab to try and "catch" you not working or whatever. Every week you will have a meeting where the management shows their incompetence and you will have to sit there and listen to them as they ask you to perform tasks that are good in theory, but cannot be completed due to the limitations of the equipment you are working with. Every day you will be reminded of your wasted potential.

Senior management failed to effectively communicate with their team, leading to misunderstandings or lack of clarity, impacting the team's performance or morale.
Manager's leadership style have been ineffective, such as being overly controlling, micromanaging, or lacking in empathy towards team members.
In my experience working under the top management, I have observed a concerning lack of transparency in decision-making processes. This has resulted in a sense of uncertainty and mistrust among employees, as important information is often withheld or not communicated effectively. Additionally, the recent layoffs that were implemented without clear justification or communication have further eroded morale and trust within the team.
Furthermore, the team has been consistently operating under significant resource constraints, leading to a high workload that is unsustainable for employees. Despite the increased demands, there has been little effort made by top management to address these resource shortages or provide support to alleviate the burden on employees.
Overall, the combination of zero transparency, layoffs, under resources, and high workload has created a toxic work environment that is detrimental to both employee well-being and organizational success.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Benefits were overall good when working for Parexel.
Unlimited vacation was offered, but was a joke due to having to work even though one was on vacation so you could keep up with workload and emails.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
When told during the interview process that one would only have to manage 12 sites at any given time was a lie. The workload was double and they had us working with up to 9 different data bases because they did not know how to say "NO" to the sponsors.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The manager was always rushing through providing instructions and if you weren't fast enough to write them down you would end up having to constantly  go to others for directions, which would aggravate co-workers who didn't have the time to provide information sometimes when needed due to the workloads.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Head down and constantly on the go. Didn't have time for lunch or breaks most days. What wasn't completed during work hours generally needed to be complete outside work hours. A 10-hour day was the norm.

A typlical day can be as easy as processing invoices for A/P and reviewing vendor contracts or convaluted with the duties of construction and ensuring the staff is safe while managing noise levels from construction work. A typical day is unpredictable. I might be giving a presentation to new hires at 8 a.m., and within the hour be on the roof, figuring out the best repair for a storm-damaged HVAC system. The day involves a lot of contact with people, ranging from the building management team trying to describe our needs to a contractor who, in turn, transforms them from plan to reality; to an ill employee where I must make the quick decision to simply call their spouse or call 911! I must remain mobile in the event I need to visit another facility and rapid problem solving is also a "must do" task of the day. I do a lot of standing and walking and, at any time, be able to lift 35 to 40 pounds or more if necessary! The most important thing I've learned is to be flexible. Learning to deal with others is another important attribute of facility management and I love the fact that no two days are ever the same.

You’ll definitely learn a lot about clinical trials! Staff is generally very helpful when you ask for it. Management is horrible. Compared to the way our sister clinic in Baltimore is ran, this place is horrible for RA’s. You’re given a substantial amount of work load for very minimal pay. You’re expected to do 6 hours worth of procedures and 6 hours worth of study prep within your 8 hour shift. Yes, this place will drain the life out of you. You will hate this company. You will lose respect for your manager. But, it’s good experience, just be prepared to be stuck here for 1-2 years before starting your job search again. I’m still here. Can’t wait to leave. Again, this company is horribly managed. There are a couple GREAT managers and they honestly know who they are. But the others and the directors are terrible humans. Even one would treat the RA’s as kids, and think we’re dumb and clueless. Long story short, expect terrible pay, expect to be over worked, expect to dodge management when you see them, and pray to be able to leave ASAP from there or get in to the QA department and then move up to management. Best of luck to your wellbeing and sanity if you work here. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Teammates. CRA is a tough position where u need to collaborate with all study team members from sites to  PXL study team members, finance( b/c it's part of PXL's CRA task ), sponsors, several COLs and so on. Having co study CRAs keeps you sane.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I heard there are great line managers who are great leaders and supportive, but I didn't have luck to have good leader.  I had a passive aggressive style of LM and it was demoralizing. 
Beware: CRAs in PXL have expected tasks that in most CROs have as finance and regulatory team tasks. This is not disclosed in JD in details.  

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
There are some great leaders.  There is no doubt about this, but there are rotten eggs that ruins this for the culture.  There are many to each his own and float your own boat and here's your SOS button for superuser .. good luck.

For most of my staff, I had them work hard as I taught them  the industry and skills they wanted.  Then, I helped them get a better paying job outside of Parexel with clients or the competition.  This because Parexel does not pay the market rate for their operational staff -- and typically will not approve promotions for even the best documented and well-known achievers.  The business model is to turnover staff and replace with inexperienced lower cost staff.  This is even true at the upper management and executive levels where Parexel hires inexperienced Vice Presidents mismanage and oversell the operations and undercut the finances.  After 18 to 24 months when they finally understand the correct business model, they leave to join a client or competitor.  Additionally, HR explained to myself and other managers that they are authorized to provide us only with salary "market data" diluted to lower Parexel salary so HR and Parexel can slow the turnover rate.

An average employees has worked for a period of 12 to 14 hours during the lockdown phase in order to achieve ever increasing targets. This led to a drop in the workforce to almost unpredictable number. Highly experience members chose to move out to due to poor leadership qualities.Remaining employees have to take up the burden of achieving left over targets beyond normal working hours.
There are unpredictable layoff during the phase of covid 19. A Clinical research company laid off long serving employees for cutting cost.
The salaries are very much below market standards, probably just enough to put food on the table or may not.
There is no advancement in culture and skills here. Commenting on the personal growth , the company bogs down your morale, reason to work. This might be like bad parenting in the corporate sector.


The people within the company are great, The leadership sometimes leaves a lot to be desired.

Management on some studies was great. The team performed like clockwork and provided an accurate, clean data set for the sponsors.

But on the majority of what I worked on,management did not give support to the team as a whole. For urgent issues, data locks, IA, team management did not provide the team support needed. Too many times was informed that there was nothing that could be done in regards to micro-managed study by the sponsor, when unrealistic requests were received.

Hardest part of the day was trying to get answers to pressing questions, both for my sites and for myself. Management was either on DND all day, or didn't answer emails until the end of the day.

Best part of the day- Leaving a site knowing I did everything within my power to ensure patient safety, clean and accurate data, and site  and sponsor satisfaction.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Clinical research associate 13 salaries reported	$68,154 per year
Research associate 9 salaries reported	$22.17 per hour
Financial analyst 4 salaries reported	$75,125 per year
Senior financial analyst 6 salaries reported	$99,250 per year
Senior clinical research associate 6 salaries reported	$119,483 per year

Working at Parexel: Company Overview and Reviews

Parexel

Parexel Ratings

Popular jobs at Parexel

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected