Biopharma workers shared on Jul. 30 their experiences with layoffs, highlighting dissatisfaction with how companies delivered the news and managed the aftermath, according to a recent BioSpace survey.
Several respondents described impersonal notification methods. One biotech employee said their separation was handled "cold, structured (read from a script) and made me feel as if my dedication to the company was one sided." This individual learned of their layoff during a Zoom call with other lower-level staff.
A former Charles River Laboratories employee recounted being notified at an airport via a Teams meeting with their department director and human resources representative. The employee said, "It was vague, I have spent a lot of time pondering what resulted in my layoff," adding that they were let go effective immediately without much explanation.
Another former Charles River worker reported being laid off during the final week of maternity leave after receiving an invitation from human resources for a meeting also attended by their manager. The respondent noted that company-wide layoffs had started nearly a year earlier and eventually reached their team: "The company eliminated everyone’s positions, except the manager’s." Human resources encouraged affected employees to reapply for open roles on the team, but none who did were rehired. The respondent questioned, "What is the overall goal/vision of the restructuring?"
Other stories described surprise requests following notification. One small biotech initially communicated openly about layoffs tied to funding consolidation but later outsourced eliminated roles to a contract research organization (CRO). The affected worker said they spent their last month providing documentation and tech transfer to the CRO: "The lack of honesty about the CROs and the ‘training your replacement’ piece is the most upsetting part."
Some employees experienced confusion during mass layoffs; one respondent wrote that about 10% of staff were let go in varying ways—some walked out in person, others called by phone—with managers uninformed throughout: "Managers were not informed of what was happening." Severance packages varied in quality, according to respondents.
BioSpace continues collecting accounts from recently laid-off biopharma professionals through an anonymous survey.
