Good times call for desperate measures at Amgen
Business decisions for the mass restructuring of Amgen are having a greater impact on the community beyond individual layoffs.
Amgen, a biotech manufacturing and research company that employs more than 6,000 workers at its corporate headquarters in the heart of Thousand Oaks, recently decided to downsize its facilities in the area. “Everyone is really worried about it,” said Taylor Wang, junior. Wang, whose mother works at Amgen, added that “people are very stressed out.”
Amgen began releasing employees gradually, but recently there has been a drastic increase in layoffs. At the beginning of this year, Amgen announced they would be undergoing some large changes. Internationally, 3,000 employees will be laid off as part of a plan that will reduce both the facilities and expenses at Amgen. Research and development branches in Washington and Colorado will be shut down completely, while others, such as the one in Thousand Oaks, are being scaled down.
“As the Amgen layoffs happen, I feel there will be many changes (in the community) because people are starting to move to other places for job opportunities,” Razina Pathan, junior, said.
Directly after a record high quarter, Amgen’s decisions follow the trend in other biotech companies, such as Biogen Idec, Genzyme Corporation, and Gilead Sciences. Although Amgen itself has been quite successful with a recent stock increase of 17 percent since March, it faces competition from other biotech companies. Many of these business have significantly lower expenses compared to Amgen. Other companies, including technology powerhouses like Microsoft and IBM, have either downsized their facilities or kept them small, making the choice for Amgen to downsize all the more inviting.
“The layoffs are definitely detrimental to the community as Amgen is one of the top employers here,” Monitha Raghani, junior, said. “I don’t think it is right because it is creating a lot of problems for so many.”
In order to mitigate the dramatic impact of layoffs on the lives of former employees, Amgen provides a voluntary transition program, which offers benefit packages to particular employees and monetary-based relief to some workers.
Despite these efforts to minimize the effects of the layoffs, Wang is still concerned. “I think it’s pointless,” Wang said. “Amgen is doing really well right now and they don’t need to layoff people, but they’re doing it as a cushion so that they will be safer in the future.”