What's the vibe like in the Engineering dept at Thermo Fisher Scientific? How many hours are you working?

This depends entirely on your local management chain. There's no real "norm" to speak of. You either have a competent manager who knows how to avoid scope creep (and the associated "crunch mode" that comes with it), or you have a manager who was promoted into management because they were a good engineer. It's like any other company, from my perspective. Good engineers are rewarded by being promoted into management where they typically fail because the company doesn't seem to understand they're two different skill sets. I've been a professional for more than 20 years. I made the decision a long time ago to work no more than 40 hours per week. Sometimes I take heat for that, and I really don't care. My family is far more important than my job ever will be. The good thing (and sometimes bad thing) about Thermo is that it's essentially impossible to get fired once you're on board.