A Device Rep's Story of an Acquisition Gone Wrong (part 2 of 2)

September 27, 2016

Second part of our interview with a device who says an acquisition has dramatically altered company- employee relations for the worst. The first part of the interview can be found here.

At the end of the first interview, we were discussing an instance where an employee's income had been significantly reduced.

Rep M: It wasn't fair and no one would listen to his appeals. So he has had a drastic reduction in his income through no fault of his own. When we were first purchased, I thought we were going to be part of a more professional organization. That has not been the case.

Morale is now the worst I have ever seen it. Most of the reps I know from the previous company have either left or they are just hanging on until retirement.

CP: Has compensation been affected in other ways?

Rep M: The new company doesn't seem to like reps making over $250K. They seem to want to keep reps below $200K. Before, at the old company, we had some guys making $300k to $400k a year. A few were in the $500k range. They were celebrated. You knew a guy making that kind of money was working his ass off and making money for the company also.

Now if you are making that much money they split your territory or add an associate rep. An associate rep can help some with the workload, but the territory is charged 80K per year for the rep. So it is a big loss of income for the primary rep.

I know guys who intentionally keep there territories making less than they could so they won't have a big loss of income. They want to stay under the radar.

CP: It sounds like the company has gotten incentives misaligned. One of the reasons people were interested in device sales in the past was the compensation. Are you saying the large figures many have heard of are a thing of the past?

Rep M: I think they are. We did make a lot of money in the past, but most people don't know what a trauma rep's job entailed. As I mentioned, we are on call 24/7,  365 days a year. For the first four years on the job I didn't take a vacation. After that I would get an associate to cover for a week. But that was a week's vacation a year.

That also means that you can't go very far out of your territory ever, when you are on call. You can't go out and have a few drinks; you might be called in during your kid's birthday party. You really have to be ready to work a case at all times.

Having an associate rep does help some. The problem is that now doctors want to have a rep in every case. Even if they are only putting in a single screw. So it doesn't help with the workload all that much.

CP: Any other influences on income?

Rep M: Yes, a manager can negotiate discounts with no input from the rep. For example a manager might give a hospital a 20% discount. On a 2 million dollar hospital that means that income from that hospital is reduced $400k. Maybe the discount had to be given to keep the business, but, the rep's quota isn't changed. So his manager wants to know how the rep is going to make up the $400k.

CP: You have had an issue with your manager as well. Can you tell us a little about that?

Rep M: There was a problem with a surgeon who is a “consultant” for another company. Which basically means he is paid by another company to use their implants. He contacted my for a case that I was unable to attend due to another case I was in that had been previously scheduled. The case he wanted me for was inserting k-wires into an elbow. There was nothing I could do to assist, but he wanted me there anyway.

He complained to my manager and my manager removed me from my largest accounts. This reduced my income by 50%.

I spoke to my regional manager and just said that the decision had been made. I appealed to my VP and the VP ignored the complaint. Then we got a new VP and I thought it might be different. The new VP was just as bad.

I think the real reason for the discipline was so that my manager could use my lost income to pay for employees he had hired. The company wanted to expense to come from the region and not be additional expense for the company.  

CP: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Rep M: For anyone thinking about coming to work here I would ask, would you take a job where your manager could take away 70% of your income on a whim and you would have no recourse? If not then you don't want to work here.

CP: That is probably not usually mentioned in an interview. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us.

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