So clearly you know not of what you speak. First show me anywhere in our job description or on any document where is says we are to be in the field at a certain time to a certain time, like 8 to 5. Find that one for me…you won’t because it does not exist. Who says I don’t wake up and starting at 8AM go over my territory/numbers/input calls for an hour and then go into the field at 9AM. I was after all working for that hour. You are confusing working with ‘being in the filed’. And that is why most of these lawsuits are settled in favor of the reps. Also the reason you will not find a ‘must be in the field from 8AM until 5PM is that would clearly violate overtime laws as you would be expected to complete your admin after company hours…and we all know how important the admin is as most people get fired because of admin issue than sales numbers. HR departments purposefully do not put “in the field” hours in our documents. Working is working whether it is calling on offices or doing expense reports. It is all work. I’ve been at this for 16 years and I have never once had a manager say ‘do your admin’ before 8AM or after 5PM. I was a manager for 8 years and HR specifically forbids you from saying things like that as our ‘normal’ work day is 8AM to 5PM and any instruction from a manager to do so could be viewed as a violation. Now if you as the rep, choose to do your admin on your time, with no direction or pressure from your manager than that is your choice and the company is certainly not going to stop you.
Again the meat of the matter is whether we are exempt employees(which outside sales falls under) or non-exempt(which field marketing reps falls under). Since we do not tangible sell anything, or take purchases orders, a Federal Judge has already declared pharmaceutical reps as “marketing reps” and not outside sales reps.
Google pharma rep over time lawsuits to educate yourself.
