Abbott Nutrition - Pediatrics

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Anonymous

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What is the culture and current state of this business unit? Have there been or are there any layoffs in the works? Im interviewing for a position and Id like t get sme feedback of anyone who works in this division in New England....
 






Run- do not walk away from this position. The culture is one of management through intimidation,from Columbus down. Layoffs looming, market shrinking, not somewhere you want to be.
 






I agree. The nutrition division use to be a great place to work. But current management came from pharma and they are now running it that way. Lay offs last year - more to come.
 










































Anonymous said:
Pretty much. But Pediatrics is the worst. The Therapeutic side might be a little better.
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Workers at Cardinal Healthcare filed a class action lawsuit about all the long hours. Cardinal lost and now jobs were reclassified as non exempt. People are much happier because the company has to pay OT now. Just a thought.
 






Take this job and you will rue the day you ever heard of Abbott Nutrition. What you may ask suck about this job...well, since you asked:

-the hours, you are required to do around the clock presentations at hospitals
-samples, they are bulky and a total PITA to handle
-budgets, always cutting
-management, fear, intimidation and a bunch of bullies
-respect, your "customers" do not respect you, you bring nothing of value...other than lunch
-birth rates, as the economy continues to under perform the birth rate as continued to slide
-breast-feeding, Obamacare has a provision that insurance must pay for pumps, rates will continue to increase

I could probably go on, but you get the idea. If you want to be happy, this is not the place. If you need to take the job or you will lose your house, by all means take the job. But, keep looking for a job where you can actually look at yourself in the mirror when you come home.

Just my thoughts.
 






Anonymous said:
Take this job and you will rue the day you ever heard of Abbott Nutrition. What you may ask suck about this job...well, since you asked:

-the hours, you are required to do around the clock presentations at hospitals
-samples, they are bulky and a total PITA to handle
-budgets, always cutting
-management, fear, intimidation and a bunch of bullies
-respect, your "customers" do not respect you, you bring nothing of value...other than lunch
-birth rates, as the economy continues to under perform the birth rate as continued to slide
-breast-feeding, Obamacare has a provision that insurance must pay for pumps, rates will continue to increase

I could probably go on, but you get the idea. If you want to be happy, this is not the place. If you need to take the job or you will lose your house, by all means take the job. But, keep looking for a job where you can actually look at yourself in the mirror when you come home.

Just my thoughts.
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This description is unfortunately quite accurate. It is also quite a shame. When this Division was truly Ross, the Reps were respected by their customers and management actually understood the nature of the business. If you put the current management team at Abbott Nutrition in charge of the Sahara Desert; in two years there would be a shortage of sand.
 












Anonymous said:
the whole formula market as a HCP driven market is disappearing. Management trying to hide that fact by blaming the reps (inability to "execute" their BS strategies.)
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This is probably typical human behavior. Management rationalizes the part they are playing in the layoff by putting the blame on those who will be laid off instead of other factors. This is to alleviate their guilt. Now Jolly Mean Giant who is a layoff pro is particularly nasty about the underlings who will be going. It makes me absolutely ill.
 






TNR here (not Ped). Regarding the exaggerated description by the previous poster they are similar, and often not as bad, as practically all pharma sales reps. Ask them if you are not aware of it. Regarding all nighters we only did them when there was a
major turnover, e.g. pumps. All shifts had to be in-serviced to assure they knew how to use them - especially if something wasn't working correctly. Personally, it was an inconvenience but it is the only way I could be confident that MOST of the staff knew what they were doing.
Better than middle-of-the night calls or major meetings with administrators to handle fire drills. Since we are out of the pump business all-nighters are a thing of the past.

TN now has a few different areas requiring different skill sets and all have unrealistic goals set by 20-something people with marketing degrees and zero experience in the field. They are fueled by management who make grandiose promises to Abbott - especially now that we are the biggest division.

Every other year we get a change of management who all try to re-invent the wheel...unfortunately unsuccessfully. If you are an oldtimer who remembers the customer service and relationship building method of developing and maintaining business, those days are gone. If you can't work within the changes perhaps it's time to move on. Many of my colleagues embrace the change, work within it, and wait patiently until the next change.

Still not a bad job for a newbie. Good pay, bonus, profit sharing, decent benefits, and experience in the medical environment.
 












What about District Sales Manager roles? These posts sound like mostly whiny sales reps, exact same for every message board...how is it to work in this division as a DSM?
 






A DSM at AN is like being in the mob. You will be ordered to make several hits (terminations via BS PIP's) once the dead wood (experienced reps) have been cleared and your market share does not increase they will order the hit on you. It is a 2 year position, if you make it to 3 they will order the hit.
 












Anonymous said:
They blame the reps for their lack of leadership!
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The current DM in Virginia goes by the book - Columbus pushes these Sales Trainers into DM positions but they are the worst people persons ever. Robotic - lack independent thought and or reason. Not leaders - that is why under Robyn's leadership the SE will continue to slide. She is a viper for sure. VA has had so much turnover and some people forced out just doing their jobs. The whole team there is demoralized and looking for employment elsewhere. Fire the management and maybe things will change.
 






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