Comments at today's GEC Office Hours

[anonymous]

What were the comments that upset Alexander? I missed them before they were deleted. Thank you.

 

[anonymous]

No idea but probably the same flavor as some of the comments on CafePharma in general. Homophobic, sexist, and vile personal attacks that have no place in the GEC office hour setting, nor really on this site but you can't stop the trolls & disgusting people.
The Rittenhouse verdict topic, in my personal opinion, should not have come up either during a presentation nor as part of a Pollev questions. I understand that there is a lot of emotional and intellectual debate about race and racism in America. If the top Pollev questions are about inflation and compensation...probably not the forum to get into it....from either side. It triggers people and there's an illusion of anonymity so people spew all kinds of nonsense quickly. If they would have a Great Britain-specific Roche meeting...it would be equivalent, only somewhat I realize, to spout off on Brexit in Pollev...also quite a divisive topic over there. Perhaps there needs to be a disclaimer prior to posting...no sexism, racism or divisive political issues allowed? Tough to police of course because I have opinions about Roche/Genentech's shameless lobbying against the drug-pricing legislation in front of Congress for example...will that be deleted as "too political"?

Tough topical questions to leadership are fair play and they are obviously quite adept in avoiding actually answering the questions on benefits, COLA, inflation concerns, Braindrain concerns and burnout. It seemed Alex was surprised that these questions were upvoted. The lack of being able to read the room is a bit concerning.

After he spoke up against the inappropriate Pollev questions, well done - he immediately turned around and told hundreds of employees that them speaking up on what they care about primarily and urgently is not worth the GEC's time as it was already "addressed" previously. That hurt. That was downright offensive, however, I give him the benefit of doubt for misphrasing it or forgetting to validate the concerns. Nobody likes the hot seat but this was a very unfortunate way of lashing out by him, probably born out of frustrations of this type of topic not going away. GEC really doesn't have a finger on the employee's pulse at the moment when it comes to being pushed and pushed to do more with less.

PDG is completely demoralized, people are resigning all over. gRED is going nuclear with Star Scientists looking for greener pastures. Cuts, layoffs and the Kool-Aid-approaching Agile way are here to stay.

There is so much "shooting into your own foot" at Genentech/Roche at the moment and it seems the GEC team is either not upfront about their awareness about it or are blissfully ignorant about the real situation.

The fact that there isn't any urgency by the GEC to address the downward spiral in employee-employer relations tells you everything there is to know how far Genentech has been Rochified.

My manager is looking for a new job, her manager just accepted a new job internally, her manager was laid-off. My title just changed, my job responsibilities are squeezed into a new model nobody seems to be able to explain at all. Really, it's pretty chaotic so, yeah, I am looking for the exit so this once-in-a-generation career development opportunity doesn't pass me by. Same with my friend at Google (that work culture changed for the worse in a hurry too).

Oh well, corporatism. Where's Marx when you need him.

 

[anonymous]

Wow! A thoughtful and well reasoned Cafe Pharma reply!

 

[anonymous]

No idea but probably the same flavor as some of the comments on CafePharma in general. Homophobic, sexist, and vile personal attacks that have no place in the GEC office hour setting, nor really on this site but you can't stop the trolls & disgusting people.
The Rittenhouse verdict topic, in my personal opinion, should not have come up either during a presentation nor as part of a Pollev questions. I understand that there is a lot of emotional and intellectual debate about race and racism in America. If the top Pollev questions are about inflation and compensation...probably not the forum to get into it....from either side. It triggers people and there's an illusion of anonymity so people spew all kinds of nonsense quickly. If they would have a Great Britain-specific Roche meeting...it would be equivalent, only somewhat I realize, to spout off on Brexit in Pollev...also quite a divisive topic over there. Perhaps there needs to be a disclaimer prior to posting...no sexism, racism or divisive political issues allowed? Tough to police of course because I have opinions about Roche/Genentech's shameless lobbying against the drug-pricing legislation in front of Congress for example...will that be deleted as "too political"?

Tough topical questions to leadership are fair play and they are obviously quite adept in avoiding actually answering the questions on benefits, COLA, inflation concerns, Braindrain concerns and burnout. It seemed Alex was surprised that these questions were upvoted. The lack of being able to read the room is a bit concerning.

After he spoke up against the inappropriate Pollev questions, well done - he immediately turned around and told hundreds of employees that them speaking up on what they care about primarily and urgently is not worth the GEC's time as it was already "addressed" previously. That hurt. That was downright offensive, however, I give him the benefit of doubt for misphrasing it or forgetting to validate the concerns. Nobody likes the hot seat but this was a very unfortunate way of lashing out by him, probably born out of frustrations of this type of topic not going away. GEC really doesn't have a finger on the employee's pulse at the moment when it comes to being pushed and pushed to do more with less.

PDG is completely demoralized, people are resigning all over. gRED is going nuclear with Star Scientists looking for greener pastures. Cuts, layoffs and the Kool-Aid-approaching Agile way are here to stay.

There is so much "shooting into your own foot" at Genentech/Roche at the moment and it seems the GEC team is either not upfront about their awareness about it or are blissfully ignorant about the real situation.

The fact that there isn't any urgency by the GEC to address the downward spiral in employee-employer relations tells you everything there is to know how far Genentech has been Rochified.

My manager is looking for a new job, her manager just accepted a new job internally, her manager was laid-off. My title just changed, my job responsibilities are squeezed into a new model nobody seems to be able to explain at all. Really, it's pretty chaotic so, yeah, I am looking for the exit so this once-in-a-generation career development opportunity doesn't pass me by. Same with my friend at Google (that work culture changed for the worse in a hurry too).

Oh well, corporatism. Where's Marx when you need him.

tl;dr

Instead of writing this longass post, why aren't you meeting with customers?

 

[anonymous]

tl;dr

Instead of writing this longass post, why aren't you meeting with customers?

 

[anonymous]

ummm….not many customers to see on Saturday!

 

[anonymous]

What was said by Alexander about the Rittenhouse verdict?

 

[anonymous]

Left GNE over a month ago, best decision I have made in my career. The place was becoming a black hole of wokeness. Mind you, I am about as liberal as they get but the idiocy needs to stop somewhere. I can only imagine the ruffling of snowflake feathers (is that a thing?) when Rittenhouse was acquitted.

Problem with the company is that it sees itself just like the woke-mob/Twitterati in that IT not the actual justice system gets to dole out sentences. Not how it works.

Was Rittenhouse clearly a kid who should not have been in that place at that time, while armed? Clearly. Was he? Yes. The question before the jury, based on current law (again, if you don't like the laws, work to change them) was did he act in self defense? Well, when your star prosecution witness gets on the stand and tells the jury that Rittenhouse did not fire at him UNTIL he pointed his own firearm at Rittenhouse...your case kind of goes flying out the proverbial window.

Bottom line: GNE has become enamored with itself as the "special" place. Need proof? They modeled their business after Silicon Valley. Makes sense. Toasters & gadgets (Amazon), web search engines (Google) and high end personal electronics (Apple) are JUST LIKE (sarcasm alert) the heavily-regulated industry that is the pharmaceutical industry. To say nothing of the fact that all the co's in the space are almost completely reliant on the Federal government (just over 50% of the business). The two sectors could not be more opposite but the leadership there LOVES to be sold on gimmicks from the consultants.

My advice? Stop thinking of yourself as a change agent and start focusing on your core business. Hint: it is marketing and selling your drugs.

 

[anonymous]

Left GNE over a month ago, best decision I have made in my career. The place was becoming a black hole of wokeness. Mind you, I am about as liberal as they get but the idiocy needs to stop somewhere. I can only imagine the ruffling of snowflake feathers (is that a thing?) when Rittenhouse was acquitted.

Problem with the company is that it sees itself just like the woke-mob/Twitterati in that IT not the actual justice system gets to dole out sentences. Not how it works.

Was Rittenhouse clearly a kid who should not have been in that place at that time, while armed? Clearly. Was he? Yes. The question before the jury, based on current law (again, if you don't like the laws, work to change them) was did he act in self defense? Well, when your star prosecution witness gets on the stand and tells the jury that Rittenhouse did not fire at him UNTIL he pointed his own firearm at Rittenhouse...your case kind of goes flying out the proverbial window.

Bottom line: GNE has become enamored with itself as the "special" place. Need proof? They modeled their business after Silicon Valley. Makes sense. Toasters & gadgets (Amazon), web search engines (Google) and high end personal electronics (Apple) are JUST LIKE (sarcasm alert) the heavily-regulated industry that is the pharmaceutical industry. To say nothing of the fact that all the co's in the space are almost completely reliant on the Federal government (just over 50% of the business). The two sectors could not be more opposite but the leadership there LOVES to be sold on gimmicks from the consultants.

My advice? Stop thinking of yourself as a change agent and start focusing on your core business. Hint: it is marketing and selling your drugs.

It's a good thing you left. That kind of common sense is not welcome here and likely won't be ever again.

 

[anonymous]

I left Genentech a year ago and i’m glad i’m out. I was a liberal too or i thought I was but now have become independent. I’m tired of this stupid ‘wokeness’.