Nice try, but afraid you're wrong. The PIP field trip reports as well as non-PIP field trip reports are all written by managers following the same template. That and only that is the reason why you see similarities.
Good Luck to all---I'm out!
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Nice try, but afraid you're wrong. The PIP field trip reports as well as non-PIP field trip reports are all written by managers following the same template. That and only that is the reason why you see similarities.
Silly for you to think only tenured middle-aged white male reps are targeted. One of the earliest casualties was a rep of Hispanic origin. Later on, blacks, Asians, white and all colors were PIP'ed to death. Merck is an equal opportunity employer.
Make that "equal opportunity destoyer" and you've got it!
We used to. Very sad to say we now pay lip service to ethics and integrity. If business dictates otherwise, you'll quickly see ethics and integrity go and wonder what is this company really all about that you are working for....I used an ethics and integrity argument that was totally valid to claim, yet no one could explain Merck's decisions as being ethical or done with integrity. Your company isn't one to take pride in, let me tell you.
To the 15 year rep and victim......history reveals more about a person that any one review says....out of synch evaluations can mean more about the manager writing them than about the rep receiving them. Hope upper powers in management saw the truth about that manager. Good luck.
The score ranking, fulling performing or a step or two or three steps is major subjective score. Total BS. Performing above or fully and scored steps below. Choice of the manager..Let 'em do more and get less. AK me?
When those "out of synch" evaluations result in a job termination, that can mean a lot to the out of work rep. One must really hope that the new employer can see the truth about the previous employer's bad management and not hold it against the fired rep.
I don't know for sure if it's an age conspiracy, but I was forced out about the same time that 2 others were, and we were all over 45. This happened about 9 months ago.
I think a lot of times it comes down to a shit-head of a manager who can't absorb the pressure from above, so they look for anyone on their team to take it off themselves. "Look at what I'm doing! When this guy goes, my team will be great!"
They're in self-protect mode and don't care who's career they ruin as long as their's isn't. No integrity!
All is fantastic out of pharma, though!
I think a lot of times it comes down to a shit-head of a manager who can't absorb the pressure from above, so they look for anyone on their team to take it off themselves. "Look at what I'm doing! When this guy goes, my team will be great!"
They're in self-protect mode and don't care who's career they ruin as long as their's isn't. No integrity!
All is fantastic out of pharma, though!
Look, isn't it clear that the just about all pharma sales has been constructed upon fundamentals like half-truths, opacity, and testing the water to see what they can get away. And the business may talk the talk about trust and values and mutual respect but it certainly doesn't walk ithat walk with any amount of consitency. And thinking out loud about a desire to do the right thing will only ostracize you with management. Anybody that doesn't realize that it's all about bucks any way you can and certainly not about collaborating to make a better world for the patient has their head in the sand. Given that, why would anyone (especially anybody in sales where you get paid to have some keen social sense) trust that such an organization would feel any pressure to do the right thing for their employees. If this industry ever had a soul, that soul has certainly has been cast aside long ago. OK, make your money while you can but never forget that everyone is expendable and a strategy of believing in and actually relying on the organization to consistently do right by you is risky to the point of foolishness. Especially as your liability to the company starts to become a larger percentage of your value for producing profit.
Unfortunately this is true. Ethics, Values, Trust, Always doing the right thing. They all fall by the wayside when business dictates a strictly bottom line decision. Or, you're dealing with assholes. Or both!
absolutly. been in (soon out) for 25 years, been w/8 co.'s, various sizes, including merck for 12. all are short on "ethics". if merck will lie to the fda,doctors and investors what makes you think they won't lie to employees. I can still remember "tutorials,preceptorships and dash and dines" and the merck "don't let this happen to you" when pfizer got spalshed all over 60 min. merck acting like we had never done 'em and it's "just move on attitude-there's nothing to see here." merck is one of the dirtiest players in the game. or maybe just has bigger bribe budgets than most. but beware- once merck starts sanctimoniously spouting off about "ethics" it means they got caught and somebodys head has to roll.
Agree with your post. I'd just add that I've been around 30 years, all at Merck, and I can honestly tell you, it really didn't used to be this way. But that is going back at least 15 years.
I reckon that this break-through strategy of marketing "Branded Generics" is code for brining bribery and sleaze to countries where, with enough money, you can enlist the cops that are supposed to catch you. Lord knows, there is no way that Merck will out-compete in these places, and if they really are sharing hard-earned profits with their local partners, there is no way that there will be enough profit left to fill the gas tank of Ken's helicopter.
Spot on , my friend. Merck may not be the worst, but it's one of them. My manager straight-out told me to lie to my customers. I shared that with senior management and the ombudsman. I'm gone from Merck, thankfully, and he's still there making life miserable for the others. That said, he is very successful at getting rid of reps, something the company is quietly but obviously encouraging. Thus, his obvious shortcomings are overlooked because he's following orders. Makes you proud of your company, doesn't it? I regret having wasted so many years in that cesspool.
I have to laugh out loud when reading this. Having been around long enough to work along or for many of those who now stand on stage and fake crying at national meetings a different perspective. Almost all of them, as reps, broke all rules in booking preceptorships and whatever to influence physicians. Then one day all of them preached about we are pure as snow and nothing like those dirty bast**ds at Pfizer. One day you saw them handing out "honorarium" left and right, organizing dine and dash events at the craziest places, the next day they preached about how Merck is not like those companies that have ti buy business. One day you were evaluated by how many fake tutorials you could set up, the next day it was a taboo to conduct business in such a lowly manner.
As I quickly learned when I first joined Merck fresh out of college, pharmaceutical sales is a job that must be worked as a game in order to survive and even succeed. The more a rep can work it like a game, the more successful that rep will be. Look no further than the quoted post. When I no longer wished to play the game, I left Merck and the pharma industry 8 years ago. It was one of the best decisions I've made so far and absolutely no regrets, other than staying too long in pharma. Coming back here to read CP is a bit of schadenfreude I admit.
I sometimes wonder if it was just as sleazy during George Merck's time or do we view those days through rose-colored glasses? The contrast between what he preached and today's Merck reality could not posssibly be more stark.
cesspool is a farily accurate discription of this place...it functions much like a cult or a facist regime. Don't dare to voice your opinion on anything, even if is to solve a problem...keep the status quo at Merck so that all the managers can continue to fly high...
Just to let you all konw that life after Pharma is good. I would like to let you all know that work is harder, you have to put in more hours, and you do not have the freedoms fo Pharma, but it is truly rewarding to due an honest days work. As for finding another job, don't leave until they make you and go back to school and get your Master's degree or some other degree while you work for them and they pay the bill. Good luck to all.
I wasn't around during the George Merck era, but unless I was extremely naive 30 years ago, we truly did respect, honor, and honestly attempt to sustain Mr. Merck's legacy. Things just went to hell in the 90's and managed to get worse from my perch today!