If you are thinking about joining MDT, please read first

[anonymous]

I have been thinking about writing this post for a while but hoped that by now some things would have changed for the better, but they have not. I have been in the industry for years, my entire career actually which spans over 2 decades. I have worked for small start ups and been with MDT for half of my career now. When I came to MDT we were still at the top in regards to quality and product innovation. Unfortunately around that same time Omar Ishrak came on the scene and it has been nothing but downhill ever since. Omar brought with him the ideas generated by GE and his mentor, Jack Welch. Omar also put all his chips on Hillary winning and Corp taxes stating high in the US, he was dead wrong on both. If you want to look at the future of MDT just look at the last 2 decades of GE.

Omar took all of the profits and plowed them into earnings not into R and D, Medtronic is now faced with the hangover of this gluttonous endeavor. MDT and Geoff Martha have decided that it’s time to be a growth company again. Again, our leaders are wrong…we are far from a growth company and in some divisions we are actually looking at a decade of decline both in surgical reimbursements and in surgical volumes.

MDT has reduced clinical support, outsourced customer service to such places as India and Costa Rica, manufacturing to 3rd world countries, and payroll to a 3rd party. We have more FDA federal corrective actions than the next largest 3 med device companies combined, take a look at the 2 articles that the Minneapolis Star Tribune did towards the end of 2022. The Dominican experiment has officially failed Geoff, you know it, the board knows it, and according to our stock price the street knows it.

If you are thinking that MDT is anything like it was even 6-7 years ago, it is not. If you are a young person who is thinking about getting into Med Device, I would not. This industry in general is falling apart due to horrific leadership among the big 4 and a broken health care system that will ultimately end in Medicare for all.

Geoff Martha is a truly horrible leader. I guess it’s not his fault, it’s seems like he has been told his whole life how good he is at hockey and how handsome he looks in his Christmas sport jackets. Unfortunately we need real men and women of industry to correct the decisions made by a few that have affected the many.

The benefits for those coming in today are no better than what a manager at a local Kroger gets and in some cases worse. Our car reimbursement is laughable, $450/mo plus a pittance per mile is so bad that even Motus will tell you we are in the bottom quartile for what they pay out to other companies field personnel. If you don’t believe me please call Motus yourself, I did and I was shocked when the person laughed when he looked at what we get reimbursed.

Pensions, yeah those ended a while back for any new employees. Last year our 401k match was .66 on the dollar, like I said Kroger managers get more. Healthcare, well, not great either. We have been driven to mediocrity.

Obviously I am looking to leave MDT as soon as possible and hope that all of the talented folks I work with can do the same. We are in very dark times here, and the light that we are seeing is not the light at the end of the tunnel but the light from a train getting ready to run us over.

 

[anonymous]

Amen

 

[anonymous]

I could not agree more.

I am coming from a similar background and time at MDT, but I was part of the recent RIF. I have to admit, I did a fist-pump and silent celebration when my manager started our last call with "I have Michelle from HR on the line as well".

 

[anonymous]

I have been thinking about writing this post for a while but hoped that by now some things would have changed for the better, but they have not. I have been in the industry for years, my entire career actually which spans over 2 decades. I have worked for small start ups and been with MDT for half of my career now. When I came to MDT we were still at the top in regards to quality and product innovation. Unfortunately around that same time Omar Ishrak came on the scene and it has been nothing but downhill ever since. Omar brought with him the ideas generated by GE and his mentor, Jack Welch. Omar also put all his chips on Hillary winning and Corp taxes stating high in the US, he was dead wrong on both. If you want to look at the future of MDT just look at the last 2 decades of GE.

Omar took all of the profits and plowed them into earnings not into R and D, Medtronic is now faced with the hangover of this gluttonous endeavor. MDT and Geoff Martha have decided that it’s time to be a growth company again. Again, our leaders are wrong…we are far from a growth company and in some divisions we are actually looking at a decade of decline both in surgical reimbursements and in surgical volumes.

MDT has reduced clinical support, outsourced customer service to such places as India and Costa Rica, manufacturing to 3rd world countries, and payroll to a 3rd party. We have more FDA federal corrective actions than the next largest 3 med device companies combined, take a look at the 2 articles that the Minneapolis Star Tribune did towards the end of 2022. The Dominican experiment has officially failed Geoff, you know it, the board knows it, and according to our stock price the street knows it.

If you are thinking that MDT is anything like it was even 6-7 years ago, it is not. If you are a young person who is thinking about getting into Med Device, I would not. This industry in general is falling apart due to horrific leadership among the big 4 and a broken health care system that will ultimately end in Medicare for all.

Geoff Martha is a truly horrible leader. I guess it’s not his fault, it’s seems like he has been told his whole life how good he is at hockey and how handsome he looks in his Christmas sport jackets. Unfortunately we need real men and women of industry to correct the decisions made by a few that have affected the many.

The benefits for those coming in today are no better than what a manager at a local Kroger gets and in some cases worse. Our car reimbursement is laughable, $450/mo plus a pittance per mile is so bad that even Motus will tell you we are in the bottom quartile for what they pay out to other companies field personnel. If you don’t believe me please call Motus yourself, I did and I was shocked when the person laughed when he looked at what we get reimbursed.

Pensions, yeah those ended a while back for any new employees. Last year our 401k match was .66 on the dollar, like I said Kroger managers get more. Healthcare, well, not great either. We have been driven to mediocrity.

Obviously I am looking to leave MDT as soon as possible and hope that all of the talented folks I work with can do the same. We are in very dark times here, and the light that we are seeing is not the light at the end of the tunnel but the light from a train getting ready to run us over.

If you want to see what the future of healthcare is, just look at Canada and their MAID program. If it's cheaper to put sick people to sleep than to prescribe a drug or perform a surgery, then there will be no reason for medical device & pharmaceutical companies to even bother innovating & developing products to treat & cure people.

And yes, Medicare for all will lead to a MAID program in the US, just like how Canada's universal healthcare has led to MAID. In Canada, MAID is even being offered to poor & homeless people, teenagers with anxiety, & otherwise healthy people who have no physical or biological ailments other than feeling depressed.

The future is looking bleak.

 

[anonymous]

I could not agree more with the original poster. It is a travesty what the leadership of this company has done to what once was THE PREMIER MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANY to work for. I started with Medtronic in 2003 and for about the first 6-7 years I felt privileged and proud to be part of the organization, but after Art Collins left it began to go downhill slowly, but Omar Ishrak accelerated that and drive the company into the ground. Omar is a modern day "Robber Baron" and I have no idea how he can look himself in the mirror. I left after 15 years, but here is a copy of a review that I posted on Glassdoor a little over a year before I left.

I have been an employee of Medtronic for close to 14 years now and have been in the process of posting a review. I have some very poignant facts that I would like to share based on my experience and the feedback of many other longer term employees that will not be viewed well by Medtronic. I again want to make certain that posted reviews are anonymous. My comments are factual and are worded professionally, without profanity and emotion, but I have read that all reviews must be approved by the Glassdoor's staff. I would like to know what would be grounds for a review not being approved and posted. I have spent a lot of time formulating my thoughts and putting them into words and I think it is important that prospective employees have an opportunity to hear the experiences of more tenured workers before deciding to join this company.

Medtronic CRHF products are great products. If I had a relative or a loved one requiring a cardiac device, I would not hesitate.

Throughout the past several years this company has continually reduced the compensation and benefits of it's employees. A few years ago they even cut our modest $45K-$50K base salaries by $6500.00 which were already far below what our competitors were offering their sales representatives. Medtronic did this under the pretense that it was to help cover the 2.3% device industry tax ObamaCare was imposing upon our industry. Yet, they have spent far less money successfully lobbying to delay paying any of this tax. Upper management took the same percentage cut at the time, but underhandedly reinstated their own salaries 6 months later as was referenced in our annual report . Senior leadership is making more money year after year and they are constantly telling us how the company is thriving while the field continues to make less and they neglect to funnel any of the profits back toward the worker bees. We have not even had a cost of living increase in the past 7-8 years, but hey, it's all good, because our CEO just had a 79% increase in his compensation over the previous year, earning him over $ 40 million. Also, company employees, some of which dedicated their entire careers to Medtronic, got hit with hefty taxes due to the Medtronic/Covidien merger. Conversely, after less than 5 years of employment with Medtronic, CEO Omar Ishrak was granted an addition $25 million dollars of stock to cover his taxes, along with approximately 20 other executives that unlike employees had their tax burdens covered. I sincerely question how Mr. Ishrak is capable of looking his employees in their eyes when he shows up at the National Sales Meeting. This companies leadership clearly does not value it employees and that is sad, because it used to be much different 10+ years ago. I realize that this review contains more negative content than positive and that there are also reviews on this site which are positive. That said, when reading the positive reviews, please take note of the length of employment of the reviewer. Many of the positive reviews are written by newer employees. Those of us who have been with the company for longer periods know what Medtronic once was like and that is where we are basing our comparisons.

Medtronic has become a huge multinational conglomerate, but was it was built off the backs of the CRHF division and the work/life balance is horrible, when one considers that as a sales representative, you are on call 24 hours a day Monday-Thursday, every 4th to 5th weekend and most holidays. As a result we should be compensated accordingly for the sacrifices that we are expected to make time and time again by putting work before our families, but we are not.

In CRHF the training learning curve is so long, that they will not allow you to move to a different division, no matter what management claims. I know many people that have had managers in other divisions openly admit that they had been told they are not allowed to hire from the CRHF division.

Financially reward your employees for the hard work they do. Attempt to keep good people from leaving by making them feel appreciated and valued (money talks). Senior leadership should abandon the mentality that they can continue eating away and slowly eroding the reasons many of us wanted to join Medtronic in the first place, because they believe the job market is so bad that there is no risk of people leaving.

 

[anonymous]

I could not agree more with the original poster. It is a travesty what the leadership of this company has done to what once was THE PREMIER MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANY to work for. I started with Medtronic in 2003 and for about the first 6-7 years I felt privileged and proud to be part of the organization, but after Art Collins left it began to go downhill slowly, but Omar Ishrak accelerated that and drive the company into the ground. Omar is a modern day "Robber Baron" and I have no idea how he can look himself in the mirror. I left after 15 years, but here is a copy of a review that I posted on Glassdoor a little over a year before I left.

I have been an employee of Medtronic for close to 14 years now and have been in the process of posting a review. I have some very poignant facts that I would like to share based on my experience and the feedback of many other longer term employees that will not be viewed well by Medtronic. I again want to make certain that posted reviews are anonymous. My comments are factual and are worded professionally, without profanity and emotion, but I have read that all reviews must be approved by the Glassdoor's staff. I would like to know what would be grounds for a review not being approved and posted. I have spent a lot of time formulating my thoughts and putting them into words and I think it is important that prospective employees have an opportunity to hear the experiences of more tenured workers before deciding to join this company.

Medtronic CRHF products are great products. If I had a relative or a loved one requiring a cardiac device, I would not hesitate.

Throughout the past several years this company has continually reduced the compensation and benefits of it's employees. A few years ago they even cut our modest $45K-$50K base salaries by $6500.00 which were already far below what our competitors were offering their sales representatives. Medtronic did this under the pretense that it was to help cover the 2.3% device industry tax ObamaCare was imposing upon our industry. Yet, they have spent far less money successfully lobbying to delay paying any of this tax. Upper management took the same percentage cut at the time, but underhandedly reinstated their own salaries 6 months later as was referenced in our annual report . Senior leadership is making more money year after year and they are constantly telling us how the company is thriving while the field continues to make less and they neglect to funnel any of the profits back toward the worker bees. We have not even had a cost of living increase in the past 7-8 years, but hey, it's all good, because our CEO just had a 79% increase in his compensation over the previous year, earning him over $ 40 million. Also, company employees, some of which dedicated their entire careers to Medtronic, got hit with hefty taxes due to the Medtronic/Covidien merger. Conversely, after less than 5 years of employment with Medtronic, CEO Omar Ishrak was granted an addition $25 million dollars of stock to cover his taxes, along with approximately 20 other executives that unlike employees had their tax burdens covered. I sincerely question how Mr. Ishrak is capable of looking his employees in their eyes when he shows up at the National Sales Meeting. This companies leadership clearly does not value it employees and that is sad, because it used to be much different 10+ years ago. I realize that this review contains more negative content than positive and that there are also reviews on this site which are positive. That said, when reading the positive reviews, please take note of the length of employment of the reviewer. Many of the positive reviews are written by newer employees. Those of us who have been with the company for longer periods know what Medtronic once was like and that is where we are basing our comparisons.

Medtronic has become a huge multinational conglomerate, but was it was built off the backs of the CRHF division and the work/life balance is horrible, when one considers that as a sales representative, you are on call 24 hours a day Monday-Thursday, every 4th to 5th weekend and most holidays. As a result we should be compensated accordingly for the sacrifices that we are expected to make time and time again by putting work before our families, but we are not.

In CRHF the training learning curve is so long, that they will not allow you to move to a different division, no matter what management claims. I know many people that have had managers in other divisions openly admit that they had been told they are not allowed to hire from the CRHF division.

Financially reward your employees for the hard work they do. Attempt to keep good people from leaving by making them feel appreciated and valued (money talks). Senior leadership should abandon the mentality that they can continue eating away and slowly eroding the reasons many of us wanted to join Medtronic in the first place, because they believe the job market is so bad that there is no risk of people leaving.