Is Anyone working more than 10-2 these days?

[Anonymous]

I forgot - it's Covered Br. Crossing

 

[Anonymous]

I love calling in to Mark Steven's teleconferences while sitting in the sun in my boat drinking a beer with the phone on mute. You rock Big Red!

 

[Anonymous]

Being hired with Merck is like an IRS audit. I went through ten weeks of intensive training that included daily testing,verbal practicums and 10-12 hr days of studying and a constant threat of being sent home (I've seen it and people break down from the stress). I've been at 7 am grand rounds, made calls all day came home,changed my shirt and then went to an evening speaker program to finally return home around 11pm. I've worked conventions and gone to Merck meetings on week-ends. Spent my week-end on policy tests or a home office cubicle generated spread sheet,that my manager demanded yet never read. I've endured field visits from poorly trained tryanical managers who made my life miserable. It takes about 120 seconds on the phone for Merck (without cause) to lay you off. Is the pay good? Yeah it's (seriously) OK. Was it all worth it and would I do it all again ? No.

Agree 100% with your post. Endured the training, tests, stand-up detailing, and in the beginning I believed all this hard work would be rewarded. After a few years of this insanity, I was rewarded --- by being targeted by a replacement manager who's sole purpose it seemed was to target older, tenured reps in favor of her young - "Barbies" and "Kens".

I have been away from Merck for a few years now, work part-time for a company that is employee-owned, rewarded for providing premier customer service, receive dividends every quarter, and have regular pay increases. Am I making the money I was making at Merck?
No; and that is ok because now I truly feel that I am rewarded for a job well done. The people are genuine; unlike the Merck mgrs and those you now call CTLs and LERs. No back stabbing, no throwing people under the bus just to get ahead.

What a joy to finally be able to breath fresh air instead of the stagnant, putrid air of Merck.

 

[Anonymous]

Before I was PIP'ed out I went to all my key offices and told the docs to boycott Merck products and to give me soon-to-be former manager hell. A few months later I heard he took over a nearby district.

 

[Anonymous]

At the time I joined Merck, in the late 90's, it had never laid off anyone, even thru the industry contraction of that decade. That, of course, proved to be fools gold. Layoffs are and will continue to be the norm. Merck is not "rightsized." you think all the effort and extra hours, volunteering for every project will be worth it. It's not. Merck worships the bell curve. To be struggling or too successful is to be an outlier on either end soon gone. Middle is the safest or at least buys you the most time. Because there are no true "sales" (and everyone knows it,no matter what metrics they put forth) Merck people "sell" hardest to internal customers. They are forced to become syncophants to management who of course lap it up, justifying their own jobs. Merck is a circular firing squad. Why anyone would want the job these days is beyond me.