Legacy Merck arrogance

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Anonymous said:
I joined Merck 39 years ago and they were a piece of crap then just as they are now. The only thing that has changed is they have gotten worse. They have always been arrogant and full of themselves and thought they were better than anyone else. I've seen great sales people not hired by Merck and they get hired by the competition and end up cleaning Merck's clock. I'm not making this up. I have seen it over and over for the past 39 years. Over the years most of the good reps on territory were competitive reps. The Merck reps didn't know how to sell, they just played the role and kissed the manager's ass to get ahead. Evidently you are one of that kind. All the Schearing reps I knew were always as good as the majority of Merck reps.
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What imbecile works for a company for 39 years that they despise? A person who's a bigger idiot than the company he/she claims it to be. Don't post a comment like that. It makes you look like a total buffoon.
 




2 years later... I joined Merck in 2013 so no Legacy Merck or SP BS. I knew from the past that Merck people were arrogant and that SP people were cowboys. The joke in the market was that Merck gets industry feedback by calling themselves, however, Merck used to be the biggest Pharma 15 years ago so at least there was something to back the arrogant attitude, similar to what an rich person living in Park Avenue would have. All I have seen by now is a dysfunctional family, a company that might go down and here are my observations, at least in IT where I work.
SP people hold the manager jobs. Not very bright or strategic type but relatively humble people who are trying to do their job.
Merck people hold the director jobs. Clueless idiots who got the job because they have been with Merck for 25-35 years. Arrogant and absolutely no class as some postings suggested. The Executive director level has some new people, seem sharp but they cannot deliver given that they give strategic direction to the clueless director level, who then try to execute the strategy and get the managers to implement. It starts a bit like executive director says "we need to go West bound". Director level translates that to go to Virginia and Manager takes NJ Turnpike south. The Director then gets frustrated and starts screaming "You are going South!!! You are not listening!!! You need to get to Virginia" then goes to the executive director and says "The managers are idiots!!! They do not understand what I tell them!" The rest of the directors agree... these SP morons they are idiots. The Executive Director is then lost and starts screaming at everybody. Anyway, at the end of the day, it is a very negative environment to work, vendors simply cannot stand Merck people with their arrogant attitude who thing they have the right to treat people like dirt. If the situation at MRL is different and there is actually creativity and innovation that will come up with blockbuster drugs then good for them. I doubt it though. Merck announced today that it's buying a biotech for it's pipeline but unless all these issues above are solved then any acquisition will be long term disaster since all the talent runs away and the shit is left behind to deal with the arrogant politicians. Good luck Merck, but I doubt it that you will survive unless people drop the arrogant attitude and work together to achieve something.
 




Anonymous said:
No company beats Merck in those departments. You have no idea how bad it actually is.
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Of course, we comply completely with 100% of reps reviewing the training! What more could they want? Does it say anywhere that the things that caused the problems have to be corrected? All we need to do is take the training and policy test. The game is that we were taking tests and following policy all the long. The trick is the same thing that has happened in the VA (managers gave orders to hide patient wait lists) and Walmart (employees illegally required by managers to work without straight or overtime pay). The problem has not been corrected so business as usual.
 




Anonymous said:
I have to agree with you. We try to be classy when we have no more class. We try to act like the Old Merck in the 80's when we are not that innovative anymore. We try to keep repeating the George Merck's saying when we really are for the money. We try to remind ourselves we were the most admired and this is our plan to return to that spot when we have nothing to actually allow us to regain that spot. We try to talk like "Merck" when our current crop of management are full of back stabbers, anal retentive self serving a**holes with zero vision and charisma. When Keller walked on stage we applauded because he was on our side and a leader. Now we applauded because our managers are watching us (and standing behind us) with threatening looks.
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I have one SP counterpart that thinks leggings & a top with flip flops or worse, when she doesn't make it home in time to change for work. She wears a tea-shirt dress! She doesn't even IRON that sucker. A NO CLASS SP for sure!
 












Anonymous said:
I joined Merck 39 years ago and they were a piece of crap then just as they are now. The only thing that has changed is they have gotten worse. They have always been arrogant and full of themselves and thought they were better than anyone else. I've seen great sales people not hired by Merck and they get hired by the competition and end up cleaning Merck's clock. I'm not making this up. I have seen it over and over for the past 39 years. Over the years most of the good reps on territory were competitive reps. The Merck reps didn't know how to sell, they just played the role and kissed the manager's ass to get ahead. Evidently you are one of that kind. All the Schearing reps I knew were always as good as the majority of Merck reps.
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I got 30 years before my retirement. The Schering reps were creative and could sell. I agree with you that they were better than us. We the Merck reps, even when we were good, continued to be screwed by rules and policy letters and excessive field trips with managers who simply were not that great. I missed my earlier years with Merck when managers stayed away and let us figured ways to sell our products.
 




Anonymous said:
There were bad people in all 3 companies Organon, SP, and Merck.

THe most at Merck because it is the most entrenched and the biggest.
Why no innovation?
1. Long term employees , saying we alway did it this way , good or bad they couldn't see anything through anything other then the Merck lens.
2. MDs as gods, there are very few people in development who are allowed to make even small decisions who aren't MDs and MDs as a group are educated to be self important.
3. Bureaucracy makes it slow slow slow
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Merck was more ethical in the pre-Vioxx and huge field expansion days. Then we got creative in feeding and entertaining and slowly our jobs became more of a caterer. We dumbed down. We used to be amazed at how many times Pfizer would pay a fine and move on as if they treated the penalties as routine business expenses.

My guess is many MDs came to work for Merck because they don't get along with their peers or don't want to practice medicine? We use them in return. We sent them around to speak on behalf of us as a "practicing physician". We have them at a meeting to legitimize our rally. Why we cheered and applauded when a MD with no clinical experience stood in front of us and read through a boring PI in order to certify us? Why we approached them during dinner time and treated them like celebrities?
 








MRL is a joke basically. Perlmutter basically said as much during his big webcast when he announced the cuts and how the company is just gonna buy phase 1&2 drugs and develop them. He basically came out and said wtf do you people do all day? Where is the innovation and discovery we pay you hundreds of thousands of $ for to get us new drugs in the pipeline? Oh there is none, well guess what, cya, thanks... Then everybody flips out because they are getting fired... If people stopped worrying about who's bday it is and the next party in the office, maybe people would do their job better... I don't agree with most of the firing but it is what it is....
 




Actually, the industry thrived when it was all male. We were highly educated, mostly ex military. There have been business articles written on this that talk about the dumbing down from the days of the detail Men.

The baby mommas couldn't grasp the science and gravitated to what they know- lunches and bringing cookies etc. That was the beginning of the end. You mommies ruined it- couldn't handle a real intellectual debate so let me order a nice lunch! We never did that back in the day.
 




I am a female and I can see that. I never bought into the rah rah, cookies and cake "sales".
I enjoyed the days of articles, journal clubs and preceptorships. Oh well! I'm glad I got to be a part of THAT. I handraised and hope I'm gone from the embarassment of the dog and pony show this has become. It doesn't pay to be smart at this job, since i can only say the three points I have been told to say. I'm a salesperson: creative, intelligent and hard-working. I hope I land somewhere where this can AGAIN be exercized.
 








Anonymous said:
Actually, the industry thrived when it was all male. We were highly educated, mostly ex military. There have been business articles written on this that talk about the dumbing down from the days of the detail Men.

The baby mommas couldn't grasp the science and gravitated to what they know- lunches and bringing cookies etc. That was the beginning of the end. You mommies ruined it- couldn't handle a real intellectual debate so let me order a nice lunch! We never did that back in the day.
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This is the tone of PC in general. Anyone who knows DF sees this. PC doctors tend not to be as well versed as specialists. But hey, if you have a job you're happy.
 




Anonymous said:
Actually, the industry thrived when it was all male. We were highly educated, mostly ex military. There have been business articles written on this that talk about the dumbing down from the days of the detail Men.

The baby mommas couldn't grasp the science and gravitated to what they know- lunches and bringing cookies etc. That was the beginning of the end. You mommies ruined it- couldn't handle a real intellectual debate so let me order a nice lunch! We never did that back in the day.
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"Highly educated?" What are you smoking? A Bachelor of Arts Degrees in Communications from a State College is not "highly educated."
 




Anonymous said:
"Highly educated?" What are you smoking? A Bachelor of Arts Degrees in Communications from a State College is not "highly educated."
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Hey, Mr/ Ms. Snooty, big name school. Most people here have a bachelors last time I checked.

A bachelors is a bachelors is a bachelors. BTW all academic programs have pretty much the same curriculum for the first two years...In reality, schools are really not much different....

People get caught up with thinking they are buying your way to stardom with a school name. The reality is if you gain entry into a hot school either......your family has bucks, you are an unusually bright beam or you are mediocre to crappy a student on a "special program." The lousy students will be helped through to maintain quota or where the parents can afford any necessary tutors.....

I will take the State U graduate any day, hands down. They are generally the one's who need to work for pay the tuition (known as the hard workers who have no silver spoons or free giveaways bestowed upon them). They are the ones who worked for the grades (willing to go the extra mile).

Most big name schools are a name. You are paying for the name. The name is believed to open doors...sometime yes, sometimes no. Belonging to the old boys club attached to the school is where the connections and results happen....Next time you are in an layoff outsourcing check on who has Ivy. You will probably meet a few....

So what makes the communications guy or gal any less qualified to sell? Nothing. Ever think... they just might be masters at communications.....wow...more qualified than the drip behind the test tube!!
 




After the merger, I was pissed. They kept more SP people than Merck people in my area, many good friends were let go in the process. Now, 3 years later, I can say these SP people are much better salespeople than the Merck people let go. They think different from Merck people, more freedom, less fear. I have grown to like them and respect them. Im sorry you have not experienced the same.
 




Anonymous said:
Hey, Mr/ Ms. Snooty, big name school. Most people here have a bachelors last time I checked.

A bachelors is a bachelors is a bachelors. BTW all academic programs have pretty much the same curriculum for the first two years...In reality, schools are really not much different....

People get caught up with thinking they are buying your way to stardom with a school name. The reality is if you gain entry into a hot school either......your family has bucks, you are an unusually bright beam or you are mediocre to crappy a student on a "special program." The lousy students will be helped through to maintain quota or where the parents can afford any necessary tutors.....

I will take the State U graduate any day, hands down. They are generally the one's who need to work for pay the tuition (known as the hard workers who have no silver spoons or free giveaways bestowed upon them). They are the ones who worked for the grades (willing to go the extra mile).

Most big name schools are a name. You are paying for the name. The name is believed to open doors...sometime yes, sometimes no. Belonging to the old boys club attached to the school is where the connections and results happen....Next time you are in an layoff outsourcing check on who has Ivy. You will probably meet a few....

So what makes the communications guy or gal any less qualified to sell? Nothing. Ever think... they just might be masters at communications.....wow...more qualified than the drip behind the test tube!!
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I was referring to the "highly educated" remark. Highly educated IS NOT a Bachelor's Degree. No disrespect on a State College, just on the remark about Merck people being highly educated. The Merck people I worked with were not "highly educated." Not one of them.
 




Anonymous said:
Merck people are arrogant? Wow that's breaking news, NOT!
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Merck was dying with nothing so they ruined a perfectly good pharma company named Schering-Plough and put them out of existence to get their hot little hands on the wonderful drugs that Schering scientists came up with. Then Merck can't even get them launched and so they go in and cut out tons of headcount. Good luck Merckies.....from the top brass's last communications the blood letting will continue. Your all screwed. Did Merck make it into 80% of the world? Doesn't look that way. Hopefully by letting go a good Consumer Care company to Bayer for 14.2 billion, they can continue to pay all the top brass their big money and maybe get some of those good medicines launched.
 




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