Merck person here....
If you are retained you will note a difference. 35.00 cell allowance is true and you will use it for all merck business including endless Conf calls. Your iPad will have a tracking component and you must keep locator service on or you will get an email from compliance. You get no reimbursement for Internet service.
Merck has experienced ongoing layoffs for several years and will continue to do so. PC was in June and specialty, hospital and women's health got their calls 12/2. This was reps and managers. It will be ongoing and this was a quote from our president. I can't say who would or would not be kept but don't come over thinking this is secure and solid place to be. The company has lost Zocor, Cozar/Hyzar, Singular, Fosomax on the PC side in the last few years. All billion dollar products with only Januvia as a replacement. Added a few products in resp and specialty but doing terrible. There is a new oncology product that will help. Take a look at the Merck board and you will see it's very negative. If you have a salary over 110K you better start looking. Layoffs are designed to reduce cost, they will not maintain high cost reps and they don't cate about your relationships. There are numerous changes that have occurred or will occur in the next year to the benefits package and they are not providing richer benefits. I hope you like the Chevy Malibu because that is what you will be charged 185.00 a month for and its stripped down.
New reps are all contract so they can discharge them with little expense. I can tell you for a fact there are many reps on the PC side that are making <70K per year. I am Hospital and most if my counterparts are around 100. It's big pharma, micro mamaged and streamlined. Everybody forced ranked and those at the top will get 2.5% raise those on the bottom will be pushed out and given a 0% raise in the interim .. Have fun and welcome aboard.
