Merck Layoffs

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Anonymous said:
They are picking off the tenured people regardless of numbers to lower costs. I'm willing to bet there will be at least a 10% salesforce reduction when the NCM goes live at the end of the year. I was just given my walking papers today, and the reasoning they used was that I violated region policy & standards because I wasn't on territory 200 days in the last 12 months. (FYI it was 198 and I get 5 weeks vacay + flex days) Bunch of crap. Even the people that are being displaced are being written up first so they don't have to pay full separation pay. If I were all of you, I'd keep my eyes wide open and don't trust your manager as far as you can throw them.
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On the contrary, I see some tenured reps using their power to create secured spots for themselves. All at the expense of reps without the same seniority. Management wake up to their tactics.
 






Anonymous said:
We were given phone appts by our manager and called on that date with the news of retention or displacement.
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They didn't even meet with you personally? This process is so subjective. My spouse's objectives have been raised higher than everyone else's repeatedly in the region and his/her territory isn't a high population area like most of the others. It seems in many ways they play games with the objectives so they can keep their favorites safe and force those who aren't brown noses to work much harder to produce when there really isn't a population base to draw from in their area, and when they've killed themselves and can't create that high an amount of new business they complain the sales trend is downward somewhat, instead of asking what the numbers would be if a lesser sales rep was in the territory. How many territories in major cities have been left empty for various reasons like illness or maternity leave only to have the numbers go way up anyway? Yet those employees will be kept when they weren't even in the territory. And if you raise that point the manager will get mad and say you shouldn't bring up other rep's situations when you're being compared to everyone else. Unreal!
 


















Anonymous said:
They didn't even meet with you personally? This process is so subjective. My spouse's objectives have been raised higher than everyone else's repeatedly in the region and his/her territory isn't a high population area like most of the others. It seems in many ways they play games with the objectives so they can keep their favorites safe and force those who aren't brown noses to work much harder to produce when there really isn't a population base to draw from in their area, and when they've killed themselves and can't create that high an amount of new business they complain the sales trend is downward somewhat, instead of asking what the numbers would be if a lesser sales rep was in the territory. How many territories in major cities have been left empty for various reasons like illness or maternity leave only to have the numbers go way up anyway? Yet those employees will be kept when they weren't even in the territory. And if you raise that point the manager will get mad and say you shouldn't bring up other rep's situations when you're being compared to everyone else. Unreal!
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You make some very valid points. However, if you talk to any reps who have been around for any length of time you will notice that what they have in common is the "whatever" attitude. No matter what system they use or how many times they change the titles of the programs we still do the same things: lunches, dinner programs, expense reports, give things to drs, field visits, sales calls, etc. Could the sales objective process provide incentive for sales performance and reward those who are actually working? Yes but why should they? The current system allows complete control--the managers select the winners based on personal relationships and keep others to actually get the work done. Changing things for the better will require releasing control and acknowledging that many do not work at this company. If fact, managers have said to me that "not working" is not a VIOLATION of policy and reps cannot be fired for not working. So, what I am saying to you is to either take the "whatever" attitude, try to become part of the managers favored few, of leave.
 






























Anonymous said:
Is it true that most new reps will be CSO reps? Are they keeping current CSO reps?
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Duhhh. Hey havent you found out that truck loads of highly expereinced reps here were basically demoted to S1 and had their careers screwed. Do you really think you have a future here? Look someplace else the future is toast here.
 






Anonymous said:
Takes to much time to train a newbie. An experienced rep can hit the ground running and make a quick difference. A newbie is spending the entire day looking at a map and trying not to get lost!
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Or they can see it this way: a newbie is cheaper to hire, healthier if younger meaning costs less in health care claims, more trainable, more willing to follow orders. The experienced rep may have old habits hard to break and cost more overall. Experienced reps do not mean automatically mean competent reps.
 






Anonymous said:
Or they can see it this way: a newbie is cheaper to hire, healthier if younger meaning costs less in health care claims, more trainable, more willing to follow orders. The experienced rep may have old habits hard to break and cost more overall. Experienced reps do not mean automatically mean competent reps.
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Management believes that the missing ingredient in all of its organizations is merely enthusiastic, energetic employees who, if they simply would stop being cynical and just listen for a minute or two, would see that Merck is the greatest company on earth. Since anyone that has been here for longer than 2-3 years can see that this is not exactly true, the company wishes to bet enthusiastic inexperience against experienced cynicism in order to get the missing ingredient. It is best to act dopey and happy until you can find a place where real happiness can happen. Never let on that you are capable of thinking for yourself of they will figure that you are faking your enthusiasm. It is a cult.
 






Layoffs & Hiring freeze to start very soon. Not just for reps but for the whole company!

The number on the street if 37 thousand jobs to be let go coming very soon ...,,
so that we can shift funding and manage our share holders expectations. What they should do is stop paying EC members outrageous paychecks, stock options and more...

If they (EC) decided to give that back to the company we could save a number of jobs for all of us and not just them at the top!
 






Anonymous said:
Layoffs & Hiring freeze to start very soon. Not just for reps but for the whole company!

The number on the street if 37 thousand jobs to be let go coming very soon ...,,
so that we can shift funding and manage our share holders expectations. What they should do is stop paying EC members outrageous paychecks, stock options and more...

If they (EC) decided to give that back to the company we could save a number of jobs for all of us and not just them at the top!
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37,0000?????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 






They started with about 106,000 on first day of merged company and now have about 92,000. Recent disappointments will result in considerably more cuts. If the business model remains the same, the work force could stabilize as low as 70-75 thousand. If they drop business sectors, the employees will go with the sector. Point is this, however. This business will never be as stable and desirable as it once was. Turnover will get huge and it will not draw top talent. The only way to the top in such an industry is to move from company to company in managerial capacities. The days of the skilled, professional practitioner making a terrific income for skilled, professional, practice are finished. Continual worry is the name of the new game, my friend.
 






This should not be a shock to anyone. 37,000 people gone. Look at the price of gas!!!
It is just going to go higher since China is using more and owning more of it.
Telemarketing is the way to go.
 






everyone knows the reality. a sales staff is hugly expensive to maintain: car,gas,computer,salary,samples, benefits,training. a massive liability:,hippa,pharma,fda,legal. and only marginally effective: little access, physically,mentally,statistically,formulary. If this was your company would you pay huge amounts of money to burn gas, do lunch, get a few signatures, and not see anyone or influence any one? Really? Would you also pay a fortune to support and manage such a marginal exercise? There is a much better way. It will take an enterprising senior management to re-organize and execute it. Lucky for the merck sales staff that management team is no were to be found at merck. so merck will continue to do things the old, ineffecient, ineffective, expensive way. Your jobs are safe for a while.
 






Anonymous said:
They started with about 106,000 on first day of merged company and now have about 92,000. Recent disappointments will result in considerably more cuts. If the business model remains the same, the work force could stabilize as low as 70-75 thousand. If they drop business sectors, the employees will go with the sector. Point is this, however. This business will never be as stable and desirable as it once was. Turnover will get huge and it will not draw top talent. The only way to the top in such an industry is to move from company to company in managerial capacities. The days of the skilled, professional practitioner making a terrific income for skilled, professional, practice are finished. Continual worry is the name of the new game, my friend.
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Where does the current number of Merck employees = 92,000 come from? Please provide a reference / link. I have looked and cannot find a bona fide value for the number of current employees.
 












Anonymous said:
Where does the current number of Merck employees = 92,000 come from? Please provide a reference / link. I have looked and cannot find a bona fide value for the number of current employees.
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Check out the Annual Report and search on the word "employees" -- it will eventually come up. (MRK had approx 94,000 employees in end of 2010). If you were really sad, you could search on "restructuring" instead.

http://www.merck.com/investors/financials/form-10-k-2011.pdf
 






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