Rough Times Ahead You Have Been Warned

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I agree with some of the comments but now all. I have been with Ethicon for 5 years. Came from ees and now a TL. Here is what is happening in my territory--

1. My access is fine.
However, I don't abuse it and careful about what and how hard I push anything. My sales probably suffer some but I'm not willing to get kicked out. If that happened I would be out of a career.

2. It's not all contract driven.
Sure most of it is. But when you manage a 5 million dollar territory there is still 2-300k per year I would say that you can control. That essentially pays for the rep PLUS ethicon still has a human being covering all the daily grunt work that we do. It's a no brainer IMO for ethicon and I don't see reps going anywhere for a long time.

3. Expectations are too high.
Our goals are too high for new products. See number 1 above. I can only speak for myself, but I can't roam the halls of hospitals at will anytime I please and hawk product. The risk reward is too high. I can and will move new product but ethicon just needs to accept that we can't sell in surgery every day. That's a pipe dream. Let me rephrase....can you? Yes, but you won't be liked by admin and your career will be short lived. If I lose respect of my hospitals and not trusted, my career at ethicon and or future med device jobs in those hospitals is crushed.

4. Customers do like me and they do want a professional rep.
If we can all get on board with this and stop with the crazy number of sales buckets to make any money then maybe reps will feel less pressured to sell a million things to make their number.

Bottom line is the job is what you make of it and it is going to vary wildly based upon the rep and how he or she works the job. IMO, we need to bump down the sales expectations. Call me whatever but I am looking at this long term. The med device company that wins in the long term is based upon our actions now.
 












Anonymous said:
correct , you will not be as sales rep then . We are here to sell, thats why our salaries have been increased . We are now service reps.
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Not true my commissions and salary are comparable. If I am a service rep then my salary needs to be around 80 percent of my comp.

If I'm a sales rep then 80 percent of total needs to come from commissions.

If they want us to be service reps primarily then I need a huge salary increase
 






Anonymous said:
I agree with some of the comments but now all. I have been with Ethicon for 5 years. Came from ees and now a TL. Here is what is happening in my territory--

1. My access is fine.
However, I don't abuse it and careful about what and how hard I push anything. My sales probably suffer some but I'm not willing to get kicked out. If that happened I would be out of a career.

2. It's not all contract driven.
Sure most of it is. But when you manage a 5 million dollar territory there is still 2-300k per year I would say that you can control. That essentially pays for the rep PLUS ethicon still has a human being covering all the daily grunt work that we do. It's a no brainer IMO for ethicon and I don't see reps going anywhere for a long time.

3. Expectations are too high.
Our goals are too high for new products. See number 1 above. I can only speak for myself, but I can't roam the halls of hospitals at will anytime I please and hawk product. The risk reward is too high. I can and will move new product but ethicon just needs to accept that we can't sell in surgery every day. That's a pipe dream. Let me rephrase....can you? Yes, but you won't be liked by admin and your career will be short lived. If I lose respect of my hospitals and not trusted, my career at ethicon and or future med device jobs in those hospitals is crushed.

4. Customers do like me and they do want a professional rep.
If we can all get on board with this and stop with the crazy number of sales buckets to make any money then maybe reps will feel less pressured to sell a million things to make their number.

Bottom line is the job is what you make of it and it is going to vary wildly based upon the rep and how he or she works the job. IMO, we need to bump down the sales expectations. Call me whatever but I am looking at this long term. The med device company that wins in the long term is based upon our actions now.
Click to expand...

Very good post and very accurate
 






why does everyone assume energy will be the first to go? Last year mid year they cut quota for EVERYONE but the pay did NOT change. It didn't make sense at the time but it sure does now. They all got pretty high PDMs because of it. When they go to cut folks, they will be looking at trending PDMS year over year. Everyone who had their quote cut in half last year will be good. As for the other operating companies...it doesn't matter how much you made. It's all about PDM ranking when they make these cuts and who they want gone. Occasionally it has to do with geography... just sayin
 






PLEASE HELP ME UNDERSTAND. Why is it the ESC is adding energy and biosurgery into the bag but neither energy or biosurgery is picking up any of the ESC codes???? This is not "collaborative partnering" Mr. Dewitt. Leveraging the entire portfolio? Please. Collaboration is a reciprocal effort. ESC is taking on more work in 'partnering' with energy and biosurgery but getting NOTHING in return.
Biosurgery has a close relationship with Ortho's and soon to be spine. Pick up Prineo how easy would that be? Covidien energy reps picked up stapling? Why can't ours?
It's like the commercial "give it to Mikey he'll eat it" "Dump it on the TL's/HBT'S they can sell it" Seriously 4 people supporting energy?
 






Anonymous said:
why does everyone assume energy will be the first to go? Last year mid year they cut quota for EVERYONE but the pay did NOT change. It didn't make sense at the time but it sure does now. They all got pretty high PDMs because of it. When they go to cut folks, they will be looking at trending PDMS year over year. Everyone who had their quote cut in half last year will be good. As for the other operating companies...it doesn't matter how much you made. It's all about PDM ranking when they make these cuts and who they want gone. Occasionally it has to do with geography... just sayin
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Because they've already announced that 37 energy reps are getting cut...I'm doubtful that there will even be an energy specialist in 2015.. The energy reps that are left after this cut will probably become one of the other three rep types next year.
The HBT, GYN, and TL roles aren't going anywhere soon
 






Anonymous said:
why does everyone assume energy will be the first to go? Last year mid year they cut quota for EVERYONE but the pay did NOT change. It didn't make sense at the time but it sure does now. They all got pretty high PDMs because of it. When they go to cut folks, they will be looking at trending PDMS year over year. Everyone who had their quote cut in half last year will be good. As for the other operating companies...it doesn't matter how much you made. It's all about PDM ranking when they make these cuts and who they want gone. Occasionally it has to do with geography... just sayin
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I don't want to come off as an ass but did you miss the town hall, company wide and regional calls this week? It is fairly clear that ESR's are getting cut. Best of luck.
 






Sounds like ligasure is getting the best of you . OH I FORGOT TO MENTION OUR CORDLESS THING >>> YOU KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT > Maybe you can come over to the dark side and come with a winner . Your ship is sinking
 






Anonymous said:
Not true my commissions and salary are comparable. If I am a service rep then my salary needs to be around 80 percent of my comp.

If I'm a sales rep then 80 percent of total needs to come from commissions.

If they want us to be service reps primarily then I need a huge salary increase
Click to expand...

You want a huge increase in salary! You are grossly overpaid with your salary alone. You have no skills. My 15 year old son could do what you do.
- Your CAD sets pricing and executes contracts
- Marketing material is handed to you. Ethicon even tells you who to target.
You bring nothing to the table. You have been spoiled by a profitable company who is willing to pay someone your salary to avoid getting some asshole in your place. Get over yourself and be damn glad that Ethicon doesn't realize they could pay you $45K and get same results. We should be so lucky that our company is this clueless. I am going to ride this out until they kick me out. Not sure what I will do then. Like you I have no real skills to bring to a real job.
 






Anonymous said:
You want a huge increase in salary! You are grossly overpaid with your salary alone. You have no skills. My 15 year old son could do what you do.
- Your CAD sets pricing and executes contracts
- Marketing material is handed to you. Ethicon even tells you who to target.
You bring nothing to the table. You have been spoiled by a profitable company who is willing to pay someone your salary to avoid getting some asshole in your place. Get over yourself and be damn glad that Ethicon doesn't realize they could pay you $45K and get same results. We should be so lucky that our company is this clueless. I am going to ride this out until they kick me out. Not sure what I will do then. Like you I have no real skills to bring to a real job.
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So true. I would shut my hole in the face and keep stealing those checks as long as they give them to me. At some point they are going to realize they don't need all of us and then its over. until then give me my cheap q tips and free money!
 






This attitude is why the company is where it is today.

The point of the thread is be warned, because they can and are starting to pay a lot less for people they are bringing on board.

Service reps yes, poor leadership yes, trying to figure out what is next to do..

Priceless
 












Anonymous said:
This attitude is why the company is where it is today.

The point of the thread is be warned, because they can and are starting to pay a lot less for people they are bringing on board.

Service reps yes, poor leadership yes, trying to figure out what is next to do..

Priceless
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Bottom line is that employees are treated like a commodity rather than a valued resource and attitudes shift from a dedicated employee to a "check the box" employee. Thus you get the culture we are currently experiencing.

We know what it takes to succeed at Ethicon and that perception is the most important aspect of this job. Ethicon has tried to use internal politics as a motivating force to drive performance and as a result it has just created lazy employees that claim to work around the clock however do not even put in a 30 hour work week. Don't think that Ethicon has not figured this out. Look around at the changes specifically the sales bag and salaries/comp of new hires. Ethicon could not "right the ship" overnight but they can do it over time.
 






ESR here...

My prediction is that we will see more layoffs by end of 2014 and 2015. Especially in the ESR group. There is no need for us to have 170+ ESRs when everyone else is carrying energy. Back when the core reps carried energy, we had 60-80 reps and that's when the market was growing, and we were launching products that were actually "innovative". We expanded to 200 reps when we became a stand alone company and since we are no longer our own entity, we don't need as many ESRs.

If anyone here thinks that leadership knows what they are doing, take a look at the energy business leaders. Kipper bails, we hire a nice woman replacement who was nice but way in over her head as a VP of sales for energy, and we have a president who has no idea about the energy business. She(our president) tells us that Sonicision has run out of steam at end of 2012, tells us one year Sterilmed is our partner, the next year is our competitor, and this year, is our partner, and delays the discontinuation of ACE36 which just allows our reprocessors to collect more devices. She tells us that starting in 2013 and for the next three years, JNJ will invest $75 mil in the energy business, and how we will be a separate entity for years to come.

Here we are, less than a year later, folded back into surgical care with layoffs to come, a VP of sales that lasted less than a year, and a president who amazingly, still has a job.

I remember our president telling us last year during a conference call, "No one on this call is responsible for the situation that we are in now..." That's a sign a leadership, blame the previous leadership for your problems and not do anything to correct the course of the ship.

My guess that the decision to fold energy back into surgical care was decided sometime mid to late 2013 and during that time, our president said nothing. She is a perfect exampe of JNJ leadership at Ethicon.... totally incompetent but somehow gets promoted/stays around while her business crumples and reps pay the price for decisions.
 






Anonymous said:
Sounds like ligasure is getting the best of you . OH I FORGOT TO MENTION OUR CORDLESS THING >>> YOU KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT > Maybe you can come over to the dark side and come with a winner . Your ship is sinking
Click to expand...

Sorry man, our boat starting sinking when we ignored reprocessing and the robot. I agree, the decision to not buy Sonicision when we had a chance was a real dumb idea but this train jumped the track years ago. Harmonic reprocessing has eroded us 4-5Xs faster than any Sonicision erosion.

I'm not sure Covidien is that much better. You guys already went through this and I wouldn't be surprised if you have another round of layoffs too.

For Ethicon, decisions that we made in the mid 2000s are really coming back to kill us now.
 












Anonymous said:
Insider tip: Q4 there are more layoffs or "restructuring" (as it get called at the table in the meeting)
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I was in the meeting..the energy reps that are retained this month will be merged into HBT TL or GYN roles...territories will be reshuffled to accommodate for this. DMs will be hit pretty hard as they combine biosurgery DMs with ESC.
 


















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