someone help this person

Quote

Anonymous

Guest
I am glad you found a good job after Merck. I have been retired for 3 years and also have admiration for the people at Merck. I don't know what to do but I know what not to do. Don't send an email to a senior VP. You have been there a few months.

I am glad you are happy but use common sense young man. At Merck this manager would have been fired for making changes.




Doing what? ......Making what?.....How did you get it?....How long did it take?

Anonymous
#11 Today, 12:20 AM
Anonymous Posts: n/a

Re: My heart said yes, but my intellect said no!!

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Doing what? ......Making what?.....How did you get it?....How long did it take?

I was a chemical operator for 8 years and I am making more money now as a systems engineer at a software company (been there 2 months). The retirement package and 401k was better at Merck but I am so much happier now. I always had a shine to computers and I got lucky. I put words on the margin of my resume and made sure they were white (make them invisible) . This way when people do searches for keywords my resume would show up more often. They called me and asked me a few technical questions and brought me in for an interview. I researched the company the best I could and the application along with basic OS stuff. They brought me in, I had an interview with 8 different people and somehow was hired. I had a good attitude and they were impressed. Now here is the problem and could use some advice what to do.

The division I am in was failing for the last 8 years. It was not a good place and moral was horrible. 3 months ago they brought in a new senior manager who really kicks ass. He go rid of the mangers and supervisors because they were political appointees,ass kissers, and treated people like they were crap in every way. That was his first move on day 1. He put people in place who really deserved it and he changed everything from training to how we interact with each other. Respect is very important and everyone needs to help each other. It's like bizzaro Merck. A female supervisor spoke with him and stated she is working so much that she does not get a lot of family time. He wrote 5:05 on her board, comes by every day and make sure she leaves. He jokes around that he is going to write her up for working too much. In another instance they guy next to me screwed up and took a dump of a process on linux server wrong and it rebooted the server during production hours. It was an accident. The guy was a nervous wreck. He came out and told the guy to relax, patted him on the back, told him he is doing a good job and it was a accident. Learn from the mistake and move forward. He would take care of the situation. We had a class on it the next day. Things are really turning around and we are moving in the right direction and acting as a unit. Every metric has increase by between 25-40%. I never thought a manager could change things but I was wrong. I feel bad for him because he has duel roles. Every morning he comes to work dressed really nice. By the end of the day he looks like he was put through the ringer. He looks all tuckered out but is always professional and respectful to everyone. I know he is working at 4:00 AM on training and other stuff because I see emails.
This is now the issue. He will only be in that role for 3-4 more months and everyone is scared that things will go back to the way they were before. The division is around 60 people globally and everyone wants him to stay. How do we make that happen? He reports to a senior vice president (bypasses directors) and we were thinking to writing him a letter. We really have no clue and can use some ideas.
He is so respected by so many people that you just want to work hard for him. I have never seen so many people worried about one person leaving. I am actually worried by typing this right now.

Looking back I have a great deal of admiration and love for the people at Merck. I still have a lot of friends and good memories. Merck as a company, not a lot of love there.
 






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Doing what? ......Making what?.....How did you get it?....How long did it take?

I was a chemical operator for 8 years and I am making more money now as a systems engineer at a software company (been there 2 months). The retirement package and 401k was better at Merck but I am so much happier now. I always had a shine to computers and I got lucky. I put words on the margin of my resume and made sure they were white (make them invisible) . This way when people do searches for keywords my resume would show up more often. They called me and asked me a few technical questions and brought me in for an interview. I researched the company the best I could and the application along with basic OS stuff. They brought me in, I had an interview with 8 different people and somehow was hired. I had a good attitude and they were impressed. Now here is the problem and could use some advice what to do.

The division I am in was failing for the last 8 years. It was not a good place and moral was horrible. 3 months ago they brought in a new senior manager who really kicks ass. He go rid of the mangers and supervisors because they were political appointees,ass kissers, and treated people like they were crap in every way. That was his first move on day 1. He put people in place who really deserved it and he changed everything from training to how we interact with each other. Respect is very important and everyone needs to help each other. It's like bizzaro Merck. A female supervisor spoke with him and stated she is working so much that she does not get a lot of family time. He wrote 5:05 on her board, comes by every day and make sure she leaves. He jokes around that he is going to write her up for working too much. In another instance they guy next to me screwed up and took a dump of a process on linux server wrong and it rebooted the server during production hours. It was an accident. The guy was a nervous wreck. He came out and told the guy to relax, patted him on the back, told him he is doing a good job and it was a accident. Learn from the mistake and move forward. He would take care of the situation. We had a class on it the next day. Things are really turning around and we are moving in the right direction and acting as a unit. Every metric has increase by between 25-40%. I never thought a manager could change things but I was wrong. I feel bad for him because he has duel roles. Every morning he comes to work dressed really nice. By the end of the day he looks like he was put through the ringer. He looks all tuckered out but is always professional and respectful to everyone. I know he is working at 4:00 AM on training and other stuff because I see emails.
This is now the issue. He will only be in that role for 3-4 more months and everyone is scared that things will go back to the way they were before. The division is around 60 people globally and everyone wants him to stay. How do we make that happen? He reports to a senior vice president (bypasses directors) and we were thinking to writing him a letter. We really have no clue and can use some ideas.
He is so respected by so many people that you just want to work hard for him. I have never seen so many people worried about one person leaving. I am actually worried by typing this right now.

Looking back I have a great deal of admiration and love for the people at Merck. I still have a lot of friends and good memories. Merck as a company, not a lot of love there.[/QUOTE]

I'm glad to see it's not just the sales reps they pull this crap with.
 




Anonymous said:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Doing what? ......Making what?.....How did you get it?....How long did it take?

I was a chemical operator for 8 years and I am making more money now as a systems engineer at a software company (been there 2 months). The retirement package and 401k was better at Merck but I am so much happier now. I always had a shine to computers and I got lucky. I put words on the margin of my resume and made sure they were white (make them invisible) . This way when people do searches for keywords my resume would show up more often. They called me and asked me a few technical questions and brought me in for an interview. I researched the company the best I could and the application along with basic OS stuff. They brought me in, I had an interview with 8 different people and somehow was hired. I had a good attitude and they were impressed. Now here is the problem and could use some advice what to do.

The division I am in was failing for the last 8 years. It was not a good place and moral was horrible. 3 months ago they brought in a new senior manager who really kicks ass. He go rid of the mangers and supervisors because they were political appointees,ass kissers, and treated people like they were crap in every way. That was his first move on day 1. He put people in place who really deserved it and he changed everything from training to how we interact with each other. Respect is very important and everyone needs to help each other. It's like bizzaro Merck. A female supervisor spoke with him and stated she is working so much that she does not get a lot of family time. He wrote 5:05 on her board, comes by every day and make sure she leaves. He jokes around that he is going to write her up for working too much. In another instance they guy next to me screwed up and took a dump of a process on linux server wrong and it rebooted the server during production hours. It was an accident. The guy was a nervous wreck. He came out and told the guy to relax, patted him on the back, told him he is doing a good job and it was a accident. Learn from the mistake and move forward. He would take care of the situation. We had a class on it the next day. Things are really turning around and we are moving in the right direction and acting as a unit. Every metric has increase by between 25-40%. I never thought a manager could change things but I was wrong. I feel bad for him because he has duel roles. Every morning he comes to work dressed really nice. By the end of the day he looks like he was put through the ringer. He looks all tuckered out but is always professional and respectful to everyone. I know he is working at 4:00 AM on training and other stuff because I see emails.
This is now the issue. He will only be in that role for 3-4 more months and everyone is scared that things will go back to the way they were before. The division is around 60 people globally and everyone wants him to stay. How do we make that happen? He reports to a senior vice president (bypasses directors) and we were thinking to writing him a letter. We really have no clue and can use some ideas.
He is so respected by so many people that you just want to work hard for him. I have never seen so many people worried about one person leaving. I am actually worried by typing this right now.

Looking back I have a great deal of admiration and love for the people at Merck. I still have a lot of friends and good memories. Merck as a company, not a lot of love there.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to see it's not just the sales reps they pull this crap with.[/QUOTE]

I agree that you should not send a resume to the senior vp. No good can come out of it. I like the tip with the white letterings on the margin to inccrease search. Never heard of that and it's pretty clever. Keeping him is not your battle to fight. He is a little crazy and bold to move all the supervoers and managers out so quickly. They had to be doing some crazy stuff. Looks like a bold move that may pay off.

glad to see there is life after merck.
good luck
 




There is no justice in this world. I am a chemist that have been out of work for 13 months and this moron somehow by the grace of god is making more money than when he left. The best offer I received was 70 percent of my salary. That offer was a long time ago and nothing close to that now. Because you had a f'ing shine to computers? You should email the CEO, board of directors, and all the vp's your ideas. I am sure they would love to hear from such a knucklehead like you. Let me help you even though you are way to stupid to understand. Maybe the managers should go to him to see what can be done. Don't go to the VP, not the pope, not the president, not the united nations. I am sure you are trash in his eyes and he does not care or want to hear from you. How are you working while so many people can't find a job is beyond my understanding.
 




If you read your rude post, that is the reason why you can't find a job. You seem like a hater. What was done so bad at that company that such drastic changes had to be made? Being here for 23 years, it's good to hear gossip from other companies. I love that stuff.
 








Anonymous said:
spill the beans. You owe us that as a ex Merck employeee. noone will know.
Click to expand...

I had to do a little research to find out what happened.

It seems like he never wanted the position to begin with. They offered it to him a few times and he always refused. He was in charge of a different division a while back, did really well and moved up. Long story short, the division was managed and supervised by a bunch of egotistical people who did not care or backup anyone within the division. They had no problem insulting people and never took their side even when the issue was not their fault. They were power hungry people who liked to show off how they run the division like a prison. They felt if they were rude, insulting, and intimidating the upper management would feel like they were doing a good job even though everything inside was imploding. The number clearly showed how bad thing were. Moral was nonexistent. They never provided training, spent money in our lab, or helped people even though they were supposed to guide us. They were always quick to blame people without ever getting the facts. No other division would help us because it always ended up as an argument between the managers and supervisors.
This is where it gets good.

The guy who took over the division was with one of the engineers in that area going over a POC (proof of concept). He works with professional services, development, channel partner and stuff like that. While within earshot a customer engineer asked a supervisor if he could leave a half hour early. His father has muscular dystrophy and is bed ridden. The supervisor stated “What are you going to do, change his f’ing diaper.” The guy who took over the division went to the supervisor and asked him to apologize and don’t ever treat someone like that again. One of the other supervisor chimed in and stated “remember where you at, shut your mouth and get out of our area”. The guy who took over the division walked away and spoke to the managers of the group. That went nowhere quick. All this happened at 3:00 PM. You could tell he was pissed off but would not show it.

At 11:00 PM an email came out that he will now solely in charge of the division. That morning was great. The same people who were pricks were now sweet as candy that morning. It was total craziness. The supervisors and managers were running around trying to help people. Telling them of all the great ideas they were going to implement. All the managers and supervisors were stabbing each other in the back. The new manager comes out of his office and it was the most pathetic thing I ever seen. They were shaking his hands and telling him how happy they were now. They even stated they were the victims of circumstance.. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. If this new manager drank the cool-aid we were all doomed.

Within 3 days all the supervisors and managers were either let go or moved to other places. The new management team are really quality people who were promoted from our division. He brought in one person who was from the outside. He knew him from before and is working out real well. We received 75k worth of new equipment for our lab. Other divisions are willing to help us because there is no more friction or arguments. We are getting a boat load of training. The whole dynamic has changed. We used to feel like we were on individual islands and when we asked for help we were considered unknowledgeable and weak. That was because the supervisors were not smart enough and had it hide it. It was to the point where you would not want to ask anymore and struggle through the issue. Now everyone helps everyone and we get a lot more done. We actually work harder now than we did before but everyone is happier. I know that sounds really strange.

That is the reason why we want to keep this guy. He does not micromanage, never takes credit for anything (always give it to other people) and really cares. He is not politically correct, kind of cross between Rex Ryan and George Patten. If that is even possible. The one thing is he is extremely smart and knows what he is doing. He does not ask anyone to do something that he would not do himself which is cool. He is also not a company person. His black berry goes off at 5:30 every day and he is out the door. His family comes first. I know he works a lot when they sleep.

The best line was “No one congratulated me when I took this over, now I know why ” and “when I decided to take this on I was a frightened little girl”
 




Anonymous said:
I had to do a little research to find out what happened.

It seems like he never wanted the position to begin with. They offered it to him a few times and he always refused. He was in charge of a different division a while back, did really well and moved up. Long story short, the division was managed and supervised by a bunch of egotistical people who did not care or backup anyone within the division. They had no problem insulting people and never took their side even when the issue was not their fault. They were power hungry people who liked to show off how they run the division like a prison. They felt if they were rude, insulting, and intimidating the upper management would feel like they were doing a good job even though everything inside was imploding. The number clearly showed how bad thing were. Moral was nonexistent. They never provided training, spent money in our lab, or helped people even though they were supposed to guide us. They were always quick to blame people without ever getting the facts. No other division would help us because it always ended up as an argument between the managers and supervisors.
This is where it gets good.

The guy who took over the division was with one of the engineers in that area going over a POC (proof of concept). He works with professional services, development, channel partner and stuff like that. While within earshot a customer engineer asked a supervisor if he could leave a half hour early. His father has muscular dystrophy and is bed ridden. The supervisor stated “What are you going to do, change his f’ing diaper.” The guy who took over the division went to the supervisor and asked him to apologize and don’t ever treat someone like that again. One of the other supervisor chimed in and stated “remember where you at, shut your mouth and get out of our area”. The guy who took over the division walked away and spoke to the managers of the group. That went nowhere quick. All this happened at 3:00 PM. You could tell he was pissed off but would not show it.

At 11:00 PM an email came out that he will now solely in charge of the division. That morning was great. The same people who were pricks were now sweet as candy that morning. It was total craziness. The supervisors and managers were running around trying to help people. Telling them of all the great ideas they were going to implement. All the managers and supervisors were stabbing each other in the back. The new manager comes out of his office and it was the most pathetic thing I ever seen. They were shaking his hands and telling him how happy they were now. They even stated they were the victims of circumstance.. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. If this new manager drank the cool-aid we were all doomed.

Within 3 days all the supervisors and managers were either let go or moved to other places. The new management team are really quality people who were promoted from our division. He brought in one person who was from the outside. He knew him from before and is working out real well. We received 75k worth of new equipment for our lab. Other divisions are willing to help us because there is no more friction or arguments. We are getting a boat load of training. The whole dynamic has changed. We used to feel like we were on individual islands and when we asked for help we were considered unknowledgeable and weak. That was because the supervisors were not smart enough and had it hide it. It was to the point where you would not want to ask anymore and struggle through the issue. Now everyone helps everyone and we get a lot more done. We actually work harder now than we did before but everyone is happier. I know that sounds really strange.

That is the reason why we want to keep this guy. He does not micromanage, never takes credit for anything (always give it to other people) and really cares. He is not politically correct, kind of cross between Rex Ryan and George Patten. If that is even possible. The one thing is he is extremely smart and knows what he is doing. He does not ask anyone to do something that he would not do himself which is cool. He is also not a company person. His black berry goes off at 5:30 every day and he is out the door. His family comes first. I know he works a lot when they sleep.

The best line was “No one congratulated me when I took this over, now I know why ” and “when I decided to take this on I was a frightened little girl”
Click to expand...

let the person go in 3 months. he did a big favor and seems very noble. he will get burnt out if he is not already.
 




If I understand this post he stepped down a position to help you. He care too much and I am sure took a big chance. You will payback the favor by putting him in a coffin from a stroke?
 




I am sure this was in the works for a long time. It was accelerated when the issue happened. Make a bet, the person from the outside will take over the division. He obviously knew the person and will probably mentor him/her. The supervisor should have been kicked in the face for saying that. It trumps anything done at Merck.
 












Anonymous said:
Is this a big company? I was in IT and we just layed-off a bunch of people last month here at Merck. The job market is pretty hard right now.
Click to expand...

The company is no where as big as Merck. There are around 2000 (1000 in NJ) people total. It is on the NASDAQ. The division has people from SP and Phizer in it. I speak with them because we have something in common. I would love to get the Merck people in. Unfortunately I have no power to make that happen. I will ask the manager if I can post the name of the company on this site. As I stated before, I have a great deal of respect of the people of Merck, not much for the company. I understand being unemployed sucks because I was there, the market is saturated and will only get worse.
 




Anonymous said:
There might be a new profession for you when your days at Merck are kaput.....with practice, you could be a novelist.
Click to expand...

People like you is the reason why Merck is in the position it's in. When I took the package I looked back and Merck did nothing as far as skill improvement. I was not marketable in any way. I have a 4 year degree but I was doing the same thing over and over at Merck for 8 years. When you have a mortgage, it's the most stressful thing I ever experienced. A career change really is the worse experience but the choices were limited. There are so many layoffs in the Pharmaceutical world and also in general that a good job is hard to find.

I was lucky to find a job that pays good and allows my family to continue living comfortably. I am a professional and proud of what I do. Unlike Merck, this company gives you tools to succeed. They provide on-line training for MTA, MCTS, MCITP, MCM and all cisco certifications as part of employment. They also give vouchers to take the certifications. They want you to be successful. Since I have been here, the is no managers on power trips who need to look busy so they micromanage. No one is scared to loose their job, no backstabbing, and a good place to work. When issues arise, they are handled professionally by managers who actually care and provide positive reinforcement. They are doing things right, we just had the best quarter ever and they stock has gone up 40% YTD. Merck's philosophy of making people's life miserable does not work. They make work just a job. They take the drive, pride, and dignity out of people and wonder why people don't perform properly. I feel better about what I am doing now than I ever have at Merck. My heart wishes the people well at Merck but the company has changes so much in the last 5 years that it made me sick. It also sucks to feel bad for the people whom you have so much respect, admiration and esteem for through the years.
 




I have been at Merck for 30 years and things have changed a lot. It's not about the pipeline, products, sales, R&D, marketing or money in the bank. The most important asset we have are people. Somehow through the years we lost touch with this. I do understand where this writer is coming from. I hope we change things before it's too late.
 




I'm glad to see it's not just the sales reps they pull this crap with.[/QUOTE]

Merck pulls this crap with everyone sooner or later. Send this manager to Merck and he would never survive. Merck managers knows nothing about giving other people credit and positive reinforcement. I would not be surprised to see the people who were fired join Merck. They would fit in perfect here.
 




That is the difference between 100k and 2k employees. A company with 2k can move quicker and make adjustments. To get anything done at Merck there is a whole lot of politics and red tape to go through. I think managers want to make changes but to get things done takes forever. That is in every department. I say breakup Merck into more manageable pieces.
 




I agree but what manager at Merck is secure enough to make that kind of drastic change? I am a manager here and I would love to fix things. There are so many things to look out for. The number of hurdles that would need to be crossed would make it impossible to do. The politics alone would stop any change. I would be on the outside looking in within 1 month. Change does not come easy.
 




Anonymous said:
People like you is the reason why Merck is in the position it's in. When I took the package I looked back and Merck did nothing as far as skill improvement. I was not marketable in any way. I have a 4 year degree but I was doing the same thing over and over at Merck for 8 years. When you have a mortgage, it's the most stressful thing I ever experienced. A career change really is the worse experience but the choices were limited. There are so many layoffs in the Pharmaceutical world and also in general that a good job is hard to find.

I was lucky to find a job that pays good and allows my family to continue living comfortably. I am a professional and proud of what I do. Unlike Merck, this company gives you tools to succeed. They provide on-line training for MTA, MCTS, MCITP, MCM and all cisco certifications as part of employment. They also give vouchers to take the certifications. They want you to be successful. Since I have been here, the is no managers on power trips who need to look busy so they micromanage. No one is scared to loose their job, no backstabbing, and a good place to work. When issues arise, they are handled professionally by managers who actually care and provide positive reinforcement. They are doing things right, we just had the best quarter ever and they stock has gone up 40% YTD. Merck's philosophy of making people's life miserable does not work. They make work just a job. They take the drive, pride, and dignity out of people and wonder why people don't perform properly. I feel better about what I am doing now than I ever have at Merck. My heart wishes the people well at Merck but the company has changes so much in the last 5 years that it made me sick. It also sucks to feel bad for the people whom you have so much respect, admiration and esteem for through the years.
Click to expand...

What are you doing. Job title and industry?
 




Anonymous said:
What are you doing. Job title and industry?
Click to expand...

Systems Analyst for a software company. I will tell you one thing, I thought I knew a lot about computer systems and I now understand I know little. I have 5 computers networked together with an exchange server going through a proxy for the internet. There is so much to learn, I feel like I am 25 again. The training now being developed is insane. It is 75% logic behind the processes and 25% application work. He wants everyone to be logical, not mechanical. If were are going to be mechanical (error code means XXXXX and do YYYYY) we should hire in India and China. If you are mechanical and YYYYY does not fix the issue you are lost. If you are logical and understand processes, what they do, and how they work together you will be able to figure out how to fix the issues or move in the proper direction. Even though India and China are cheaper, they are extremely mechanical and at the end of the day they don't add real value. They can handle the low hanging fruit but anything complex, they stumble hard.

The good thing is they also teach you structure and how to manage yourself and the things around you. I know that seems easy but it's really not. :) The training is about all aspects of work and just not the technical side. This week I am being mentored by someone who has been there for 6 years about time management and how not to get stressed out over the little things. Also don't grind to much, if you need help just ask. They expect me not to know everything. The key is to ask with a thought process. This is what is happening, this is what I have done, I am stuck at this point. They will not give me the answer outright, they will lead me in the proper direction (sometimes they will draw a picture to help explain what's going on) I never realized how great that is. It increases your knowledge 10 fold rather than giving the answer. He feels if the answer is given, We would forget it in 2 hours.

He is like bizzaro Merck. Actually the whole place is like bizzaro
Merck is moving jobs overseas and he sees no value in doing that. They may work a lot cheaper but the quality is not there.
Merck keeps loading you and stresses you out. He thinks that is counter productive and you will ultimately do less work and your thought process is not sharp. You will be more prone to making simple mistakes.
Merck prefers to layoff people with a lot of experience. He feels that the knowledge and experience is priceless and imposable to replace.
Merck loves to layoff people in general and he feels once you layoff people, you will loose the money they make. Also when things pick up, you must scramble to get people, train them, and make sure they will fit into the system.
 




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