Trust and Value

[Anonymous]

Amen to that. I view my "old" Merck managers as friends. They treated me as my advocate to move ahead. At the end of a field visit the manager would discuss what I could do better. But it was delivered in a context as if he was saying you know what you are doing but may be you can try this and that. Not today's version of are you incompetent or clueless? The famous saying, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME TODAY? NOT LAST YEAR. NOT YESTERDAY. TODAY! You stood 10 degrees tilted to the left while you were standing. Like raising a child. You gently reprimand him/her for misbehavior and yet overall you want to positively encourage him/her. My kids would be all basket cases if all I did was to hurl criticism after criticism at them. My second Merck manager was like the modern Merck manager. He was deemed too brash and unfit to be a Merck manager because he was not a very people person. Now do you think they pick any of the current Merck managers to be people oriented? What a big shift in how we think in only three decades.

Agree. Less than a few years ago we had managers who knew reps. Knew and actually liked and respected reps. Imagine that? They would ask your take on things. Talked to you about your life, aspirations and how they could help them move ahead. If you had talents, skills and experience they saw the value it brings to the company. When they rode with you they were helpful. Said if we had any difficulties maybe we could try this or that. Now it's different. We are treated us like bumbling idiots. Suddenly, all the experience you have (ps. often more than the manager) is null and void. We're delivered criticism, insane suspicion (thats the worst), backstabbing reviews with interpretations of competencies that makes everyone inadequate. Is this by design? Choosing managers who seem to have a mission to derail careers. Managers who are not people persons? Managers who are arrogant, egocentric and take pride in their ability to destroy?

 

[Anonymous]

Fortunately any managers that mistakenly eliminate a colleague due to a body language interpretation error don't risk much. The true stars, whom by the way are born and not developed, are identifiable to those golden children in the club by means of their halos - which are invisible to the hoi polloi. The judges could therefore never err and mistakenly get rid of a future star.

Golden children, the big family name, special "favored" hired, inside connections, brain or brainless Ivy's, Merck MBA dole educated, AKers, Barbies and Kens...all others, work your little butts off and we'll think about if we'll keep you.

 

[Anonymous]

The good ole days. Your manager would sit down and highlight your skills before making suggestions that he wants to see next time around. Then he wants to send you to a medical conference to represent Merck because this is your strength. It would build up your resume for the next opportunity. He has various projects on reps in his district to move them up. Or ask you to mentor a new rep, sharing what areas your skills would benefit this rep. Or put you on a panel or committee which would help the region. Now we don't have time for this and that. You want to develop skills? Do it after work, after your daily computer crap, then may be at 11 pm you can work on your own Merck skills self improvement. You would like to gain more experience by working at, say, a state medical society meeting. No, you are not good enough. Your sales suck. You don't deserve a "vacation" as said by one of my modern Merck managers. He even said that is an award that he would only give out to a chosen one. At a review your manager would try his best to emphasize your successes and skills. Anything that should be worked on were communicated between you and him off the official record. He is holding you accountable. If it is even mentioned in the review, it was done as a way to gently push you forward. I would walk away knowing he did his best to help me but I have areas to work on. It was a gentleman's agreement. I felt treasured. That motivated me to roll off my bed to be standing at a hospital display by 7:30 am and to sell Merck products. That motivated me to drive through a blinding snow storm to help fix a problem with a hospital pharmacist. Money was decent too. But I felt empowered, trusted, and what I did matter to Merck.

 

[Anonymous]

Merck loves to back up it's corrupt managers at ALL costs. Check out the article from BNET below.


Merck Pulls Out Big Guns to Appeal Case Based on Video of CEO
By Jim Edwards | June 7, 2011 inShare.5

Merck (MRK), in an apparent act of madness, is appealing a $550,000 jury verdict it lost for firing a pharmaceutical sales rep who was forced to charge other employees’ expenses on her corporate credit card, even though the case was based in part on a video made by former CEO Dick Clark.

Merck has only filed a notice of appeal (not its full legal briefs) to the January 2011 Maryland federal court verdict, so it is not clear what Merck believes is wrong with the jury’s decision. But the fact that the company is appealing at all suggests a scorched earth approach to the case. It’s not clear why the company is bothering, because it must already have spent more on its own lawyers’ fees than the verdict itself at this point.

Plaintiff Jennifer Scott claims her supervisor required her to charge lunch expenses to her credit card for another employee, and that she refused to follow an order to take doctors out to dinner in violation of a Merck policy forbidding non-clinical interactions with physicians.

She complained about the supervisor, district manager William Liberato, and an internal Merck investigation found he acted improperly. He was moved to a different division in the company. Despite that, he still conducted Scott’s annual performance review and fired her. Scott said she relied in part on the words of CEO Clark, who had made an internal video promising his employees they would be protected from retaliation if they reported unethical conduct.

Merck claimed Scott would have lost her job anyway in its merger with Schering-Plough.

The trial had a weird twist when one of the jurors contacted Liberato after the verdict to say she had been rushed and pressured into making a verdict for Scott. Liberato reported the call to Merck’s counsel, who then reported it to the judge. The judge ruled that as the pressure was internal to the jury, no misconduct occurred. Merck also lost a motion to set aside the verdict after the trial.

The case itself is mosquito-sized in the world of Merck, which made $46 billion in sales last year. Yet Merck seems intent on using its elephant guns. Perhaps Merck’s new CEO, Ken Frazier, who was the company’s general counsel until 2007, can offer his lawyers some advice about focusing their efforts on more significant projects

Bill Liberato is another good shill for Merck. I'm not surprised to see the entire legal apparatus at Jerck lining up behind another diligent and reliable bobble head. Himmler would be proud.

 

[Anonymous]

The good ole days. Your manager would sit down and highlight your skills before making suggestions that he wants to see next time around. Then he wants to send you to a medical conference to represent Merck because this is your strength. It would build up your resume for the next opportunity. He has various projects on reps in his district to move them up. Or ask you to mentor a new rep, sharing what areas your skills would benefit this rep. Or put you on a panel or committee which would help the region. Now we don't have time for this and that. You want to develop skills? Do it after work, after your daily computer crap, then may be at 11 pm you can work on your own Merck skills self improvement. You would like to gain more experience by working at, say, a state medical society meeting. No, you are not good enough. Your sales suck. You don't deserve a "vacation" as said by one of my modern Merck managers. He even said that is an award that he would only give out to a chosen one. At a review your manager would try his best to emphasize your successes and skills. Anything that should be worked on were communicated between you and him off the official record. He is holding you accountable. If it is even mentioned in the review, it was done as a way to gently push you forward. I would walk away knowing he did his best to help me but I have areas to work on. It was a gentleman's agreement. I felt treasured. That motivated me to roll off my bed to be standing at a hospital display by 7:30 am and to sell Merck products. That motivated me to drive through a blinding snow storm to help fix a problem with a hospital pharmacist. Money was decent too. But I felt empowered, trusted, and what I did matter to Merck.

Now we're beaten down, given no increases and told in direct and subtle in ways you dont measure up, you wont get ahead. It no longer matters what previous managers had in mind for you, that's the past.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow. Is working for Merck getting to be like hell on earth? It sounds like everything, from the people you work with to the work itself are more fake than real.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow. Is working for Merck getting to be like hell on earth? It sounds like everything, from the people you work with to the work itself are more fake than real.

It seems weird but things have changed over the last couple of years. People do not feel like they are assets anymore, only liabilities slated for layoff. Managers seem bad, many lack important people and business skills. Maybe the business changed too fast or they just want to get rid of as many reps as possible. Whatever it is, it's not like years ago. Sad to see this decline.

 

[Anonymous]

You are exactly right. They wish that we would quit so they could hire the less expensive, and not as good contract reps. We have a majority of the sales force right now who are just doing time until the job comes to a halt in a very few short years....maybe 3-5 years at the most with Obama care coming in. The increases we are seeing financially are not due to market growth, with a couple of exceptions, but rather because of the senior leadership/CEO types cutting expenses and reps. They will keep cutting reps and expenses until they hit their target bonus at the end of the year. If their target bonus is 14 million and they are at 10 million, they will cut some more reps. Oh, that only gives them 12 million-still 2 million dollars short. I guess we need to cut some more reps until we get to that 14 million mark. Get used to it-thats how the store is run. Its all going to end soon. You young brown-nosers and S3's-you will be starting a new career in a different industry. Polish up the nose sniffing techniques that you have learned so well here and maybe you will find something decent in the future. Uh-huh

 

[Anonymous]

Trust and value is kinda like 'the peoples republic of china'! How can a manager honestly expect trust and value when he knows that reps are never calling on half of their customers because they live so far out of their geography and they have two kids that they pick up from school every day at 3:30! Managers bristle when it's called to their attention and tend to be abusive of other reps to look like they are managing! What kind of scores should we really be giving our managers.. if we were honest?

 

[Anonymous]

Almost all of the people that have exhibited trust and have tried wherever possible to provide long-term value to the company have been urged out over the last several years. The weasels that pose as management view them and their kind as not to be trusted to exhibit the current team value of untrustworthiness. Imagine a company in which those that really sacrifice to do the right thing are considered threats!

Tom Lyon is a perfect example of this caliber of Merck management.

 

[Anonymous]

You are exactly right. They wish that we would quit so they could hire the less expensive, and not as good contract reps. We have a majority of the sales force right now who are just doing time until the job comes to a halt in a very few short years....maybe 3-5 years at the most with Obama care coming in. The increases we are seeing financially are not due to market growth, with a couple of exceptions, but rather because of the senior leadership/CEO types cutting expenses and reps. They will keep cutting reps and expenses until they hit their target bonus at the end of the year. If their target bonus is 14 million and they are at 10 million, they will cut some more reps. Oh, that only gives them 12 million-still 2 million dollars short. I guess we need to cut some more reps until we get to that 14 million mark. Get used to it-thats how the store is run. Its all going to end soon. You young brown-nosers and S3's-you will be starting a new career in a different industry. Polish up the nose sniffing techniques that you have learned so well here and maybe you will find something decent in the future. Uh-huh

This has all been done before and failed. You can't replace the outside sales representitive with Phone, e-mail or apps. They will displace many and then rehire when sales are soft once again completing the cycle of stupidity. Of course when the need to do this occurs those that put forth the failed strategy will have left with millions.

 

[Anonymous]

This has all been done before and failed. You can't replace the outside sales representative with Phone, e-mail or apps. They will displace many and then rehire when sales are soft once again completing the cycle of stupidity. Of course when the need to do this occurs those that put forth the failed strategy will have left with millions.

Bristol Meyers was famous in laying people off due to lack of new drugs and then rehire more reps and the cycle repeats itself over and over.

If the price is right and even though the effectiveness is not as good as face-to-face selling, don't be surprised it would become acceptable.

 

[Anonymous]

West Coast fucking little pencil necked DM! You know your people "reports" hate your guts except one BFer. Read this shit you little fucking dick ass remnant of SP ball sweat! We hate you... Your are a dick head!