We talk a good game, but....

[anonymous]

I'm curious to know what my fellow AZ representatives think about the pressure to get into as many Drs offices as we can. One minute they're faking concern about our well being, the next we're getting pressure to drive interaction metrics.

 

[anonymous]

I'm curious to know what my fellow AZ representatives think about the pressure to get into as many Drs offices as we can. One minute they're faking concern about our well being, the next we're getting pressure to drive interaction metrics.

Nothing new here. Since the dawn of AZ metrics has been driven. Give them what they want and forget it. Keep this in mind report only calls where there is access. You report a call where there is no access and they check up on you you're fired. Play the game smart and don't lose any sleep over this. The company exists for the stockholders. Patients first and we care about the sales force is bullshit.

 

[anonymous]

Nothing new here. Since the dawn of AZ metrics has been driven. Give them what they want and forget it. Keep this in mind report only calls where there is access. You report a call where there is no access and they check up on you you're fired. Play the game smart and don't lose any sleep over this. The company exists for the stockholders. Patients first and we care about the sales force is bullshit.

 

[anonymous]

Time to furlough reps and bring back if needed. Reps are way overpaid for doing hardly nothing. It is a waste of the system. Please listen

 

[anonymous]

Time to furlough reps and bring back if needed. Reps are way overpaid for doing hardly nothing. It is a waste of the system. Please listen

Well, it might be time to fire reps, but if we do, we can damn sure get rid of DMs, worthless Directors, and all the useless HQ idiots who are completely out of touch with reality. Fact is, as worthless as the might be, the reps are the only ones worth anything on the commercial side of the house.

 

[anonymous]

Nothing new here. Since the dawn of AZ metrics has been driven. Give them what they want and forget it. Keep this in mind report only calls where there is access. You report a call where there is no access and they check up on you you're fired. Play the game smart and don't lose any sleep over this. The company exists for the stockholders. Patients first and we care about the sales force is bullshit.

What? Haven't you seen our core values? we put patients first AND we do the right thing. I know it's true, because I saw it on a Powerpoint slide!

 

[anonymous]

Me thinks Florida and Texas reps should be pulled back out of the field.

 

[anonymous]

I am a clinician in Florida and ex-pharma rep. I can't imagine anyone getting into offices. We are only letting the McKesson rep in by appointment because we order so much for the office from him. And he has to have his temp taken and be in a mask. He sees me in the lab, the main office supply ordering person and that is it. There are NO pharma reps getting in, no matter what.

 

[anonymous]

How about time for a lay off for doing nothing!! Collected your paycheck too long for doing nothing in this Covid journey!

 

[anonymous]

They could not kick us out quick enough. They don’t care about patients or us. That’s so obvious. I always knew they didn’t really care, but the way they handled this has been such a joke.
They are so out of touch with realty. You can’t just walk in any clinic- ortho, eye, dentist; temp and oxygen check at every one. And they think a rep is getting in?
AZ- you really showed your true colors thru this! But you can pat yourselves on your back for planting trees and shitty hybrids!

 

[anonymous]

I thought I was the only one who felt like this!? There was so much concern about them doing the right thing for us and then light switch went off and it was over! Back to business as usual and questioning us on why more offices aren’t open? I get we are a business and am appreciative, but I can’t control that most of my customers are in hospitals as they are specialists and they are locked up to Reps! The oncology reps are still sitting nicely at home with pretty much no pressure and HQ people are still working from home. Lighten up AZ..it’s pretty awful in the field. I can’t make offices magically open...we are in a pandemic and they have more important things to worry about than my 10 year old messaging

 

[anonymous]

Nothing new here. Since the dawn of AZ metrics has been driven. Give them what they want and forget it. Keep this in mind report only calls where there is access. You report a call where there is no access and they check up on you you're fired. Play the game smart and don't lose any sleep over this. The company exists for the stockholders. Patients first and we care about the sales force is bullshit.

First, I retired from AZ with 35 years service several years ago. Second, AZ would NEVER , NEVER, contact an office to see if you did a virtual call or a face-to-face call. 35 to 40 yers ago, the DM would actually follow a rep suspected of not working in a rental car! The also would use a private investigator, but this practice was stopped in the late 80’s. I still have many friends in the industry and all are lying about doing virtual calls. They are totally ineffective, and they know it. They are forcing you to lie, so lie.

 

[anonymous]

Horseshit baby!! As a CURRENT DM with many years of experience, yes we will contact an office to see if a rep made a call. Prior to Covid, if I suspected a rep of not working I would personally make a call on an office. Today, a rep making a virtual call I suspected was false I would call.

 

[anonymous]

I am sure the offices have nothing better to do than answering stupid phone calls from stupid DM's!

 

[anonymous]

Horseshit baby!! As a CURRENT DM with many years of experience, yes we will contact an office to see if a rep made a call. Prior to Covid, if I suspected a rep of not working I would personally make a call on an office. Today, a rep making a virtual call I suspected was false I would call.

As an experienced DM, over 15 years I respectfully disagree. That is walking a tight rope. That's a micromanager, never was that, and I will tell you why. Trust. It can be navigated, yes. But I have seen it misplayed. If you misplay the "checking on the rep" you have damaged relationships, trust, etc. With ALL concerned. So, some DMs do as I did, often check fueling points, travel time feasibility, repeat call patterns, go to favorites and any current accessible data or clues that warrant examining other things. Now, obvious things like calls recorded when the office is confirmed closed or the doctor is at a medical meeting, on vacation, etc. Common sense. That's dead meat. And a lot of self righteous loser reps I knew were (are) that egregious. What I really know, is most reps skate around and do not work as hard as I worked as a rep for over 18 years in the 80's and 90s. Going to work every day in the worst of weather, early and getting home late. The truth. Yes, you could see both hospital and office-based anything then, far easier. As the commercial arms race led by MRK and PFE charged on in the 90s it got harder and harder as our value dropped. So, now as a grateful well to do, recently retired from pharma person, I can tell you the truth. You all work in a somewhat hollow sales model, cloaked in the guise of genuine "professionalism". Really, it is simply a sweet, over paid JOB on the backs of the U.S. public, government, insurance, etc. And I am a registered republican who doesn't cringe at another PhRMA commerical.
Today, even more so than the old days, it's possible to carry a bunch of inefficiencies, relatively poor productivity and absolutely low value by both sales reps and managers and the managers above them for a number of financial reasons. If the value proposition mattered, there'd be 50% less reps by EOW. That's OK "man" is America! Enjoy the summer and your well paid J O B. But, work harder on those "work" days for us stockholders...thanks kids.

 

[anonymous]

Let me explain. When I stated I would contact an office this would be a very extreme case. Yes I also check other avenues. However I had two situations where a rep's partner told me the rep made a call and reported lunch to an office where the doc was on vacation. Both the lunch and the call were false. Yes I went to the office to check it out and confirm the reps lies. The rep was fired.

 

[anonymous]

The mere act of coding offices as live or no access is redundant.
Its factual that as a whole, some are no access, and 4:5 AZ reps truly can't go in. But for some cases, that 1:5 is given access. You record as a call, like you should. Despite fact others may not. So, dear AZ trying to fire someone for one having access and another not is laughable, much like the DM's posts. Let them run the stupid reports. I'd bet there are numerous attorneys who'd love to file lawsuits against AZ trying to fire someone right now over silly things. To one rep, there's no access, to another, that's a different story. Good grief, this is obviously a sign that you DM's truly are sitting at home largely getting paid for very little productivity.

 

[anonymous]

True! The covid 19 access is dependent upon reps updating in system, so what's to say reps make a call, log it, despite according to veeva "no access" , simply due to not being updated. I wouldn't even consider that for my reps. DM, get a life-or another job better yet!

 

[anonymous]

Let me explain. When I stated I would contact an office this would be a very extreme case. Yes I also check other avenues. However I had two situations where a rep's partner told me the rep made a call and reported lunch to an office where the doc was on vacation. Both the lunch and the call were false. Yes I went to the office to check it out and confirm the reps lies. The rep was fired.

Makes perfect sense. You did your job.

 

[anonymous]

The mere act of coding offices as live or no access is redundant.
Its factual that as a whole, some are no access, and 4:5 AZ reps truly can't go in. But for some cases, that 1:5 is given access. You record as a call, like you should. Despite fact others may not. So, dear AZ trying to fire someone for one having access and another not is laughable, much like the DM's posts. Let them run the stupid reports. I'd bet there are numerous attorneys who'd love to file lawsuits against AZ trying to fire someone right now over silly things. To one rep, there's no access, to another, that's a different story. Good grief, this is obviously a sign that you DM's truly are sitting at home largely getting paid for very little productivity.

OMG. You are absolutely right. As a DM I always knew access was unequal, non-linear, whatever. Typically it was the veteran reps, in their "world" who had established trust and superb access (some literal "back door" , "cath lab" area, "Emergency Dept.", "C Suite", etc. Access that others were not able to get they routinely got in. Duh. I would never suspect or even really inspect what that experienced, high access rep was recording. I trusted them not to abuse the access they worked for by then, in a weak moment, falsifying calls. That is simply fraud. So why is it believed to be rampant in pharma?