What's the biggest lesson you have learned from working @ BMS?

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anonymous

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Here are mine:

1. No one cares about you.

2. Nepotism always trumps everything else. Friends and family will get hired and promoted before good work will at BMS.

3. Never trust others here to look out for your interests (even your managers). With the current state of the company, we're in a Hunger Games style environment and it's every man for himself.

4. Never answer the employee surveys honestly. There was a time when certain teams answered honestly and a witch hunt ensued. Plus the scores are weighted heavily in the McKinsey layoff algorithm.

5. Management here is terrible. We are selling off products in our portfolio and doing mass layoffs because months into the Karuna acquisition, our ELT Braintrust has realized what a disaster acquisition this was. My manager told me he does not expect us to survive into 2030 and the LT is sending very negative signals about the future of this company.

Good luck to all
 








Learning: don’t work your a**es off and no need to deliver like your life depended on it because it does not. They will drop you without a moment’s thought.

Use your time wisely. Be loyal to yourself and no one else.

Don’t even bother and don’t stress. If the axe does not fall today, it will fall tomorrow. Job security is non existent.

Vote wisely in Nov so more jobs will not be outsourced (an add on).

Managers are an extinct completely useless function. Gossip is their tool.

Senior LT prefer to remain in the dark because of hierarchy. The coffee or whatever conversations yield nothing.

Sr Directors and SVPs should become defunct. HR is clueless and hiring is superbly biased

Layoffs are a big mess up and will be in the future

External vendor companies are taking BMS to the cleaners. No one from the top can do anything themselves.

Growth and development are useless words. Grown and developed people get nowhere.
on and on and on……
 




1) A really bad management team can kill a company. I have worked at BMS for over two decades and haven't seen anything quite this bad before. Boerner and his associates are clueless, and those in my LT are telling us in not so subtle terms that we should be polishing our resumes because things are about to get ugly in the near future. The company is being destroyed before our very eyes and no one, both shareholders and employees, seem to be batting an eyelash.
 




Old style BMS way or the highway, New hire experience quickly learns not to give opinion or get penalised for giving it. Shut up and deal with it approach.

Commercial leadership is not organised for success. Repeat disasters in development, acquisition and launches accepted as the norm. Head in the sand syndrome.

Change is necessary to survive and / or offset patent expiry, increasing cost and falling revenue. BMS change management lacks strategic direction and is firing aimlessly resulting in high friendly fire casualties. The best talent get jobs somewhere else.
 




I’ve got to share these “results” that are so padded they could be a tempur-pedic mattress. Everyone knows it’s a joke; we all nod along like it's some secret handshake before sending it up the chain. It’s hilarious how deep the corruption runs around here. I’m just playing the game to keep my job and avoid stress for a bit longer while I complete my interviews elsewhere.

Honestly, you all need to stop caring. Focus on your own lives. This company doesn’t give a damn about you. Worse, if you are good at your job and get discovered you will make many enemies in the current environment.
 




I remain convinced BMS is one of the most fraudulent and corrupt companies that exists in the Pharma industry. What is going on here makes what Valeant and Insys did look like childs play.
 




anonymous said:
I remain convinced BMS is one of the most fraudulent and corrupt companies that exists in the Pharma industry. What is going on here makes what Valeant and Insys did look like childs play.
Click to expand...
The most clueless morons keep getting promoted while the talented ones are targeted for layoffs. Incompetent people feel threatened and either want to steal your ideas or just keep you from shining.

I was flat-out told by my insecure director that I don’t need to put in detailed work anymore. Instead of a pat on the back, I’m stuck with the worst assignments and grunt work, ensuring I’ll never get any visibility or chance at success here.
 




anonymous said:
The most clueless morons keep getting promoted while the talented ones are targeted for layoffs. Incompetent people feel threatened and either want to steal your ideas or just keep you from shining.

I was flat-out told by my insecure director that I don’t need to put in detailed work anymore. Instead of a pat on the back, I’m stuck with the worst assignments and grunt work, ensuring I’ll never get any visibility or chance at success here.
Click to expand...
My director told me not to present my ideas, that everything has to go through his voice.
 




anonymous said:
Learning: don’t work your a**es off and no need to deliver like your life depended on it because it does not. They will drop you without a moment’s thought.

Use your time wisely. Be loyal to yourself and no one else.

Don’t even bother and don’t stress. If the axe does not fall today, it will fall tomorrow. Job security is non existent.

Vote wisely in Nov so more jobs will not be outsourced (an add on).

Managers are an extinct completely useless function. Gossip is their tool.

Senior LT prefer to remain in the dark because of hierarchy. The coffee or whatever conversations yield nothing.

Sr Directors and SVPs should become defunct. HR is clueless and hiring is superbly biased

Layoffs are a big mess up and will be in the future

External vendor companies are taking BMS to the cleaners. No one from the top can do anything themselves.

Growth and development are useless words. Grown and developed people get nowhere.
on and on and on……
Click to expand...

Sadly, these are accurate and good learnings. It has taken me 5 months at my new job to shake off the BMS-way-of-working because it's such a negative and non-productive way to work. I no longer have to look behind me, I can speak up and be safely collaborative, and challenge ideas for the good of the biz and patients. I'm not worried about nefarious incompetent people trying to usurp me.

The PTSD from BMS is real. But the freedom to operate and do your job normally when you go elsewhere is amazing.
 








anonymous said:
What a loser, only at BMS will you find these lifers who have failed upwards through kissing ass and friends/family. No successful company in 2024 operates like this.
Click to expand...
you are partly correct. I've been here for 10+ years and your comment about BMS is 100% accurate. However, my spouse has worked at two Big Pharma companies and the cronyism and "who ya know" is just as bad as here. Haven't you ever noticed the GSK-Merck- Novo Nordisk-BMS-Johnson and Johnson-Novartis shuffle, when a senior level manager gets clipped from one place and another scoops them up....and he/she quickly brings in sycophants from the spot they got fired from? In addition, my friends from Pfizer always complain about the exact same thing.
 








anonymous said:
you are partly correct. I've been here for 10+ years and your comment about BMS is 100% accurate. However, my spouse has worked at two Big Pharma companies and the cronyism and "who ya know" is just as bad as here. Haven't you ever noticed the GSK-Merck- Novo Nordisk-BMS-Johnson and Johnson-Novartis shuffle, when a senior level manager gets clipped from one place and another scoops them up....and he/she quickly brings in sycophants from the spot they got fired from? In addition, my friends from Pfizer always complain about the exact same thing.
Click to expand...
True, to a certain extent. Every environment has toxic aspects, but at BMS it has festered and become the norm. BMS employees do not know how to act in a way that is not either end of an abusive relationship.
 




anonymous said:
you are partly correct. I've been here for 10+ years and your comment about BMS is 100% accurate. However, my spouse has worked at two Big Pharma companies and the cronyism and "who ya know" is just as bad as here. Haven't you ever noticed the GSK-Merck- Novo Nordisk-BMS-Johnson and Johnson-Novartis shuffle, when a senior level manager gets clipped from one place and another scoops them up....and he/she quickly brings in sycophants from the spot they got fired from? In addition, my friends from Pfizer always complain about the exact same thing.
Click to expand...
The current big example is Tania Small. There was no need to hire her or allow the nonsense she has done since her arrival. All companies’ ways of working have moved from real work and going back home To doing all sorts of outside of work activities, gossip, unnecessary early promotions and greed which starts at the very top and filters down. The hiring and promotion has shifted from people who can do real work to talented artists, runners, hikers, cooks, power point experts, managers and LT who overlook compliance, constant smiley people who show all their teeth as a front but trash you behind their backs and those that provide gossip to their managers. With such hires, success is far and in between. Most Drugs are selling themselves based on efficacy, safety and ease of use experienced by patients but some are selling due to forceful direction from a few questionable KOLs under Pharma influence. The drugs selling themselves are the best drugs Pharma wide for patients. The high number of senior execs are not needed who are trying weird ways to show that they are productive. When a KOL starts questioning a drug, he or she are generally ignored initially until the problem becomes widespread. KOL influence to approve drugs which should not be approved and FDA in big Pharma pockets are big problems today. Small companies are bullied by FDA and are scrutinized a lot more than big Pharma.
 




anonymous said:
The current big example is Tania Small. There was no need to hire her or allow the nonsense she has done since her arrival. All companies’ ways of working have moved from real work and going back home To doing all sorts of outside of work activities, gossip, unnecessary early promotions and greed which starts at the very top and filters down. The hiring and promotion has shifted from people who can do real work to talented artists, runners, hikers, cooks, power point experts, managers and LT who overlook compliance, constant smiley people who show all their teeth as a front but trash you behind their backs and those that provide gossip to their managers. With such hires, success is far and in between. Most Drugs are selling themselves based on efficacy, safety and ease of use experienced by patients but some are selling due to forceful direction from a few questionable KOLs under Pharma influence. The drugs selling themselves are the best drugs Pharma wide for patients. The high number of senior execs are not needed who are trying weird ways to show that they are productive. When a KOL starts questioning a drug, he or she are generally ignored initially until the problem becomes widespread. KOL influence to approve drugs which should not be approved and FDA in big Pharma pockets are big problems today. Small companies are bullied by FDA and are scrutinized a lot more than big Pharma.
Click to expand...
I have to agree here. The hiring of TS has driven Medical to a worse place with talents voluntarily exiting or long timers laid off. This company is setting a bad example for the entire industry by having Commercial leadership run Medical. How they get away with it with Compliance and Legal we don’t know.
 





anonymous said:
True, to a certain extent. Every environment has toxic aspects, but at BMS it has festered and become the norm. BMS employees do not know how to act in a way that is not either end of an abusive relationship.
Click to expand...
Nepotism and kissing butt get you places.
New blood coming in to “transform” this once great company by taking the hatchet to long time loyal employees. I hope this comes back to haunt the LT who let this happen.
 




anonymous said:
Old style BMS way or the highway, New hire experience quickly learns not to give opinion or get penalised for giving it. Shut up and deal with it approach.

Commercial leadership is not organised for success. Repeat disasters in development, acquisition and launches accepted as the norm. Head in the sand syndrome.

Change is necessary to survive and / or offset patent expiry, increasing cost and falling revenue. BMS change management lacks strategic direction and is firing aimlessly resulting in high friendly fire casualties. The best talent get jobs somewhere else.
Click to expand...
Love,
Amy S
 












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