When did we become caterers? Government Please Ban lunches!

Yup, I agree. Find a few caterers with good perks programs and make it worth YOUR while. And, only work with one's that deliver. It's true that pharma takes the fall for these very rude offices - they insist on food, but don't like the sunshine law and act like we are 'buying' the account & wasting their precious time. Luckily, some offices are truly nice and give you their time. Focus on them & treat them well. The others? Bring them plain pizza from dominoes every so often & quick trip coffee. remind them that Starbucks has the same appearance as staying at a Ritz Carlton in the eyes of the Feds. BETTER YET, ingratiate yourself to the office mgr and explain your budgetary constraints vs the benefits of your drug for their patients (yeah, remember the patients...?? MOST OM's don't want staff wasting time on food either.

 

I work at Salix. We are required to do at LEAST five lunch inservices a week and encouraged to do five breakfast programs a week. It’s ridiculous. This is what we have become.

 

Do you have unlimited budgets ?
And do you have to do sign in sheets ?

 

Attendance sheets always required. Most Pharma companies require these to stay compliant. Budget can vary quarter to quarter. During my time at Salix our budgets were very generous - $7500.00 per quarter. However, that was during the Xifaxan IBS-D indication launch period. I've been gone for a couple years, so things may be different now. Once Valeant (now Bausch Health) acquired Salix in the Spring of '15 it became a different company. I stuck around for awhile, but eventually left. My former managers, who were cool, left before me. I have some good memories of the old Salix, but it changed significantly once Valeant acquired the company. I don't miss the "new" Salix. Glad I moved on.

 

I get great benefits and time off compared to most companies out there.

Add in a damn good salary and decent bonus for my job. I will take it.

 

I’m done with the farce. How can These dinosaurs that are hanging around in pharma management still think that we can bribe scripts out of these offices with monthly lunches despite the fact that 95% of our branded drugs aren’t good solutions? I spent $0 in July bc I’m so over it & my dinosaur wants me to submit a budget tracker for July. I’m hoping I can put it off long enough to land this software sales position. Sick of the farce. Shut down the whole industry & let docs order sample online so costs will go down for the patients that actually want shitty branded drugs

 

I disagree. I have an unlimited lunch budget, and have good enough access to spend about $5000 a month on lunches. These are really the only time we get to have enlightened talks, and it is beneficial to the entire office and patient’s. Why would anyone want these banned?

Samples without reps has been tried, and failed miserably, in the past. This is a terrible direction to go that will get you immediately crushed by your competition

 

Holy shit..you must be a newbie..this has been the norm for 10 years...lol

 

The tasks of the job may be easy but the difficult part is when you are someone who really needs to feel like they are actually doing something productive on a daily basis. Most reps who have been around a long time reach a point where this mindless bullshit of being a catering pro and lies to management just become too much to bear in their own mind. I did it for 20 years and its all great until you get a new young manager who is a pharma "true believer". Believes the numbers are honest, that if you do more lunches you will have high numbers etc. All bs.

 

Cant tell you how many shirts/suits Ive ruined for those ungrateful doctors and their worthless staff. Im just happy that its a company car otherwise I'd be pissed about the stains in the upholstery. To top it all off, when I handed the receptionist her special order "Bitch-a-ccino" she replied with..."You only brought a tall?!" Are you frickin kidding me?! FML

 

Yep, attitudes of entitlement!!! We created it!!