What's going on at PharmaNet...?

Discussion in 'CROs - General Discussion' started by Anonymous, Oct 2, 2011 at 10:16 PM.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I think the strategy is to buy up more small companies and the spin off the loss by selling. All i know is that i have never worked for a company that is so screwed up in my life. It's literally like watching a train wreck every day. Don't worry - prospective clients are turning down bids because they know that they know the integration is not going well. I certainly would not risk putting my contract with this company.
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    FSP

    What's it like in the FSP division? Everybody acts like you all walknon water over there.
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I think this company is giving me depression. I'm sick to my stomach about having to work there tomorrow.
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    We still can't figure out management's overall strategy (or even if they have one at this point). But they are obviously having trouble hiring and retaining employees.

    For a limited time, they have doubled the referral bonus to employees who recommend a friend for CRA and biostats positions. And today they gave us back two of the paid time off days that they took away back in December... so now we have all lost FEWER days than before, but we still have less paid time off.

    I don't think this is going to stem the tide of employees leaving, or get new employees to consider working at such a crappy place...
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    It has Meister written all over it. And I'm sure his partner is close by in the background.

     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Ditto. I've become a professional patient since the lordly inVentiv raided the companies.
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Guess inVentiv and 'team' (aka Meister) have not heard the phrase "too little, too late..."

    Woohoo, they GAVE employees 2 new floating holidays on April 27. NOW employees have only lost lost 4 (more for others) paid days off per year! Did management fall over all the people on their knees thanking them for their graciousness?

    Next thing you know our shitty medical plan will become only semi-shitty! Interesting the unique restrictions this medical plan has that no other United Healthcare plans seem to have. Prescription medications, equipment/DME that is not covered under inVentiv's particular UHC medical plan. While, for the record, United Healthcare is no longer associated with parent or any of it's ever-growing offspring, something's smelling a little fishy around here.

    gone fishin' .....
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I still lost over a week of leave even with them giving back two days. It's not enough to keep me working there. They should be a textbook case study for how not to run a business.
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    It makes no sense to have three staffing companies in the Inventiv portfolio, until you realize they are owned by private equity....look at the profit JLL made on Pharmanet....3 times money...T>Lee is just setting up for sale. They buy kforce which was stated publically at approx 80+M revenues for 50M...much below market except when you look under the covers and realize their trajectory was going steadily down and mother Kforce needed to eject them. They call them an FSP provider, and a CRO...which they are neither, and coming off the Pfizer mess, and layoffs they didn't have an upside. So now you have Pharmanet (a troubled CRO over the past few years), INVENTIV clinical (a name without a face), Med Focus and SmithHanley ...two decreasing staffing firms competing with each other and now Kforce. Putting it all together, you get leverage by decreasing SG&A (layoffs and reductions), and a sale if you can flatten out revenues...a big if. Lilly, Pfizer, Merck,Sanofi, BMS, Novartis, Amgen, J&J and AZ have already picked their providers and I didn't see Inventivs, Kforce or Pharmanets name on any list. Doesn't look good.
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Re: What's going on at PharmaNet

    Not sure who/what inVentiv could sell Pharmanet or the combined staffing organizations to... We've all heard that JLL had to falsify financials (er, "mislead inVentiv about Pharmanet's financial position") in order to unload Pharmanet on unsuspecting inVentiv. I'm not convinced that inVentiv will find another sucker willing to buy such distressed goods...
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I've never seen such mismanagement (and non-management) in my career either. It would be comical if it wasn't screwing up the lives and careers of so many employees!
     
  12. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

     
  13. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    The only way they will be able to keep the doors open is cut the employees who are duplicating jobs. They have a lot with 3 staffing companies, FSPs and a former CRO on its last breath. Rumor has it layoffs will start in July, and then in or by 2013 comp changes and a new structure, if not sooner. The big disappointment was buying kforce CRO/FSP want to be. They are just as misleading as the rest of Inventiv. Kforce has no future business to sustain the people that they are going to have to be let go from the Pfizer FSP and neither does I3. No Secret, Everyone knows Kforce was saved by the buy. It appears that the inventiv group is a big pool of troubled companies. Who is calling the shots here and running the business? Homer Simpson? Who will want to do business with a company with a reputation like this? TROUBLE.
     
  14. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    No layoffs in July, but every week more people leave on their own, so the headcount keeps going down without layoffs.

    It's like a ghost town in parts of the Princeton office... Everyone I know there is job-hunting.

    My advice to any prospective hires: "Run while you still can!"
     
  15. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    They did have lay-offs in July. It was kept quiet, some operations/back office. Some FSP leadership members, and former i3. That was the 1st round. The staffing side will be sold off, and the remaining will become corporate recruiters. My recruiter cant tell me whats going on. All the signs point to 2nd round by end of year. The million dollar question is..What and who are we? CRO, FSP, STAFFING. If our leadership can't tell us, or explain, how do we expect the end user to know who we are and what we do? Our name is so confusing. Someone needs to get it together. Our name is a joke in the industry, at sites. It is embarrassing when someone asks who we are and nobody can provide the same answer. It just depends on who you ask. The question is, if you ask any employee if they would invest their own money in this business, would they? I would say 90% would say, No, the other 10% is the management who are hanging around getting a paycheck. The resignations continue, work is being dumped on us that are still here.
    Just waiting for a better opportunity.
     
  16. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Not one good thing that is for sure! Management is fat and happy while the people working are miserable. Vendors aren't getting paid, employees continue to struggle to get the work done, and Miester puts out a stupid video about how PharmaNet i3 is one big happy family. He must be at a different family reunion.


    Let us walk around the dungeons of PharmaNet and pretend we are onboard until we can jump from this sinking ship!
     
  17. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Watch the video. The man never shows ANY emotion at all--he's the very definition of "flat affect." There are only two places where he breaks into a half-smile, and one of them is when he repeats his phone number. At that point you can tell that he's embarrassed to be reciting from the script his P.R. people gave him...

    He's asking people for their ideas that will make Pharmanet/i3 "great," but upper management does not like the suggestions they get, because all of the suggestions involve (GASP!) spending money! I've heard that people responded by suggesting the company spend money on technology that will allow us to do our jobs well, and spend money to hire employees (not short-term contractors) so there's enough trained staff to do the work...

    It's as if they will ask for ideas until they get one they like (meaning one that involves cost-cutting), and then they can say the suggestion came from the rank and file.

    Meanwhile, anyone who can find another job is leaving...
     
  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    i hate my job and i hate pharmanet and inventiv
    never seen such a ill-run company before in my life
    if you're a manager, you need 8 levels of approval from managers above you to make a decision on something so insignificant in scope of things. yes, there are that many levels of management............................
    an inefficient company. clients leaving, consultants leaving, good coworkers leaving....its THAT bad and i dont blame them one bit
    cant wait until i can say good riddance
     
  19. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    It is INSANE! I can't wait to get out. Rumor is that the next set of Layoffs is October 31! They still don't have everyone in place. Management and recruiters lie straight to your face (I have caught many of them). One of my co-workers just got a call on Tuesday and due to RIF, he was laid off effective that day. Supposedly, he's getting a severance package but no one will call him back and he still doesn't have the paperwork.
     
  20. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    A number of people who were laid off from Pharmanet/i3 during 2012 have recently received emails from recruiters asking if they are interested in working there... So far, none of the people I've talked to are at all interested in going back. Most of them have found other jobs and are much happier at their new jobs.

    I heard that one CURRENT employee got an email from a recruiter (at the inVentiv division that used to be called Smith-Hanley) about a contract job at Pharmanet-i3. It went to her @pharmanet-i3 email address!

    Meanwhile, employees are finding other jobs and leaving...