Worst Pharma Company, EVER!!!!!!

I work at corporate HQ in Bridgewater, NJ. I started working there this past summer.

This is one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I'd like to run down some of the reasons why you should NOT work at Valeant. Hopefully, this will curb any decent human being from coming to this company and save them some of pain and heartache I have suffered from this company in less than 6 months.

1. CEO - Mike Peason is the smuggest, short-sighted, greedy, tunnel-visionist, CEO that I have ever come across. If there is one compliment I can give him, he sure isn't fake since he doesn't try to hide these aspects of his leadership at all. At least the asshole is consistent.

He refuses to invest in meaningful infrastructure in the company. We MIGHT get a decent ERP system in 2012. But of course, it'll probably be shit, cause he's not willing to put some decent money behind it.

Oh and let me not forget how he spends millions of dollars on a company airplane every year. AND he also bought a brand new company car. Not leased, BOUGHT, a car with the company's money, a new $100k+ BMW. Fiscally responsible, I think not.

2. Senior leadership - I don't know if these assholes were always this way, or if they've been talked down to for so long from Mike, that they subconsciously started talked to their direct reports that way or what. Either way, I have never been talked to so condenscendingly since High School.

3. HR - The new VP, Brian Stolz is an absolute joke and is MP's lap boy. He's yet another McKinsey alum. This is not a start-up company, there needs to be at least a basic yearly performance review and goal setting schedule. There is NOTHING in place. So if management wants to fire you. There is no paper trail for anyone to follow.

4 - Systems - I could write a book about how bad the systems are here. I'm pretty sure before there was TM1, PRMS, QAD, HFM, etc there was Microfiche and an abacus. These financial systems aren't all that bad on their own, but using them all together to get financial data and trying to tie numbers out is an absolute NIGHTMARE.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, takes 10 times longer than you think it would. Everyday, you feel like you are moving in slow motion. You start to wonder, "is it me? Am I really that incompetent?" The short answer is NO. MP acquires companies, cuts fixed costs (people), and invests little or nothing into the infrastructure. So not only are you doing the work of 5 people you've got shitty ass systems to not help you do your job.

5 - Lack of culture, sense of community, etc. - There is no cafeteria, luncheonette, coffee cart, nothing. Granted, they will be opening a caf in the beginning 2012. But does it really take that much effort to at least have a vendor to come by once a day with some damn sandwiches and salads? We don't all have admins that we can call to have them order us some lunch.

Most days, you feel like a worker bee. You sit in your cubicle plugging away, chasing that elusive deadline. The only time to socialize is when you go over to bitch and moan to your co-worker about how bad it is here. It's fucking depressing.

I'm tired of being this unhappy, and being around equally unhappy coworkers. I can't spend 90% of my day in a place that is just sucking the life out of me. I'm not one to just sit and bitch and take it lying down. I'm better than this. And there are a handful of other employees that I've worked with here that are better than this. Needless to say, I am actively looking for another job. I've been around the block a few times, this is not my first rodeo. I can't believe that I've been snookered and took this job not knowing how bad it was going to be. I feel tricked and bamboozled. A company like this shouldn't even be in existence.

I have a pretty good feeling that Valeant won't be around in 5 years. The short sided tunnel vision that MP has is ruining whatever promise that Valeant and/or Biovail ever had. There is no doubt in my mind there are some very questionable accounting practices going on there. Not to mention questionable Human Resource practices.

When there is only 1 Auditor to every 15 lawyers, you know there is a problem.

Feedback and comments are welcome.

 

It appears you are working for one thing and one thing only. That would be the enrichment of MP and his cronies. He is working a shell game with these acquisitions that won't bear fruit long term for anyone but him.

 

The carnage caused by this guy on familes, individuals and good people who used to work here has been unbelievable! What a travesty, to say the very least!

 

This is shameful!

 

It's pathetic.

 

I totally agree. In fact, I started the thread "Mike Pearson is a Liar" and I can attest to everything being said here. I was a casualty of Mike Pearson's "downsizing" so that he could take a $15,000,000 bonus that year!!! WTF! I am still out of work and will probably be sleeping in my car soon (I'm not kidding!). It's just awful. I've aged 10 years in the last 2 years and I have no self-esteem. I'm a mess. I cannot find a job even though I am a highly educated and accomplished individual. I cannot believe my life has come to this.

We can only hope that Mike's personal plane crashes one day! (Smirk!) That would be truly karma.

Get out while you can...it is easier to find a job when you have a job, such as it is.

Good luck and keep writing on this blog...it's good for the sole.

 

but with all of the companies that they just bought, there has to be a plan-right? are they taking any of the reps from the other companies? I need my job!

 

I can't speak for the Afexa reps. But very little Ortho reps will be brought on. Dermik reps are going to compete in the thunder dome with the existing Valeant reps and determine who stays.

"Two men enter! One man leave!"

But seriously, minus the actual thunder dome, I'm afraid that is true. A plan? It usually goes like this...

1. Valeant buys company
2. Synergies are determined. Synergies = duplicative sales forces. Therefore cutting sales force and other departments = synergies. Cha-Ching $$$$$
3. Existing sales force must work 10 times harder. HQ staff must also work harder since they must also do work of legacy acquisition.
4. Valeant buys another company to confuse the street into thinking that there is actual growth on the base business.

And so the cycle continues.

 

It's gonna get ugly!

 

It's gonna get ugly??????? WOW!

It's been ugly for over 3 years, ever since Mike Pearson took over.

Valeant is but a shell of a company it used to be. Now, it is only a paper machine designed to fool Wall Street. It's all a scam. Valeant is piercing Wall Street for every point on its stock. It is all smoke and mirrors.

One day, soon I pray and hope, Valeant and Mike Pearson will get what they deserve.

 

This is the funniest thread that has ever been written!
If CafePharma has a Hall of Fame this should be in it.

 

Do you really think this guy has any feelings for those who have been shafted over the past three years???

 

Sounds real dysfunctional to me!

 

You think corporate is bad, it can't compare with the miserable inept bastards at DOW. R&D. Hahahahahahaahahah

 

The best comedy mimics life.

When news of the Biovail/Valeant merger broke, I read Cafepharma and thought the Valeant types were a bunch of whiners. Little did we know that virtually everything written about Pearson was true. Everything I now read about the pathetic POS in this thread is true.

He is a pathalogical liar. He is the lowest form of human life but so far, a Wall Street gem. The company structure (Canadian hahaha) will be a problem for him when it comes to an honest audit. Valeant will collapse, and I can't wait. Unfortunately, Pearson will have pocketed several hundred million at the expense of the employees and will be parking his fat ass at one of his houses enjoying his cookies, tabacco and scotch and scotch and scotch.

Boy scout. Hahahaha!

 

This dude sounds like guys named OB and LC from the Eisai board. Thet're both headquartered in NJ. Coincidence? I think not. Check out the Eisai board, it may make you feel better as misery loves company or it may make you feel better because the guys leading Eisai are complete nitwits and worse than Pearson.

 

There are a few new hires from Eisai and they say that Valeant is even worse Eisai. The CEO and or culture may be bad there, but at least they had decent and empathetic managers. We can't say the same for Valeant.

 

as if the corporate culture couldn't get any worse, it does...

So the head of Facilities (MP's Brother in Law, BTW) renovated the 1st floor of the Bridgewater Facility and folks are getting moved around to move into the new space.

You'd think that since it is renovated that it would be an upgrade, right? Wrong. And you'd think $2M would make a nice spacious or at least thoughtfully laid out working environment. Nope, wrong again.

Instead, they've made cubicles 50% smaller and wall dividers a good foot and a half shorter. With ugly used Ikea brown shit colored materials, it looks like we're a herd of telemarketing cows filing in to get milked everyday. We look like fucking sardines. As if I didn't dread going into work everyday, no I'm downgraded to an even shittier cubicle with even less privacy.

I'm constantly astounded about how much MP and senior leadership don't give a rat's ass about morale or working conditions. I am so fed up. I'm so tired of being a miserable drone. I know that I should be thankful that I even have a job and get paid decent money. Maybe if this was my first job, I wouldn't know any better. But unfortunately I do know better. And I know it doesn't have to be this way.

I can't wait to get another job offer so that I can send out a mass email titled,

"Go FUCK yourself Valeant".

 

That just doesn't motivate me. I like shooting hard at my numbers and being paid for such, not jumping through bureaucratic hoops to make the boss look good and letting him/her micomanage me. Just kind of interesting. This is a culture that has been written about often. It does not succeed, but it does become one that allows a company to shed large salaries and pensions and scare people into submission. It then makes it easier to divest and eventually sell. The only problem is for the little people like me and you, that make the company run, we become just spokes in the wheel, we just go round and round at the behest of our managers. Think it may be time to rock on out and test some waters. This is no fun. Not at all. Got my New Years resolution.

 

Are reps really working today??!! There is NO motivation OR direction!!!!!!!!!!!