Roommates

We all need to call Dewey, Cheatem and Howe. They can get us are own rooms or at least a king size bed for some cuddeling

 

At my previous company, HR took away the roommate situations because at one meeting, two reps were hooking up and the roommate of the guy got locked out of his room while this was happening and threw a shit fit. It turned into a major HR issue and after that year, we never had roommates again.

 

Unfortunately, that has happened many many many times here & still no change on having roommates. They have paired up a girl & a guy at meetings. They happened to have unisex names. They make new moms that are breast feeding share a room with someone. My friend loved seeing her roommate having to pump. There have been nightmare stories of roommates that walked around & slept in the nude. Another one was of two roommates of different races & one refusing to room with the other while the other was making racial slurs.
These are just ones that I actually know the people involved. You can only imagine how many worse stories there are out there. Point being that Forest or HR could give 2 shits about stopping this behavior. All they care about is saving a dime. Cheap bastards!

 

You can call forest cheap if you want, but you know what? Which company was about the only large pharma to have no layoffs in 15 years? This cut is basically their first in forever. They had 3 billion dollars cash In the bank when we were sold and never had any debt. Most experienced reps that were here kept that in perspective anytime they dealt with something like "roommates" and let's be clear people, during a normal year you are literally going to be at meetings for 5 nights total a year. Hate to play the sexist card here andaybe I am generalizing but it seems like most of the guys I talk would always prefer their own room, but at the end of the day they, they don't really give a damn. I mean you people sports right? Good grief, you shower with 30 people, this is just sharing a room.

Again, no one would choose to share if they had the option, it's just some people have something called perspective, and some don't.

 

I will just get a few more sigs and enjoy my extended holiday weekend. My perspective is this is a dead end job and I will do just enough to stay off the radar like everyone else has been doing for years.

 

Here's a good article I agree with one of the other posters it's all about your company respecting you as an individual.



Should Employees Share Rooms?

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By Susan M. Heathfield, Human Resources Expert
Do you ask your employees to share rooms during business travel? A 2007 Orbitz for Business study found that 24% of business travelers said that they have had to share a hotel room, either as a practice or on occasion, when traveling on business. One year later, just 14% of business travelers surveyed said that they share hotel rooms with coworkers.

It’s not illegal to ask employees to share rooms on business trips. So, employers ask employees to share rooms for a variety of reasons – but should they? I’ve heard pros and cons. Honestly? I’ve heard mostly cons from employees who universally dislike the practice. The pros come from executives and owners who are often not subjected to the same rules.

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Employers defend the practice of employees sharing rooms with these reasons.

The employer wants to cut the cost of travel and entertainment. Economically, sharing rooms affects an employee’s ability to attend conferences, training, and business meetings because, without the shared rooms, only half of the eligible employees would be able to attend the event.

Some employers argue that sharing a room builds camaraderie and a sense of teamwork.

The employer would not have obtained the work contract if the cost savings of employees sharing rooms had not been factored into the bid. Employers argue that employees would rather have the work than their privacy.
Negatives about Shared Rooms on Business Travel

In my contrary view, employees should never be asked to share a room with a coworker, not under any circumstances including saving money during tough economic times. While I'm not certain it's a legal issue - although I can certainly conjure up harassment scenarios - it is a respect issue.

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Employees who travel for business to benefit their employer should be treated with the respect and regard that they deserve. This includes privacy, a place for downtime away from coworkers, and the opportunity to relax and rejuvenate without having to worry about the opinions, feelings, habits, and stuff of a coworker.

Possible violations of ADA by placing an employee with an accommodated medical condition in a situation where he or she does not have full privacy for the medications, medical equipment or room accommodations they may require. By requiring employees to share rooms, you violate their privacy and may cause them to disclose medical information they don’t want to share. Even if you require sharing rooms, an employee with a medical condition should be able to ask for a single room.

The potential benefits of camaraderie and team building are overwhelmed by the lack of privacy and the stress engendered by sharing a space with a stranger with whom the employee is not intimate. Employees are vulnerable when they sleep and even well-liked coworkers in the same room can interfere with sleep. And, in a shared setting, the employee gets no real downtime after working or traveling all day.
Let's face it. If you respect your employees, your employees should not have to listen to a coworker snore, smell their stinky socks, work around their toiletries in the bathroom, share the soap in the shower, listen in on their phone calls, deal with their clothing and hygiene habits, or put up with their late night work habits.

Working effectively daily with coworkers requires a certain amount of respect and privacy. Asking employees, who maintain their self-determined professional distance from each other at work, to violate these rules of conduct on the road, destabilizes patterns of interacting. Employees develop their comfort zones and behaviors that help them cope with the workplace, over time.

Employers cannot expect that the disruption of these distance and space needs will benefit employees. Seeing your coworker walk around a hotel room wearing a towel when, you are used to seeing her across a conference table, wearing a business suit, creates discomfort. While some employees may be unphased; others will be deeply uncomfortable. Why risk it?

An employee who is giving up hours of his or her free time, and spending time away from the family for a business purpose, should have a private room to retire to for breaks and in the evening. The employee should be able to call home without an audience, drink a few cocktails without a disapproving observer, work until the wee hours of the morning, or call it an early night without worrying about the needs of a coworker.

Employees who have just spent breakfast, lunch, and dinner together plus attended all day meetings with fellow employees, deserve a place for solitude and rejuvenation. Sharing a room is not a team building event and it may result in damaged work relationships even if both of the employees are respectful and mindful of adult behavior.

Business travel is stressful enough, and your employees are already voluntarily giving you hours of their time, without adding one more layer of potential stress and offensiveness. Give your employees the respect they deserve. Unless good friends ask to room together, employees should never be asked to share rooms.

 

Damn that's perfect I'm sending to my new dm who already hates my guts, thanks anonymous poster.

 

You obviously don't have perspective. This is not an athletic team, not every person hear played on a Sports team. If you can't delineate between the Business World and the Sports world you are the one without perspective. In Athletics it is very important to have chemistry and camaraderie as each position is reliant on another. What a Rep from Topeka does really doesn't affect what someone from New Orleans does.

Best quote from the article:

Employees who have just spent breakfast, lunch, and dinner together plus attended all day meetings with fellow employees, deserve a place for solitude and rejuvenation. Sharing a room is not a team building event and it may result in damaged work relationships even if both of the employees are respectful and mindful of adult behavior.

To also go to your 5 nights a year statement, if that is true ( and I've already spent more than that this year) why NOT give everyone their own room? Are you really saving that much money for so few nights?

 

You idiots don't get it. Senior Sales Management has an operational budget. If at the end of the fiscal year, they spend below their budget, large bonuses are given out to them. So having roommates saves $$$$ and puts more $$$$$$ in their overpayed pockets.

 

It's really entertaining reading all the back and forth name calling on these threads. FYI, if you are STILL in PHARMA you can ALL label yourselves LOSERS! Ok. Now read it 8 times in a row so you GET IT! And enjoy your roommates company at meetings little worker ants.

 

Having a roommate puts the burden on the employee with a medical condition to disclose information to complete strangers who have absolutely no need to know. These would include loud mouth room mates, HR, vindictive management who retaliate against an individual seeking a private room.

 

I never thought of it from a HIPPA type stance, but it is very valid. Do I really want my room mate, who is a stranger, knowing what medications I take? Or maybe stealing them?

I did see one email that said 'This is what the employees would do if they were spending their own money'. Really? I most certainly would have a room mate, My SPOUSE! Also, did they poll everyone to come up with that conclusion? Just tell us we want to be cheap and not respect our employees. All this other justification is embarrassing.

 

I find that there is an inverse relationship between the sales performance of an individual and their interest in a single room at company meetings

 

So you are not impressed with the sales performance of Senior Leadership?

 

'Take care of your people, your people will take care of your customers and your business will take care of itself' - J.W. Marriott.

Sort of ironic.

 

'You will have roommates and company meetings and role play the whole time. You must get at least 8 sigs daily in the field and carry a candy bag for access. Your customers are so lucky to have such a talented sales force to call on them.' - J Lynch

 

If you don't like it, then leave........B. Saunders

 

Like he hated B&L

 

FIFY

 

You all are still b itching about roommates, seriously it won't be that bad. If you don't have amother rep your somewhat civil with to request as a roommate, well maybe your the reason someone doesn't want to have roommates. Learn to socialize, isnt that why your in sales because you show some people skills? Or your the idiot with no social skills and have been the annoying fucktard we all had to deal with in a meeting, or social setting. There are literally millions of other things to botch about this training other than roommates. How about the fact you were kept size and scope of your geography for the most of us have doubled yet our salaries are the same. Another would be the fact you will have a working dinner each and every night at training, those of us scheduled for the full week, that means the brainwashing commences for 4 week nights. Ooh you could even get fancy and throw a tantrum about flying coach if you so fell. Just STFU about roommates it is the least of problems.