What the heck is happening around here? Every time I turn around there are more layoffs announced, and more and more bad news. Plenty of high caliber reps and managers have either been laid off or have left for greener pastures. I have been holding on waiting for the stabilization to take place. I figured if enough people leave on their own then maybe I will be safer. That theory is not panning out too well. We are heading into winter and they are announcing layoffs everywhere. If I lose my job in the middle of winter it is going to be hard to find another right away because not many companies are hiring at that time. I haven't received confirmation but the word is I may lose my LER role. I worked too damn hard for that and it is not fair how we are being treated. My loyalty to Merck has officially ended today. I don't want to end up like Jack from the movie Titanic, frozen solid and sinking to the bottom of the ocean. I recommend others start evaluating their situations closer. Good luck to all my colleagues caught in this storm.
Contract is hard to get too! Get ready 62k jobs next.....if you are lucky enough to get one (for a year)!
This thread is about 5 years too late I'm sorry to say. Merging with Schering was the start of the death rattle. All those years listening to the 'no way, no merger' employee business briefing answers. Finally merging was a shocker and not a good sign about how desperate management is.
Wow. Some folks are a bit slow on the uptake here. Pay attention now... Here's how it plays out. LERS gone, MAEs mostly gone, Zontivity folks should be gone followed up by the respiratory Grastek folks next spring. Januvia folks reduced in number with the added gift of selling Surovexant to anyone who isn't unemployed and has cash to spend on a novel medication. If you wait for a stupid bridge or severance you'll be unemployed and competing to get that job at Wal-Mart greeting Walmartians at the door. Do the math and get a temperature check from all your Merck buddies. The love is going down the drain and people don't like to live a life of uncertainty. There's no advancement opportunitities and the old business model doesn't work in this environment. Go re-invent yourselves quickly and don't expect to have a salary equivalent to the one you currently have. Your resume delivering food, dropping off packages and reading a marketing message from an iPad doesn't command a high salary with bonuses, pensions, 401 K and a company car. Wake the hell up and smell your last Starbucks! Move along folks the story is over...
If you haven't had an exit plan for the past 2-5 years you don't deserve a LER role. Just shows it did not take intelligence, just kool aid drinking to be a LER. I just hang around because i am 57 & close to retirement. Anyone under 50 that is still at Merck is in DENIAL big time, where have you been the past 5 years? The rep role is so diminished & unneccessay in most cases. Or just plain lazy to look for a job. But don't act shocked when you are let go. Plenty of talented peers have been let go the last several years, it is not about your talent anymore.
Heavy duty competition for everything! CSO is hard to get too... Bye bye ability to put money in the 401K.
I got thrown off the ship 5 years ago. Miss the money, yep.... Miss the job, NOPE!!!! Lost the job in my mid 40's, in the heart of the recession. Ended up starting two small businesses to keep the roof over my head, while wife works her ass off. I started working on plan B before I was let go, thankfully. I just say this. Look around, and count the people around you at the meetings in their 50's and 60's. That's when I said to myself, I'm not going to be able to retire here, because there aren't many people that are going retire before me with Merck... Most were gone, kicked to the curb well before their time. I was in the top 10 % in sales. Problem was, I didn't like kissing ass. Good thing is, I rolled my entire 401K over, bought some stock that I had invested in previously, and since then have watched that money double twice since. I'm actually financially better off now for retirement than I would be if I had stayed at Merck. How ironic. Fuck you Merck.
I love hearing stories like this…This guy was smart, and knew that Merck doesn't let all but a very select few, make it to the point where they can actually retire. Many reps who gave some of their best, most productive years to Merck, get harassed out of the company and find themselves too young to retire, yet to old to be hired anywhere…Many of these people are ruined financially because of this, and have to raid their 401(k)s and IRA's just to stay afloat. (I know, I am one of them.) Unless you are an ass kisser, you don't have a prayer in sales at Merck…and like the poster so eloquently stated: Fuck you Merck!
Merck problems did not start with SP merger. It started with Vioxx. Merck was on the verge of being bought out, Merck starting shopping for a partner at that time. Due to huge liability with lawsuits no company would touch Merck. Check business articles from that time.
Merck should have let J&J buy them. Although Vioxx was the cause of the problem, the mistake was merging with Schering. There were better options but Dick couldn't get over himself as the guy who would be tossed as CEO in an acquisition - so he bought Schering, kept his place and ruined countless lives and three good companies (Merck, Schering and Organon) in the process.
Failure to plan is a plan to fail. Every single person with this company should be well into their Plan B. When you ARE kicked to the curb, and yes, it WILL happen, what you have done to prepare will determine your future. People who plan almost always succeed and those who have had their head in the sand almost always fail. Whose fault is it? Just look in the mirror because YOU control your destiny.
Well laid out. Always have a plan B is my mantra. Eventually they are going to pull the rug from under nearly everyone except Key Talent and outsource the rest.
