Need some perspective

Discussion in 'Vertex' started by Anonymous, Aug 15, 2014 at 10:33 AM.

Tags: Add Tags
  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    This is my first job in pharma. Is all pharma as miserable as Vertex is to work at? Back-biting, back-stabbing, incompetent bosses, kiss-ups, arrogance, ignorance. I could go on and on. I'm heading back to healthcare.
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Short answer, Yes.

    Long answer, some places are better than others.

    I have been at a few different companies over the last several years and this goes on at every pharma. Some are worse than others, but you cannot escape it. It is like this at every field of private-sector employment. Its more pronounced at Pharma because there is a lot of easy money jobs at stake, so it ratchets everything you listed up and up and up....

    I'm not sure what you do in healthcare, but say you are nurse, chances are you are union. You can be the best employee or be the worst employee, kiss butt or not kiss butt, you will still be paid the same based on pay scale that is based on years in. If you do not want to compete, than maybe that is the better career path for you. If you do have some drive to compete in a workplace with stiff competition, then stick it out and try another company. Ask around and do your HW as to what companies might have a better culture. To me personally, I loved Shire, though I have now been gone for about 2 years and things have already changed.

    What you might also be experiencing is getting in too late into pharma. The golden years were 1998-2009 for all departments. Tons of growth, in-house promotions, hardly any cut backs or outsourcing. That all has since changed. It hit sales a little early in say 2007/2008, and then Clinical R&D by 2010 with massive outsourcing. People are bitter all around and angry and trying to figure out where to go/what company might be a safe haven or if they should leave the field now, realizing that the pharma bubble (on an employment side of things) has now ended.
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Well said, although I might suggest that the golden period started before 1998, but your synopsis of the more recent past is right on. Forget how great things used to be at Company X, guaranteed they aren't that way anymore.


     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    One of the best short assessments of what is going on across the industry. Bitterness and anger over not knowing what to do now that the bubble is gone from an employment side (clearly not the stock prices ...yet) and there are too many available bodies for fewer and fewer positions. It was an easy job, easy money, no one held anyone accountable for projects not hitting goals or timelines or being under budget. I would agree with the above poster that it did not start in 1998. Try 1995 as to when things really started to heat up. Back then, we would take just about anyone off the street with no experience and they would be a Sr. Manager by their 3rd year in.
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Could not have said it better myself.
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    The sentence above is all you need to know about any workplace. Life in healthcare was a true country club environment until Medicare introduced DRGs in October of 1983. After that the reimbursement pressure on the hospitals has been relentless, and it has trickled downhill to the physicians, medical device companies, and pharma world ever since.

    Part of pharma's problem is that was too good at developing drugs. The 90's were wonderful for the introduction of metabolic drugs (Lipitor for example) but as those drugs went off patent it was nigh well impossible to replace them because the older drug had gone generic and the newer drugs did not work measurably better for most patients. So R&D contracted (and continues to contract except for oncology and neurology), sales organizations fail to meet unrealistic targets set by Wall Street, everyone learns to hate the finance guys, and the whole organization gets rather annoyed with itself. It will only get worse from here, not forever, but for a while longer.

    Life is tough in a lot of places. Find a boss that you think is a real dream to work for and make the switch. Money isn't everything.