AZ Culture

Miss BMS and its only been a month and a half. AZ culture is sneaky back stabbing and treats us like we are guilty before proven innocent. Our pods have way too many of us. No one gets along and lies where they have been. Its all a joke and won't last long. Remember the 1 year in our paperwork. We won't make it to that year. We're not in Kansas any more. Watch your backs.

 

Oh, Duh. AZ has had this culture for a long, long time. Fun isn't it? Worst company in pharma for lying, back stabbing and throwing counterparts under the bus. My last counterpart company we'd do anything for our teammates including lie a little for them if they had to leave early or were late to an appointment. If you work for AZ and you're NOT working a full day, you'd better be best buddies with your podmates or your ass is history. Shit spreads like wildfire through every layer of this company and they love gossip. In the field it looks all professional. Do not let that shit fool you. Behind management doors they gossip about their reps like drunken sailors. A good manager used to be one that would go to bat for their reps. Here a good manager is defined as someone who can ride the daylights out of someone they do not like until that person basically begs for a package to get out. Seriously!

 

Here a good manager is one that turns over their district with the claim they are taking out the "garbage."

 

...and bms is the garbage...you have been warned

 

This is BS. At least on my experience as an AZ legacy rep, AZ is not the problem. My pod gets along great, but it's the BMS reps in virtually every other territory in my district that cause the problems. My experience with BMS, with both managers and reps, is a backstabbing culture that's supported by management with a look and me and what I'm doing--even if it means throwing someone under the bus. When BMS was just BMS, the reps still didn't get along even among their own group. I'm not saying AZ is perfect, but the BMS culture is definitely different.
Unfortunately, there is so much BMS upper management that got rolled over in the merger that the culture will not change anytime soon. BMS management doesn't believe in having any fun, which could be seen during our 8-630 meetings in las vegas with buffet dinners every night-at least they got the night club right.

 

Pods are counterproductive. There are reps who spend 80% of their week tracking what their team members are doing. On the one day per month that they work with their manager they have plenty to do. Their manager is impressed with the business of their day. These reps are often promoted to DM and then they spend 100% of their time being counterproductive at the next level.

The reps that are working day in and day out have their schedule spread out, and on unannounced ride along days, their schedules are what they are, and as a result, their managers are least impressed. Its a shit system. The ones that work the least get the most accolades and awards. It is easy to set up last minute appointments when you haven't been in territory all week.

If you have a lazy snitch in your pod, have fun with it. Start telling them lies and see how fast they run to your manager. It is the only way to flush them out. Make sure you do not put those intentionally fabricated lies in text or email. Do it on the phone or live. When your manager questions you about a call you made or didn't make, make sure you have something else that you did at the time in question.

We have a pod member that works 1-2 days per week. It is easy to tell what days she is actually working because she is barking out orders to the rest of the pod on those days. She is also wondering where we are so as not to get her lies crossed. Not to worry we are about to drive her shit house crazy by turning the table on her.

I also love how she records calls for every doctor in the office regardless if she actually speaks with them. Most run from her with a few exceptions. Those exceptions are the same docs she puts our manager in front of.

Enough is enough.

Updates to follow.

 

...and so it begins. In THIS corner you have BMS, and in THIS corner you have AZ. Let's get ready to RUMMMMMBLE. Only in Pharma could you have so much drama and blame.

Regarding BMS management not having fun at the meeting. Would YOU have fun if you were cleaved from your parent company and handed off to another? The future has to be unnerving at best.

 

We bought bms it is totally unfair to believe for even a second that tenure or past performance at bms matters. The only thing that counts is performance and tenure at AstraZeneca ! We need to play the tune - they need to dance

 

I agree that the system is flawed. I like my team but many around me do not get along. Most of us, however, record calls for a few in the office that we did not really see. AZ invented these stupid RF metrics and they are a joke.

 

The lack of culture is what AZ is all about. Beware of back stabbing and the lack of trust.
If you decide to stay longer than five years then be prepared to be chewed up and spit out, no matter how successful you may have been. As a PSS you are the lowest of low. I was a circle of excellence winner and a consistent leader in sales. I played the AZ way and after 11 years was given the pink slip. There are no friendships with this company unless you can make it to home office. I was lucky to find a position with biogen and what a difference in culture and team work it has been. No more redundant admin/ expense reporting things. A company that listens to the sales teams. I suggest that you don't get stuck at AZ but do some time and look elsewhere for a career.

 

The problem is not AZ. I have been with AZ for quite a while. We have our own culture and history. When you add reps from BMS and Amylin and try to merge the culture - you get what we have. There is little trust in the pods and the issue is from DBMs. Former BMS DBMs have their way of doing things and it doesn't fit into the AZ culture of doing things. My Amylin counterpart always bragged of being Legacy Amylin...guess what, I am legacy AZ and you are not in Biotech anymore like you believed you were. I don't agree that all of the reps brought on board keep their tenure...I have been with AZ for a long time and I don't respect that decision. Minimizes the time that all of us Legacy AZ folks have here!

 

Those working do not have time to police their pod members. Those not working are busy playing private eye and are setting up to be the next round of DMs. The culture is shit.

 

The game at AZ is to accuse someone else to draw attention away from yourself. The bigger the thief and cheat the more accusations they will make. The biggest fuck offs in this company are the biggest complainers and the biggest backstabbers. The model for this is perfected in managed markets.

 

AZ culture turned to shit seven or eight years ago. AZ culture was a combination of Astra and Zeneca culture. Things got bad after the merger.

 

And thieves and cheaters are rewarded and promoted. This is why the organization is circling the bowl.

 

i'm the poster that you responded to and I agree with what you're saying. Maybe I was insensitive to the fact of the transition and didn't take that into account. However, I've been at AZ a long time and have experienced many meetings. It seems that our meetings over the past four years keep getting progressively worse. Everyone talks about having fun, but, in reality, there's nothing fun about these meetings. Anyone who thinks that having a meeting go past five is productive, especially in Las Vegas, has to be kidding themselves. Everyone is checked out and waiting for the clock to 6 or 630. While at AZ, I can't remember having a meeting go past 500 and have always thought this was a BMS thing.

I'm sure every team is different and I can only speak for my district, but the BMS reps are brutal. By brutal, I mean backstabbing, me first, look what I'm doing, crap. This may be unique to my area, but I'm guessing not.

 

You are kidding right? I have a peer who is an account director in managed markets who points out everyone else's flaws while shamelessly taking credit for other people's ideas and successes. Everyone talks about how they can't stand her but she has been at az a long time and even though she has been demoted at least once for this kind of behavior she is still around and we seem to be stuck with her.

 

Didn't MT come out of Managed Care? I think he did and if so then that is all you need to know about that. They probably offered him a chance to go back and save some face but his ego wouldn't allow that. Isn't MMs where they put all of there mistakes and castoffs?

 

For the most part, this is true. There are one or two good ones but most of them are sitting at home in their sweats covered with cobwebs, mold, and shattered dreams of the past. A long list of losers where people come in but never leave.

 

Shattered dreams of the past? Whaddya mean? CBD pay grade, staying at home for good chunks of time on the telephone or doing paperwork. Less responsibility for people under them. Car upgrade, hotels and dining out paid for when traveling on the company dime. Yeah, some are holding out for retirement, but man, I would take that job in a heartbeat!

That doesn't mean there isn't pressure. Those people still get plenty and if they pull along a large buying group, MCO, DoD, VISN account, etc,. it can make a big difference.