2019

https://www.convatecgroup.com/media/1550/convatec-group-plc-annual-results-2018-presentation.pdf

Read on CvT'rs. Big investment over the next 3 years will TRANSFORM the company.

 

ROL...I read the earnings report and Reuters articles. Run...nice tank of stock price. Not a good place for anyone that wants a good career. People are jumping left and right. Worn out products, worn out people. Only people still standing are those that are lifers or cannot get another job. The pathetic RSMs are laughable - but hey, its a job...I guess. LOL

 

I am watching a train wreck. This company has lost their way. Total joke. What was once a great place to work has become a shit show. The changes that are being made right now are asinine. Stupid decisions with no thought put in. TM’s were not given a choice but instead told that now they are either an advance wound care rep or surgical rep.No consideration for who wants what or who it will impact. It will create a hostile environment. Terrible company culture. I want nothing more to do with it. I am looking and I am looking hard. I have never seen anything like this. Who ever is up there trying to to spin this crap into something good needs to stop drinking the kool aid.

 

The worst part of it is that none of the worker bees knows anything about what's going on. Everything is a big secret. Its mid February and we don't have our final numbers from 2018. Our leadership team is yet again another inbred group of rejects who knows nothing about the products or our customers. This place is like Neverland where flattening the management structure means adding more people, (four regional directors??? WTF ) the marketing team may as well be developing a marketing plan for M&Ms and our competition is innovating, coming out with new products and eating our shorts. The training program is an abysmal horror show, and HR is causing so many lawsuits by their ineptitude and skilless arbitrary firings, that Clarence Darrow would be having a field day representing the poor souls who have been arbitrarily and wrongfully terminated, (PS, isn't there anyone in the US qualified to run HR??? I mean really). Oh by the way good job building a positive corporate culture where EVERYBODY"S main focus is getting another job. How do you even try to crate such a mess?

 

The way that upper management went about this was all wrong. I am not looking forward to seeing all of the pissed off unmotivated unhappy TM’s at NSM. No idea what we are supposed to be doing in the mean time. What if you were working on a large SCD opportunity and now the Surgical rep gets to reap all the benefits and financial gain from your hard work? It is like starting from scratch. Complete bullshit. This company treats their employees like shit. Fuck Convatec. Shameful company that pays like crap and treat their employees like crap. I can’t wait to leave. Stop trying to spin this garbage. We all know that the SCD reps have the advantage and opportunity to make more money while the wound reps get shit on. How lucky for those selected to be wound reps. I do not trust this company. Very unethical.

 

True! Every single person I know at Convatec is looking for another job. EVERYONE. Wake up upper manageement. I have been here a long time and this is the worst it has ever been. I never thought I would leave but even I am looking. This culture is unhealthy and not for me. It is slave labor for not enough money. Had anyone ever made the full 50k bonus? What a joke. There is a reason this company is failing. It starts at the top.

 

I’ve been here a while. I have seen highs and lows. But this...its a whole new dire low. Poole stood up at the meeting Monday with managers and told them point blank he had two quarters to turn this around or it would be sold off in pieces. Yet no one is being honest about this. Did he really think he’d say that and no one find out?? And HR is possibly setting themselves up for trouble with the way the new jobs are being rolled out. Giving some reps the opportunity to make more than others? They better have a good step by step explanation of how they made those decisions and be able to back it up. I don’t know how this company will be around much longer. It used to be a great place to work. Then is was sort of the devil you knew. Now, it’s like watching a train wreck.

 

Thanks to the poster above for your honesty. It's refreshing. You've confirmed what us underlings already pretty much known. BTW Human Resources has caused more legal problems, so much so that Convatec should fire the entire bunch. What a shame that the majority of this management team lacks the character, courage and humanity to act with honesty and integrity, two qualities that are in short supply at Convatec. Its easy to treat people like shit when they are looking to support their families; to create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, to build mini silo kingdoms-- Know this. Its not you that they are afraid of, we fear your unfair treatment of us. We actually think your treatment of employees is pathetic. Now go have a good hard look in the mirror.

The reason the Company is in the place we're in is due the years and years and years of incompetent yes men, who have ALL, in their own turn been shown the door. Now you realize you need clinical data??? We've been screaming this forever and we're told "it's not necessary, use the competitor's data etc. Specialized call points- we've had those too, can you say triple C or Aquacel Burn or Negative Pressure????This actually worked, but was dismantled by MV, (another sadistic jerk-off). And what's left behind is a bunch of ruined careers and a lot of people that gave a damn being tossed out like yesterdays trash. The knowledge drain that has taken place over the last several years is yet another factor for the poor results- No attempt to retain these long-term valuable PROVEN employees, they were replaced by blow-hard yes people that no nothing about this business-There. Now you know how we got here. Now take some of your $100MM of turnaround money and BEG some of these folks to come back. That may be your best chance to survive. They actually knew what they were doing.

 

You took the words right out of my mouth. This company does not give a damn about their employees. Many have spoken up and have offerred their feedback only to be shut down. You get the typical canned response. HR gets the same feedback from every skilled employee that has left the company during exit interviews but have they have done anything to make the necessary changes ? No. The pay range is all over the map and frankly is a joke. Pay has been brought up like a broken record over and over again. Do they listen and actually hear what is being said? No. If this many people bring up pay as a problem at what point do you take it seriously and actually hear what is being said? This is problem #1. You treat your employee’s like garbage. Convatec ignores pleas for increases in pay but will invest millions into failing systems like Quick Base and hire on 50 new ATM’s but do not give a damn that some of their more mature and skilled employees are living paycheck to paycheck. What a joke. Your employees are your number 1 asset. From what I hear George Poole is an idiot. I have heard that from everyone that meets him and friends that have worked under him in the past. Thank god I will not be around much longer for this shit show. God what happened to this Company? Look int the mirror HR and Upper Management. You are to blame.

 

HR is absolutely setting themselves up for trouble with the way the new jobs are being rolled out. They can try to spin it all day long but the fact is they are setting up some reps with the opportunity to make fmore money than others. That is bullshit and it is not ok. I too want to know how these decisions were made.

 

Wow. One guess is that the RSMs directed the assignments in favor of their favorites as that is normally how CVT has managed everything from promotions, evaluations, raises, quotas and dismissals. Even when someone is doing a great job with good numbers, if your manager does not like you, you are going to have constant struggles and poor work life.

Another option to the re-assignments would be looking at where the surgical cover dressings best opportunities for growth are (based on RSM data). Of course, as we have seen in the past, RSMs can always redraw territory boundaries to reward their favorites. Been here before and it has not changed. Corrupt just like our government.

 

New Territories are aligned and roles assigned but they are not telling us until Friday. Because they don’t want to field questions from all the TMs. There’s 4 weeks left in Q1:
No YTD #’s from 2018
No 2019 corporate objectives
No comp plan
No job title(look at the recent roster-we are all TMs)


How does Poole think we can turn this around in 2 quarters when every year it takes the leadership team the first quarter to figure out what we are doing and what the strategy is. We only have 10 months to meet our qouta and objectives.

They wonder why the company lost 20 million in 2017 and another 25 million in 2018. They wonder why the Stock has dropped from 240 to 117. Let’s spend money sending people to training when we don’t have FDA approval for a product, lets bring in definitive health group and let’s bring in MMC only to get rid of both a less than a year later, let’s hire a bunch of ATMs but don’t have an establish training program and they sit around doing nothing for 3 months. Lets run Foam contests every quarter and pay out more then what’s generated. Let’s promote people who have not nor will ever contribute to the bottom line. Let’s put a clinical and hha departments together only to dismantle them in 6 months. They realign with 4 RVPs when there are only 13 DMs The list is too long to continue.

Now they decide to keep all the TMs in limbo until they are provide their 2019 role. Just like the previous 4 CEOs in the past 4 years and the past 6 managers in 5 years. ConvaTec will fail and Poole will continue the tradition.

 

How about not having our contracting group not being held accountable for losing HPG ostomy and Flexiseal. Along with not having any contact’s with the VA’s as this business slowly erodes.

 

How about the AAA role out and strategy. First new product in the states in a long time and we did nothing with it. Now we are being asked to sell it and get no tracings. Speaking about tracings how about our wound center strategy. Made it a focus point in 2018. Paid TMs to call on them and could not provide any data.

 

I still want to know how they plan to handle this transition when it comes to comp. I have been working on some of the largest conversions I have ever had during my tenure. It took me 2 years of consistency to finally get these accounts to budge and now in the final stages and ready to close. You mean to tell me someone else is going to reap the financial rewards of my hard work? Really??

 

I'd give it 50:50---BTW many of us are in the same boat, It takes years to get some of the big ones (and smaller ones) and I am certain they don't give a sh*t. It's not at all about you. Its all about them.

 

Just tell your rsm you want the wound role. The funny thing is that they think that this will be the solution to turn it around. What they don’t understand is that are products are now commodities. There’s no significant difference from the competition. All the distributors are making dressings. Healogics is coming out with their new line of dressings. We need to become innovative and creative in marketing/selling our whole portfolio. Having timely accurate sales numbers for the field would be efficient.

Can’t want for the NSM, find my new role, territory and team. Betcha they won’t have the comp plan ready

 

I haven't heard great things about the Head of HR. And given that they're also losing a good number of employees it seems like a global issue...