T&E expenses are out of control

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Anonymous

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Employees are receiving lower ratings than previous years, smaller salary increases, low expectations for Y/E bonus dollars; on-site vendors, some of whom provide the most important and beneficial services to the J&J associates - are being paid wages that no longer meet the definition of "living wage" in the state of New Jersey, as a result of J&J's policy of beating vendors large and small into the ground and not providing money which passes through to the vendor employees.

Yet, T&E expenses remain disgustingly out-of-control and a topic that remains out-of-sight of many people but for those executive administrators who process the expense reports (and need to keep their jobs) in GlobalXRS.

-Fifteen thousand for airfare? No problem.
-Four thousand dollar dinners for twenty five people at high-end restaurants when everyone else is sucking wind and being told to print on duplex setting to save paper?
-Year end party at the home of a now defunct business unit VP where twenty bottles of wine are purchased but only five are consumed, and the remaining fifteen are not returned to the liquor store for credit. And someone approved it.
-Car service. Because you can talk to your mother when you're not driving. Or yell at someone.
-Four corporate jets at Mercer Airport - or did J&J finally get rid of the tacky Lear? And a chopper...cause you need one of those to fly your ass to New Brunswick.
-Opco executives abusing the expense system to their advantage, basically living off J&J shareholder cash for every conceivable whim and expense that you and I would never be able expense.

Somewhere in the CREDO is the answer...
 


You will not find the answer in the Credo. The Credo is a piece of bullshit Corporate propaganda that is rarely, if ever, followed but frequently quoted.

The answer lies in a lack of integrity and a failure of leadershipp at the CEO and Board level. This lack of leadership and intergrity permeates all levels the Corporation.
 


Anonymous said:
Employees are receiving lower ratings than previous years, smaller salary increases, low expectations for Y/E bonus dollars; on-site vendors, some of whom provide the most important and beneficial services to the J&J associates - are being paid wages that no longer meet the definition of "living wage" in the state of New Jersey, as a result of J&J's policy of beating vendors large and small into the ground and not providing money which passes through to the vendor employees.

Yet, T&E expenses remain disgustingly out-of-control and a topic that remains out-of-sight of many people but for those executive administrators who process the expense reports (and need to keep their jobs) in GlobalXRS.

-Fifteen thousand for airfare? No problem.
-Four thousand dollar dinners for twenty five people at high-end restaurants when everyone else is sucking wind and being told to print on duplex setting to save paper?
-Year end party at the home of a now defunct business unit VP where twenty bottles of wine are purchased but only five are consumed, and the remaining fifteen are not returned to the liquor store for credit. And someone approved it.
-Car service. Because you can talk to your mother when you're not driving. Or yell at someone.
-Four corporate jets at Mercer Airport - or did J&J finally get rid of the tacky Lear? And a chopper...cause you need one of those to fly your ass to New Brunswick.
-Opco executives abusing the expense system to their advantage, basically living off J&J shareholder cash for every conceivable whim and expense that you and I would never be able expense.

Somewhere in the CREDO is the answer...
Click to expand...

MY VP of HR used a car service like it was her personal limo service to take her to off-site meetings within an hour from her house.
 


At janssen biotech formerly Centocor the managers teach their reps how to get around HCC policies by attributing lunches to non existent attendees, sponsoring doc family events by listing it as a company meeting, and all kind f other creative stuff. Hey, they told us to be extraordinary and innovative. Just following orders.
 


Anonymous said:
Employees are receiving lower ratings than previous years, smaller salary increases, low expectations for Y/E bonus dollars; on-site vendors, some of whom provide the most important and beneficial services to the J&J associates - are being paid wages that no longer meet the definition of "living wage" in the state of New Jersey, as a result of J&J's policy of beating vendors large and small into the ground and not providing money which passes through to the vendor employees.

Yet, T&E expenses remain disgustingly out-of-control and a topic that remains out-of-sight of many people but for those executive administrators who process the expense reports (and need to keep their jobs) in GlobalXRS.

-Fifteen thousand for airfare? No problem.
-Four thousand dollar dinners for twenty five people at high-end restaurants when everyone else is sucking wind and being told to print on duplex setting to save paper?
-Year end party at the home of a now defunct business unit VP where twenty bottles of wine are purchased but only five are consumed, and the remaining fifteen are not returned to the liquor store for credit. And someone approved it.
-Car service. Because you can talk to your mother when you're not driving. Or yell at someone.
-Four corporate jets at Mercer Airport - or did J&J finally get rid of the tacky Lear? And a chopper...cause you need one of those to fly your ass to New Brunswick.
-Opco executives abusing the expense system to their advantage, basically living off J&J shareholder cash for every conceivable whim and expense that you and I would never be able expense.

Somewhere in the CREDO is the answer...
Click to expand...

check out some of the international travel and rationale in strategic (Ha!!) marketing
 




Anonymous said:
Employees are receiving lower ratings than previous years, smaller salary increases, low expectations for Y/E bonus dollars; on-site vendors, some of whom provide the most important and beneficial services to the J&J associates - are being paid wages that no longer meet the definition of "living wage" in the state of New Jersey, as a result of J&J's policy of beating vendors large and small into the ground and not providing money which passes through to the vendor employees.

Yet, T&E expenses remain disgustingly out-of-control and a topic that remains out-of-sight of many people but for those executive administrators who process the expense reports (and need to keep their jobs) in GlobalXRS.

-Fifteen thousand for airfare? No problem.
-Four thousand dollar dinners for twenty five people at high-end restaurants when everyone else is sucking wind and being told to print on duplex setting to save paper?
-Year end party at the home of a now defunct business unit VP where twenty bottles of wine are purchased but only five are consumed, and the remaining fifteen are not returned to the liquor store for credit. And someone approved it.
-Car service. Because you can talk to your mother when you're not driving. Or yell at someone.
-Four corporate jets at Mercer Airport - or did J&J finally get rid of the tacky Lear? And a chopper...cause you need one of those to fly your ass to New Brunswick.
-Opco executives abusing the expense system to their advantage, basically living off J&J shareholder cash for every conceivable whim and expense that you and I would never be able expense.

Somewhere in the CREDO is the answer...
Click to expand...

Our company adopted the J&J action leadership program for hi-potentials and although 95% of the participants were U.S. based, they held a 7 day kick-off session at a super expensive hotel in Europe. This reckless spending was going on while our business was struggling and tons of employees were being laid off due to poor business performance.
 


OP nailed it; clearly in the know. Lots of folks got hammered on PDM's - crappy increases and less in LTI's.

But it may be coming to an end. There's noise in at least one pharm field sales unit that T&E budgets are back after a long period of no BVA.
 


Anonymous said:
Some of these people go between raritan and Europe or Asia like willy copters from new Brunswick to new hope. The unnecessary travel is obscene. Try a teleconference once in a while.
Click to expand...

It's all about ego. These people love to "complain" about how they are being pulled from one end of the globe to the other, but the reality is that this strokes their ego and makes them feel important. I had one Sr. VP at dinner brag about her average monthly expense report because she is always in Singapore, the UK, France, etc.....
For many of these executives, their home life is so piss poor, they welcome the opportunity to be away from their spouse and family. They derive their whole identity from their corporate life and need this to feed their starving egos and low self-esteem.
There are certainly some execs that would rather be home with their families and I feel badly for them when they work for someone who likes to travel and schedules meetings in other parts of the world that requires his/her team to be there.
In the days of technology, most of these meetings can be accompished by teleconference or video conference. Most of the J&J video conference rooms are vacant 75% of the time. That should be a red flag for controllers looking at the T&E budget.
 


Anonymous said:
It's all about ego. These people love to "complain" about how they are being pulled from one end of the globe to the other, but the reality is that this strokes their ego and makes them feel important. I had one Sr. VP at dinner brag about her average monthly expense report because she is always in Singapore, the UK, France, etc.....
For many of these executives, their home life is so piss poor, they welcome the opportunity to be away from their spouse and family. They derive their whole identity from their corporate life and need this to feed their starving egos and low self-esteem.
There are certainly some execs that would rather be home with their families and I feel badly for them when they work for someone who likes to travel and schedules meetings in other parts of the world that requires his/her team to be there.
In the days of technology, most of these meetings can be accompished by teleconference or video conference. Most of the J&J video conference rooms are vacant 75% of the time. That should be a red flag for controllers looking at the T&E budget.
Click to expand...

"Woe is me. I have to go to Brussels 'for a meeting'. Then I'm home for 2 days then off to London 'for a 1 day meeting', then 3 days later have to go to Thailand and Singapore and ChopSuey over 5 days 'for a meeting' then home for 3 days."

All the time flying first class. Car services, fancy hotels, dining. And I can't expense a cell phone bill

Nobody is that important. It is about ego
 


Anonymous said:
"Woe is me. I have to go to Brussels 'for a meeting'. Then I'm home for 2 days then off to London 'for a 1 day meeting', then 3 days later have to go to Thailand and Singapore and ChopSuey over 5 days 'for a meeting' then home for 3 days."

All the time flying first class. Car services, fancy hotels, dining. And I can't expense a cell phone bill

Nobody is that important. It is about ego
Click to expand...

Dead On!! And where are the controllers who should be watching the T&E expenses? Are they questioning this? All this wasted money could be pumped into product development, acquisitions, licensing, marketing initiatives etc. As a manager struggling to get needed headcount to get work done, it is frustrating and disappointing. As a stockholder, this type of waste disgusts me.
 





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