WRONGFUL TERMINATION

[livelrn]

"Man fired for working too hard in the midst of a recession" - that's my story. After seven years at Novartis I was fired for "not disclosing a potential conflict of interest," despite the fact that I had disclosed on my job application BEFORE I was hired and I disclosed to EVERY manager I worked for that I had a weekend job that didn't interfere with my job at Novartis at ALL. Watch out! You already know that HR and Legal are joining forces to witch hunt and weed out - YOU! It's certainly recession driven. The top dogs don't want to chip into their year-end bonuses, they'd rather put me on the streets to find a way to pay the mortgage and support a wife and two kids on unemployment wages of $450 a week. Doctors don't want you, they only want samples. Ziegler, Lew and Singer, 1995 reported that 11% of what reps say to doctors is false and harmful information is usually not shared. Antonuccio et al, 2003 have proposed a "firewall" approach with reps, e.g., limiting the amount of contact with doctors. And there is a reason Novartis is scared to death of books like Our Daily Meds by Melody Peterson, and especially, The Truth about the Drug Companies by Dr. Marcia Angell. Time magazine rated Dr. Angell one of the twenty-five most influential people in America and her book is a best seller. And she doesn't hold back revealing the lies, deceit and corruption around such drugs as Novartis' Gleevec. You're next and when you go it won't be with a hefty severance, car usage and extended insurance. It will all be stripped away in one moment, including your bonus check due to you in one week (yes, that's the policy.... someone else is going to get my trimester incentive check, any day now). Good luck and good selling......

 

[Anonymous]

Obviously you're mediocre. Invaluable employees aren't weeded out.

 

[Weatherman]

Anonymous: Obviously you are scared, so much so that you act ignorant to the fact that we are all dispensible, no one is "invaluable," and reps today are all mediocre. If this wasn't true then why, "At it's peak in 2007, he American pharmaceutical industry fielded 102,000 sales res, said Chris Wright, managing principal for the consulting firm ZS Associates' U.S. pharmaceuticals Practice. Drugmakers have slashed the number to 92,000 since then, and ZS projects the number will fall to 75,000 by 2012 at the latest, saving the industry $3.6 billion." (O'Rielly, K., AMNews staff, Doctors increasingly close doors to drug reps, while pharma cuts ranks, March 23, 2009). I don' want to see my friends lose their jobs. I feel a sadness that in just the last few years I experienced the decline of the respect for reps and for the industry, especially from the older doctors who recalled the pre ‘me-too” drug era, the pre Capitalist greed propagated by the Reagan Regime, the days when reps would be welcomed into offices and given ample time to discuss a new drug, indication or study clearly designed to help patients not the pocket books of the top-dogs, and who remembered when researchers sought to improve the lives of patients, not make themselves rich with the next blockbuster. When I, just like you, were able to share with doctors what we knew, rather than just drop off samples, none of us were mediocre. But the fact that Doctors don't want to see or hear YOU and 27,000 reps and counting will be axed, so the industry, i.e., the CEO's and investors, can make more billions, it's beyond ignorance, it's denial, to assume that we'll be nothing more than the stuff of pharma top-dog cocktail party jokes. WAKE UP! Pharma is NOT about customer focus and idealism to better an ailing world, it's about the deceit and greed of the pharmaceutical industry, which has led to it being the number one Fortune 500 industry--consistenntly for the last twenty years--with $200 billion of revenue per year in the U.S. ($400 billion worldwide) and that confounding profit margin of over 18%. No other industry has close to an 18% profit margin! Why do you think a full treatment of generic terbinafine sells at Costco for $27, while Lamisil sold for $900! Why does this industry have to have such an obnoxiously huge profit margin? Not to keep you or the thousands of other experienced and hard-working reps, like me and possibly even you, employed! No, it's to keep it powerful enough to influence government and fill the pockets of the guys at the top. Don't you be mediocre. Do your homework and find out what really happened to Gleevec and how many lives it could have saved. Ask yourself why new diseases like "shyness" are being created (yes, with the mighty clout of pharma) just so a new drug, a real money maker, can be thrust upon the masses with catchy DTCA. Before you get weeded out, ask yourself why there are thirteen different cholestrol drugs, which are almost moleculary identical. I send my earnest message with hope that you can prepare for the future. Be the "artist of your own creation," and weed out the liars who keep you on puppet strings and pump you up with platitudes and phony accolades until they are done with you and mercilessly cut the strings, smiling their sinister smiles as they watch you crash and shatter, unaware that their tragic fall from hollow hubris to humility is around their own next turn. Wake up and get yourself ready. I want you to survive and succeed, I really do, but you need to start by knowing where to point your arrows and open your eyes and see the ones pointed at you.

 

[Anonymous]

Anonymous: Obviously you are scared, so much so that you act ignorant to the fact that we are all dispensible, no one is "invaluable," and reps today are all mediocre. If this wasn't true then why, "At it's peak in 2007, he American pharmaceutical industry fielded 102,000 sales res, said Chris Wright, managing principal for the consulting firm ZS Associates' U.S. pharmaceuticals Practice. Drugmakers have slashed the number to 92,000 since then, and ZS projects the number will fall to 75,000 by 2012 at the latest, saving the industry $3.6 billion." (O'Rielly, K., AMNews staff, Doctors increasingly close doors to drug reps, while pharma cuts ranks, March 23, 2009). I don' want to see my friends lose their jobs. I feel a sadness that in just the last few years I experienced the decline of the respect for reps and for the industry, especially from the older doctors who recalled the pre ‘me-too” drug era, the pre Capitalist greed propagated by the Reagan Regime, the days when reps would be welcomed into offices and given ample time to discuss a new drug, indication or study clearly designed to help patients not the pocket books of the top-dogs, and who remembered when researchers sought to improve the lives of patients, not make themselves rich with the next blockbuster. When I, just like you, were able to share with doctors what we knew, rather than just drop off samples, none of us were mediocre. But the fact that Doctors don't want to see or hear YOU and 27,000 reps and counting will be axed, so the industry, i.e., the CEO's and investors, can make more billions, it's beyond ignorance, it's denial, to assume that we'll be nothing more than the stuff of pharma top-dog cocktail party jokes. WAKE UP! Pharma is NOT about customer focus and idealism to better an ailing world, it's about the deceit and greed of the pharmaceutical industry, which has led to it being the number one Fortune 500 industry--consistenntly for the last twenty years--with $200 billion of revenue per year in the U.S. ($400 billion worldwide) and that confounding profit margin of over 18%. No other industry has close to an 18% profit margin! Why do you think a full treatment of generic terbinafine sells at Costco for $27, while Lamisil sold for $900! Why does this industry have to have such an obnoxiously huge profit margin? Not to keep you or the thousands of other experienced and hard-working reps, like me and possibly even you, employed! No, it's to keep it powerful enough to influence government and fill the pockets of the guys at the top. Don't you be mediocre. Do your homework and find out what really happened to Gleevec and how many lives it could have saved. Ask yourself why new diseases like "shyness" are being created (yes, with the mighty clout of pharma) just so a new drug, a real money maker, can be thrust upon the masses with catchy DTCA. Before you get weeded out, ask yourself why there are thirteen different cholestrol drugs, which are almost moleculary identical. I send my earnest message with hope that you can prepare for the future. Be the "artist of your own creation," and weed out the liars who keep you on puppet strings and pump you up with platitudes and phony accolades until they are done with you and mercilessly cut the strings, smiling their sinister smiles as they watch you crash and shatter, unaware that their tragic fall from hollow hubris to humility is around their own next turn. Wake up and get yourself ready. I want you to survive and succeed, I really do, but you need to start by knowing where to point your arrows and open your eyes and see the ones pointed at you.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

 

[Anonymous]

You're all right. People are getting weeded out. Problem is, that's illegal. Can't just weed someone out because he's 49-years old, or the manager don't like him, or in someone's opinion he's mediocre. Gotta have grounds. The first guy is right too, we should be able to support our families by working an extra job. Hell, he wasn't sleeping with a doctor like one chick I know or buying scripts for Oxy like a few dudes we know, or hell, running up the AMEX on lunches with friends like everyone we know. Shit, just do your job and look for another while you're at it.

 

[Anonymous]

What the hell is the deal here? The guy shouldn't have been fired. My own manager spent half our ride-alongs calling junk yards and outo body shops toi find parts and repairs for his Mustangs he was fixing up to sell. Sounds like a second job to me. Hell, I even turned him on to my own upholstery guy in Lancaster. Should he be fired... I don't think so, he still did his job and he did it well. And what up with firing a guy ONE WEEK before he
's supposed to get his bonus check? When I heard this, I was shocked. i knew the dude and I thought he was a bit of a dweeb, but he earned that money LAST YEAR. So what that Novartis came up with a new policy that is a guy isn't employed the DAY the incentive funds are dispersed then he is shit out of luck. That just sucks. I used to love Novartis, now I'm starting to see that profits are taking precedent over people.

 

[Anonymous]

What up with Brian Brown getting fired? Did he really bang one of his reps?

 

[Anonymous]

Was this him!!!
cafeb2bsales message boards > General Discussion > CafeB2BSales Playground

Page I banged my boss

 

[Anonymous]

Read the writing on the wall...they needed to have a reason to get rid of you. It's a shame big companies are so afraid of lawsuits that they can't just fire people because they suck at their job.

 

[Anonymous]

Right on! I've always said, "Novartis is not for everyone." The slackers should just be fired, and believe me, as an RD, I know there are too many of them. I spend 12 hours a week on the phone with HR and Legal discussing lawsuits against Novartis from bad employees who were given every chance, kept on for years despite the fact that they took multiple disability leaves and had bad numbers, and knew they could get away with it until Novartis documented enough to let them go and avoid litigation. Novartis is an easy target. But I still love the company after 20 years, because IT'S A GREAT COMPANY! What other company gives the perks, high bonuses, raises and respect that this company does?

 

[Anonymous]

Right on RB, I couldn't agree more. However, I know this guy was a threat to his manager who had just been dumped by his wife, a doctor! Plus the guy had a Master's degree... basically, Novartis was not for him. He knew it and so did everybody else. He was too smart to be dragging around a black bag and the fact that he was not a company stiff drove his manager crazy. You gotta be okay working for the "man" or you don't stay at Novartis, but if you can, you're right, it's a helluva company. Free car, great insurance, hell they gave all the reps a Cabo-like trip for breaking the first year goal for selling Elidel. (Eddie Williams, that was that guy, the RD at the time, where is he now!). What other companies do that! I heard the guy is a professor now! What a joke, high status, no money! I'd much rather be tracked by a GPS (in my awesome new car mind you!), get free lunches and dinners with Doctors who respect and truly want to be my friends than live paycheck to paycheck but get your own parking spot at some university.

 

[Anonymous]

Right on! I've always said, "Novartis is not for everyone." The slackers should just be fired, and believe me, as an RD, I know there are too many of them. I spend 12 hours a week on the phone with HR and Legal discussing lawsuits against Novartis from bad employees who were given every chance, kept on for years despite the fact that they took multiple disability leaves and had bad numbers, and knew they could get away with it until Novartis documented enough to let them go and avoid litigation. Novartis is an easy target. But I still love the company after 20 years, because IT'S A GREAT COMPANY! What other company gives the perks, high bonuses, raises and respect that this company does?

Novartis can't pay enough money to justify hiring the stupid managers you do. And yeah frankly we're all suckers for a lousy job that pays more than it should for the work it expects.