|
ElMudo posted:Unless they have skin cancer? Don't they get pawned off onto Oncology?
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2011 23:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 23:33 |
|
|
Slip Slap posted:I'm very sick of the "you're lucky to have a job, there's a line out the door of people who would take your job for half the pay" line we keep hearing. Management likes to use that line as a way to explain every crappy change they make. It's really given them carte blanche to take away everything they can think of, double up our work, etc. Fun times. You know, this is interesting. Except for a very short period of time between 2000 and 2006 or so, I have always heard this line. There is always an economic crisis of sorts going on somewhere. Though this one is pretty massive compared to, say, the dotcom bust or the East Asian stock exchange crash, I hated how employers have always found some crisis to point at to justify exploitative policies and keep things that way even when the results/economy/whatever picks up again. While this situation is indeed very worrying, companies love to feed this line to their employees in general. It's just another form or rule by fear. That and inertia often keeps people at companies for far longer than they should.
|
|
#
?
Oct 21, 2011 23:51
|
|
|
I had a boss who thought, and said, that pretty much anyone under him could be replaced with "someone off the street". Some of the people he hired were... interesting. They included: An Indian student who ended up getting deported for overstaying his visa, His mate, who got deported for running some sort of scam, A Feng Sui expert with no other skills (in our technical call center...), A dude who didn't do any work at all, and two months later it turned out he'd been submitting timesheets with 80 hour weeks on them and nobody noticed, A severely alcoholic girl who would spend at least half her time in the toilets, drinking vodka and crying, Another girl who ran up a $2500 cellphone bill and stole a company credit card to pay it, A guy who, on his second day, commenced sexual harassment of the aforementioned alcoholic girl and it somehow took three months to fire him. He'd bring her flowers and write her creepy poems that he sent via the company exchange server, and so on. A woman who decided that she was the manager (or something) and instead of doing any work, "designed new processes" for a month before she was fired for not doing what she was hired to do (answer phones and schedule our technician's site visits) If you complained, he'd tell you that you could easily be replaced with "someone off the street who'll work for half your pay", and several good employees were replaced that way. The company was overall a good place to work, but that department was terrible and I'm glad I was "fired" when I was (boss told me I'd be taking a pay cut and I walked).
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2011 02:35
|
|
|
On a lighter note compared to the rest of the thread, I'm getting a significant salary bump with backpay for the currently unpaid overtime I've been doing. I originally worked in a office 100km's away, company got sold and a year later the new owners decided to shut down the office I was in and move everything to their headquarters, it was fair enough we all new it was coming and they gave everyone the choice of a generous redundancy package or a position at one of the plants. I was one of 2 out of the 30 who took up the offer to move one of the plant. There was a big inventory system chageover the co-incided with the office closure and they created a new position for me at the plant doing paperwork in the coldstore since the office closure and new inventory system meant there was a significant increase in paperwork that had to be done there. After a week I was basically organising everything to the point where the coldstore foreman was reporting to me asking what we were doing all the time, it seemed unusual since I technically reported to him in the chain of command, but I didn't mind. After a month they had to move the coldstore foreman to another plant to cover for someone else who had a nervous breakdown. Once he left the 30 or so workers in the coldstore ended up looking to me for guidance so I stepped up to the role of coldstore foreman. I didn't mind for the first 2 weeks, the hours were horrible (12-14 hours a day on average) but I could handle it for a while. After those 2 weeks though that it became pretty apparant I was going to be doing it longterm. I couldn't blame them for it, without being too arrogant, I was getting results, the wages were down because less overtime was being done but the same amount of work was being done each day (I think the last guy was just micromanaging way too much and slowing things down) After another 2 weeks I went to the management to discuss the situation because I was getting paid about the same as the general laborers loading containers, except I didn't get paid overtime since company policy was no salaried workers get paid overtime and by that time it was at the point by then were everyone at the plant had just assumed I was the coldstore foreman. In the end they were going to backpay overtime and keep paying overtime until a new arrangement could be worked out which had to be done with management from the headoffice, I wasn't thrilled but I could live with it. Last week was the first week I was supposed to get paid overtime, I never got paid overtime so I went in, gave the plant manager my resignation and went home sick, I got a call when I was 2 minutes down the road begging me to come back once they realised no-one had any idea at all how to run the coldstore after the inventory system got changed over. I went back and they put my overtime through the payroll system while I was sitting there watching them do it just to make sure and then we went and called up the guys in headoffice to sort my salary out. All in all it was messy, but at least it worked out. It's should also look pretty drat good on my resume to be in charge of 30+ staff and overseeing the loadout of 5 containers and 2-5 trucks a day considering I'm only 26. As much as it might not sound like it, I do really like working for the company and I don't mind the job either so as long as nothing goes wrong with this new salary I don't plant on leaving anytime soon and they really do seem to genuinely value me (or I'm young and naive) Rudager fucked around with this message at 10:37 on Oct 22, 2011 |
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2011 10:29
|
|
|
Still speaking of the "you're lucky to have this job" bit, at my office you're not even given a chance to form a complaint. The "...and don't complain about it because the unemployed masses would kill to have you job" is right there in the memo announcing the change. I fail to see how disallowing tee shirts on casual Friday saves money, but hey, you're the boss so if you want us in ball gowns and tap shoes, just say it. You don't need to explain yourself, and certainly not guilt us into accepting it. Our personnel manager is a huge weenie and can't stand disciplining people directly. Instead, she fires off several all staff emails a week as reminders of how to do things. Come on. If someone screwed something up, or is always 15 minutes late, call them into your office and explain it. I don't need your stupid "FYI, reminder, we start at 8, not 8:15" poo poo clogging up my mailbox lady. Grow a pair and do your job!
|
|
#
?
Oct 22, 2011 21:25
|
|
|
AlphaDog posted:I had a boss who thought, and said, that pretty much anyone under him could be replaced with "someone off the street". Some of the people he hired were... interesting. I feel bad for laughing because these people were obviously a massive pain for anyone working there but these were hilarious. Did the 80 hours a week guy get paid/keep the money?
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2011 10:10
|
|
|
Slip Slap posted:Still speaking of the "you're lucky to have this job" bit, at my office you're not even given a chance to form a complaint. The "...and don't complain about it because the unemployed masses would kill to have you job" is right there in the memo announcing the change. I fail to see how disallowing tee shirts on casual Friday saves money, but hey, you're the boss so if you want us in ball gowns and tap shoes, just say it. You don't need to explain yourself, and certainly not guilt us into accepting it. Jesus, do you work at the Bear Cave Soup Company or something?
|
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2011 10:13
|
|
|
timmmmaaaah posted:I feel bad for laughing because these people were obviously a massive pain for anyone working there but these were hilarious. Did the 80 hours a week guy get paid/keep the money? Yeah, he did. I offered to recover the money if I could keep 10%, but apparently doing anything (like calling the police) to a dude who defrauds you for $12k is "inappropriate". Edit: Yeah, the whole situation was pretty hilarious in retrospect. But you would not have wanted to work there when it was all going on. Seriously, gently caress, you can't imagine how annoying alcohol girl was. On her last day (when she was fired) she took the megaphone from the fire-response cabinet and made an announcement that she was leaving and she loved everyone. The indian dudes were awesome though, they'd share their curry lunches with me and I've never had such great curry. Quote from one of them (imagine the thickest Indian accent you can): "NO I am not in a loving pakistani call center, I am in your own city and I am indian, I will come down there and gently caress you up". Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Oct 23, 2011 |
|
#
?
Oct 23, 2011 12:32
|
|
|
Ah yes, exactly the kind of meeting I was expecting. Despite the fact that my coworkers and I know our jobs cannot be done in a day (we are always just slightly behind), especially because all but one of us (lucky me) were hired within the last year, we have been told we must do MORE including babysit field staff members and make sure all of their documentation is perfect. The word came from someone I like and respect but who unfortunately mentioned that we are a publicly traded company, layoffs are possible if we don't get things done, etc. etc. Already this day has been hell because everything else we have already been doing - answering phones, picking up after other people's messes, etc. - do not stop. And starting next week I get the delightful opportunity to train someone else and juggle all that poo poo at the same time. Extra pay? Hell no, I should consider it an honor.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2011 18:52
|
|
|
Welp my job is in jeopardy. I've been told I'm no longer allowed to speak with my coworkers unless it is a question directly related to the task at hand. So I haven't spoken today, to which everyone is saying they miss my chatty, upbeat behavor. I figure.. I can't get in trouble if I don't say anything at all (save for required responses), right? Wrong, bucko. I got in trouble for putting something away too loudly. Oh.. and partial unemployment is going to pay me twice as much as I make at my job. gently caress it. I'm part time, so I'm an at will government employee. I was gone for one day and my other two dipshit coworkers managed to put us into a severe backlog. I applied for a transfer to get additional hours (working in two offices) and my supervisor made sure to kill it because why the gently caress do I need luxury items like food  Absolutely none of my coworkers can figure out why she decided to make my life hell all of the sudden. ladyweapon fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Oct 25, 2011 |
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2011 20:54
|
|
|
There's a guy here that hates me. All contractors, really. He think's we're worthless, lazy sacks of poo poo. Everything he says and does is right. No questioning him at all. I draw up statements for things (intentionally vague). I do this hundreds of times a week. These statements go out on reports. He likes to find the ones I mess up or he doesn't agree with and email the entire branch complaining about it. It's usually either something extremely insignificant (seplling errors/typos) or something that I didn't know from a technical standpoint that QA should have caught. This time? This time I forgot to put a single, fairly useless set of words in the statement. Every times he's done this, I keep a reply all going where I'm a succinct rear end in a top hat. "[This] is [that] way because that is the standard format in this situation. As stated before. Any recommendations for changes to the process can be sent to [my lead] who will review and take them under consideration." Being a complete rear end in a top hat and getting away with it is one of the only enjoyable things about this job. At this point, my lead's told me to stop responding and that he'll take care of it. He replies (to everyone, of course) generally consist of "Why are you wasting everyone's time with this?" He's also compiled a list of all the statements this guy has made himself. All of which are in the incorrect format. Oh well, at least it's still amusing reading my lead's reply and all the people coming over to complain about this guy. It's going to be a fun branch meeting Thursday! E: I said "gently caress it" and used whatever was available to make a standing desk. My monitor is sitting on top of a small bookshelf with a slight height boost from a training manual. My keyboard and mouse are at the perfect height on a desk self. The number of confused people is rather odd considering I've been vocal about wanting this for a long time.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2011 21:42
|
|
2508084 posted:Welp my job is in jeopardy. I've been told I'm no longer allowed to speak with my coworkers unless it is a question directly related to the task at hand. So I haven't spoken today, to which everyone is saying they miss my chatty, upbeat behavor. I figure.. I can't get in trouble if I don't say anything at all (save for required responses), right? What. The. gently caress?
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2011 22:01
|
|
2508084 posted:Welp my job is in jeopardy. I've been told I'm no longer allowed to speak with my coworkers unless it is a question directly related to the task at hand. So I haven't spoken today, to which everyone is saying they miss my chatty, upbeat behavor. I figure.. I can't get in trouble if I don't say anything at all (save for required responses), right? Lawyer up, if you can. This is blatantly illegal.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2011 22:04
|
|
|
2508084 posted:Welp my job is in jeopardy. I've been told I'm no longer allowed to speak with my coworkers unless it is a question directly related to the task at hand. So I haven't spoken today, to which everyone is saying they miss my chatty, upbeat behavor. I figure.. I can't get in trouble if I don't say anything at all (save for required responses), right? Sounds like someone has a crush on you~*~
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2011 22:58
|
|
|
Sundae posted:Project flounders around for another month while we can't do ANYTHING (everything hinged on stability studies), we never get new analytical assignees, and then the project dies and we get blamed. Assuming you're in the pharma industry, aren't they still setting record profits?
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2011 23:43
|
|
|
I got in trouble once at work for coughing. Apparently the boss thought I was mocking her cough. Because obviously two people can't have a cold at the same time.
|
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2011 23:45
|
|
|
Necc0 posted:Assuming you're in the pharma industry, aren't they still setting record profits? As someone working in the pharma industry, I can tell you it's actually been really hard for smaller parmacos to do drat near anything since the start of 'the recession'. Developing any new drug requires absurd amounts of money in loans and no-one wants to do any lending, so many small pharmacos have folded or been bought out. Hell, even GSK gutted whole sectors of their workforce not long ago. People need to remember that for every Viagra there are tens if not hundreds of failed attempts, and each one of those attempts can last anywhere up to 6 years depending on how far advanced the trial is. Sure, Viagra earned Pfizer billions, but they lay out billions on a yearly basis most of which will never result in a profit. Basically being a profitable pharmaco is at least 50% blind luck and tends to rely on some institution being willing to lend you a few million dollars even after they've had that explained to them. rolleyes fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Oct 25, 2011 |
|
#
?
Oct 25, 2011 23:56
|
|
|
2508084 posted:Absolutely none of my coworkers can figure out why she decided to make my life hell all of the sudden. rolleyes posted:As someone working in the pharma industry, I can tell you it's actually been really hard for smaller parmacos to do drat near anything since the start of 'the recession'. Doctor Reynolds posted:How can anyone be an incompetent receptionist? I did it for two months before quitting out of pure unbridled boredom. (Wish I didn't now, but, oh well)
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 02:00
|
|
|
GWBBQ posted:Think about your supervisors and which one may have made an awkward sexual advance that you declined or shrugged off. Coincidentally, this very same supervisor used to smack me on the rear end and have me walk on her back to pop it during work hours. I'm going to speak to.. someone.. I don't quite know how to go about it. Shes a 30 year employee in a union and I'm at will and part time (and just passed my one year mark last month). Plus I didn't say anything at the time because.. well.. all my coworkers saw it and went "LOL THAT CRAZAY BOSS" so I just brushed it off :\ WickedIcon posted:Lawyer up, if you can. This is blatantly illegal. vv huh. Ill look into it. I've got no way to prove any of it. I know none of my coworkers will put their jobs on the line to back me up on whatever they may/may not know so.. :\ If my other coworker will back me on the fact that she told her that "they're boys, theyre too stupid to do their jobs." then I should be okay but who knows. I'm gonna get fired anyways, may as well try to take my boss with me. ladyweapon fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Oct 26, 2011 |
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 04:28
|
|
2508084 posted:Where do you live that any of that post is illegal? I seriously have no idea what you're talking about. I'm in the US so I basically have zero employment rights ...dude, that's a textbook example of a hostile work environment, which (to my somewhat limited understanding) is pretty illegal.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 04:45
|
|
|
A senior guy where I work was once told, without warning, that our company had changed its vacation days policy and he had to do something with his vacation days or lose them. He had 13 weeks accrued, so he told HR he'd take a payout. They said no, so his response was to take 13 weeks vacation effective immediately.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 05:40
|
|
|
2508084 posted:I'm in the US so I basically have zero employment rights.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 06:50
|
|
|
Jason Sextro posted:A senior guy where I work was once told, without warning, that our company had changed its vacation days policy and he had to do something with his vacation days or lose them. He had 13 weeks accrued, so he told HR he'd take a payout. I wanna work where I can amass 13 weeks of vacation.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 08:27
|
|
|
Quantrill posted:I wanna work where I can amass 13 weeks of vacation. I get six weeks paid vacation per year, plus an extra week each year when I've been here more than three years. On top of that I get one week of "external education" each year. I'm seriously having trouble finding time to take all that time off - especially with one of my fellow sysadmin in Africa and me handling his workload until he comes back. HR have been mumbling about breaking the rules and just paying for my unspent vacation. I hope it goes through, but it has to go through a few C-levels first. (We can't "save" more than one week vacation per year. As per May 1st any unspent vacation beyond that is lost. Education time carries over)
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 08:35
|
|
|
Bookish posted:I got in trouble once at work for coughing. Apparently the boss thought I was mocking her cough. Because obviously two people can't have a cold at the same time. For inadvertently cracking one knuckle as I was rising from a table with my hands on the tabletop supporting my weight (i.e. I wasn't ostentatiously cracking a knuckle; it just happened to go *pop*), I once received two 20 minute+ chewing-outs on nonconsecutive days. My former boss was not a well man.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 09:02
|
|
|
The saga continues. Our direct boss is retiring and so our little division is undergoing massive restructuring. On the plus side, he really went to battle for me and some of the contingency of other departments getting his hoarded money is that the competent temporary people have to be given (good) permanent positions. This has made Ann go insane. She has friends in the larger department who have told her for months that they would absolutely take her as an employee, but, you know, they don't want to make our boss angry because they'd taken so many employees from him in the past. (Which they had). Well, now that he's out the door, magically they're not taking her and don't want her and she's spiraling downwards. The conversation we had yesterday:  : I have a question to ask, but it's kind of embarassing.Horrified Audience (HA): Ok... : So, I was watching this commercial on TV the other night and they were talking about travel catheters. What are those?HA: *silence*. One of the brave providers starts offering vague general explanations about how older women often have poor bladder control. : Oh yeah I know that, it happens a lot of times when I'm opening up jars in my house. : But I mean, it was really the travel part I was concerned about, I mean, that just seemed WEIRD. I probably couldn't even get one of those in my miata to begin with. (She was trying to say meatus): You young girls (pointing at us) should be glad that you haven't gone through the change and lost your uterus, otherwise you'd be having these problems too.: Alright, well I'll let ya'll get back to your discussion, I was just curious. I thought maybe it was something sexual I was missing out on.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 14:42
|
|
|
This is wildly inappropriate. Reminds me of older women at my previous job. Some of them just don't know how to adjust when they've been listened to (or at least not fired) for so long.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 15:50
|
|
|
Jason Sextro posted:A senior guy where I work was once told, without warning, that our company had changed its vacation days policy and he had to do something with his vacation days or lose them. He had 13 weeks accrued, so he told HR he'd take a payout. And at your company, what kind of punishments are likely due for him exercising an earned benefit?
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 15:56
|
|
|
Necc0 posted:Assuming you're in the pharma industry, aren't they still setting record profits? GWBBQ posted:Based on clues Sundae gave about where he worked, his company was anything but small. If he can give any info without fear or retaliation, I'd love to know anything about this failed project, even if only what class of drug it was. Necco - the answer is yes. GWBBQ - yes, my company was anything but small. The next paragraph should be all anyone needs (other than my post history which makes it stupidly obvious) to tell exactly where I worked.  The failed project was actually a loss-of-exclusivity money-squeeze using a very... very popular hyperlipidemia compound in tandem with a very, very popular co-prescribed blood pressure treatment. In short: one's an acid, one's a base, neither works if either one salts, and oh god stability nightmare. rolleyes posted:As someone working in the pharma industry, I can tell you it's actually been really hard for smaller parmacos to do drat near anything since the start of 'the recession'. Developing any new drug requires absurd amounts of money in loans and no-one wants to do any lending, so many small pharmacos have folded or been bought out. Hell, even GSK gutted whole sectors of their workforce not long ago. Somewhere on the forum, I have a very long post explaining what's wrong with pharma from my view in big pharma. I do agree with you on most of your post, but the one area I disagree with is the "never result in profit" part, because the numbers are so, so skewed for my former company, at least, that they never failed to turn a product. Remember - Viagra wasn't PFE's big seller; it's not even close to Lipitor. That being said, the bigger issue is that there aren't any of those extra attempts anymore, at least not often in big pharma. Everything is "squeeze extra out of what we have" instead of research. I worked on one new chemical entity in the last three years. I worked on nine or ten product enhancements, sometimes not even our products (IP-breaking efforts). I'm sure someone here has a link to my old essay on what's wrong with pharma. A link would be appreciated since I can't remember where I posted it. 
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 16:25
|
|
|
2508084 posted:Coincidentally, this very same supervisor used to smack me on the rear end and have me walk on her back to pop it during work hours. I'm going to speak to.. someone.. I don't quite know how to go about it. Shes a 30 year employee in a union and I'm at will and part time (and just passed my one year mark last month). Plus I didn't say anything at the time because.. well.. all my coworkers saw it and went "LOL THAT CRAZAY BOSS" so I just brushed it off :\ I temped at the The American Farm Bureau years ago doing very simple data entry from sheets turned in from a conference. Because I wasn't the idiot they expected from my agency I finished my work three days into my three-week contract. I asked for more work and ended up assembling a model ship for a senior executive, spending half a day trying to untangle the miniature rigging. The whole time I had my own office, no window, but a door that closed, a wood desk, comfortable chair and a computer with no internet access, so I ended up listening to a lot of audio books, staring at the wall, occasionally answering my phone which was always a wrong number. My supervisor, a young, pretty and very nice lady started bringing me lunch, apologizing for the light work load. Other than her dropping off a sandwich from Corner Bakery I had little interaction with her besides getting her to sign my time sheets. Then one day, with a week and a half to go, she came into my office and closed the door, telling me, no, stay seated. Even though there was a chair on her side, she stayed standing and leaned over the desk to go over a piece of paperwork with me. She was wearing a loose-fitting top and no bra, and with no room to back my chair up there was nowhere to look without getting an eyeful of tit. This would have been awesome, except I am happily married and extremely neurotic. She chatted to me like that for five or so minutes as I blushed furiously, before awkwardly leaving. I didn't see her the next day, but did get an email saying that I was no longer needed but would get a glowing review.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 16:48
|
|
|
^^^ Goddamn, "Dear Penthouse". Sundae posted:Yeah fair enough, the short version of my point is mainly that research and clinical trials can run to hundreds of millions for a single drug with no guarantee of success. Some people have this notion that PharmaCos (big or small) are inherently evil because they patent their drugs and then use that to jack up prices, when what they're not understanding is that it's necessary to recoup not just the costs of the individual drug being developed (many drugs only turn a profit in the last couple of years of their 12 year patent) but also to fund future research and to offset losses from failed compounds and/or trials. On the other hand, I totally agree that we should stop dicking over poor nations especially with regard to Africa. At least things have improved a bit in that regard in the last decade or so.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 16:52
|
|
|
Yay! New job starting today! It's the same company, but another division and in another building... like 3 blocks away from my previous job. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing yet, but at least the people seem very nice and my boss is awesome and actually competent at his job and at managing people. It's great being the new guy, I just hope I live up to their expectations.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 17:12
|
|
|
rolleyes posted:Yeah fair enough, the short version of my point is mainly that research and clinical trials can run to hundreds of millions for a single drug with no guarantee of success. The fundamental issue I see from my friends in the industry and the posts here and in the Lab Chat thread (you should be posting there if you don't, it's amazingly cathartic) is that these giant companies are doing everything they can to find short cuts rather than doing the hard work to find new medications. They had an easy time in the 90s, but it seemed like these groups never kept it up. In the next few years, they'll pay the price. In other news, the culture shock of going from a company of less than 500 to a company of over 160,000 is incredible. Things take forever to do, but half the issue is that the site I'm working at is a "little" manufacturing plant in Everett, WA. Yeah, *that* one. It's strange running into folks who have been here 20+ years and know everything about anything. I'm so used to the idea of folks knowing very little, never being trained, and being replaced quickly when they get tired of working endless overtime. More companies should stop complaining about a "lack of unskilled workers" and just pay for some training. It's not that hard, and employees appreciate that they're becoming more useful as time goes on.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 17:25
|
|
|
rolleyes posted:^^^ Holy poo poo indeed! Yay on being happily married, though had you not been married, I might have been inclined to give the terrible advice that some things are worth getting fired for.  (That's horrible, horrible advice of course. Never, ever get involved with an immediate co-worker or supervisor/report. For every couple that works out, there are 99 couples that have their professional lives ruined as a result.) quote:Yeah fair enough, the short version of my point is mainly that research and clinical trials can run to hundreds of millions for a single drug with no guarantee of success. I started out being in favor of private pharmaceutical companies, but I've honestly gone far to the left on that now. Then again, I worked for Big Evil effectively, so I'm obviously going to be biased. My company did very little original research while I was there (and cut most of what it *was* working on), racked in enormous amounts of money, and used it to destroy competitors. Laid off or not, I'm happy to be gone. Our research and development budgets got smaller and smaller every year, and what little we have gets siphoned off by the biz side anyway. Another problem we faced was that R&D is treated as a supplier who has to woo customers at my former company, where the customers are the business units (who each focus on marketing to specific areas of medicine). We have to develop prototypes, then go have managers pitch them to the business units, who may or may not give us any funding for it. They may also say "thanks for the prototype, we'll send it to Shanghai Research for further work," which never involves giving us back our research budget. Occasionally the business units might come to us with a product idea and say "hey, we've got drug X for condition Y, now what can you do it for?" They then make us bid for the project against outside contract agencies, typically in India, China, Puerto Rico, and Korea. If we win the bid, we get to work on it. If not, they proceed to tell the exec board that we were too slow and expensive, and that they gave it to CRO instead. The CRO is never good, and always gives us back poo poo as a product, by the way. Oh, and the BUs are untrustworthy and never hold up their end of the deal. Example of that below... The base/acid drug combo I talked about earlier, for example, was won by us. We felt we could do it for (undisclosed amount) per dose, and that we could deliver it within 12 months, including preliminary stability data. We could not produce full real-time stability data, of course, because you need 12mo stability for that, 6mo+6 for a prelim filing if you are eligible. We could have the RT stability up and running and have accelerated conditions available, though. They said "okay" and gave us the project + a small budget for it. By small, I mean under $500,000 total. Really small budget. That sounds like a lot, but that's including employee salaries and benefits. When you take into account 4-5 scientists working on it across the various disciplines (development, analytical, packaging), you've got much less to work with than it looks like. The first thing that happened was that even though we won the bid in August, the project details and budget weren't delivered until late October. We never had the money or IP clearance to work on it. Our timeframe was dated to the day of our bid, back in late June. As a result, we had "blown" five months of our twelve before we ever even got to work on it. The company closes for 1.5 weeks in December, by the way, and the manufacturing sites stop taking new projects in early December due to said closure. The second thing was that our cost profile was changed in January. It became (undisclosed amount divided by two). They literally cut our allowed cost per unit in half, which is a HUGE deal. Suddenly we weren't even in the ballpark anymore for our costs, but neither was their cost profile. The profile was demanding that a combination product cost less than either of the individual generic components. I couldn't even get mass-production, large-order discounts from China for a single API at the price they demanded. Then, our department was reorganized, and every person on the project except me was eliminated. I couldn't deliver stability results because our stability assignee was laid off, couldn't hire a new one because of frozen hiring, and was denied new assignments to the project. I managed to beg stability studies off another project's budget, got them to take care of me basically, and we delivered a bit over the impossible budget. We did DAMNED well. We were rejected because while we were developing it after winning the bid, the business unit had gone and also given the IP to a CRO in Korea anyway to work on it at the same time, and the CRO claimed they could do it for under budget. We lose, Korea wins. Except... when the Korea samples arrived six months later, I was told to run the stability studies on them to confirm that the project had met specs. They hadn't. 0.3% max degradant was our stability spec, and they delivered 18.7%. Their product would get rejected by every regulatory agency on earth if the company used it... and we still didn't get any credit for having a stable drug for just over an impossible cost profile. Edit: Since it can get lost in the story above... remember that this entire time, the business unit and my R&D group are the same company. This isn't a hostile negotiation with a rival or some other company trying to cut its costs; this is entirely internal. The situation was that horrible. Sundae fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Oct 26, 2011 |
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 17:53
|
|
|
I feel you. I'm involved in managing trials rather than research, but you wouldn't believe (well, actually, you probably would) some of the interdepartmental politicking which goes on in my company and our parent company. Sometimes I feel like sending an email to the all staff mailing list just to remind people that: a) We're on the same drat side b) We're supposed to be solving world problems, not infighting All large corps are the same, it would seem.
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2011 18:56
|
|
|
Monday: You only need to speak with me or Big Boss about any issues. If you have an issue find one of us. I can do that!I found out my boss killed my transfer that day so I went home instead of bursting into tears on the floor. Big Boss was the person whom I saw in the office, so I told her I needed to go and she told me to go. Two minutes after I start my shift I'm being reprimanded by my boss. Two Minutes. Why did you go to big boss you should have come found me!!! I didnt see you around and last I noticed you were on a break Were you going to faint or something?! No, but I was visibly upset over some news I received and you did say to talk to either you or Big Boss. Should I no longer speak to Big Boss? No, no, you can speak to her but I AM YOUR SUPERVISOR (she loving loves this phrase. Shes been my supe from day 1). You need to remember that! Now, I'm not saying you're worthless, but technically you are extra help. I can fire you for no reason at all. Im nicer than most bosses, everyone else would fire you without trying to work with you and make you a better employee. So next time come to me, its not like you were going to pass out. You need to learn some composure.Welp. I went to my bosses boss about this, planning to lay everything on the table before they inevitably fire me. She didn't want to hear it and told me to speak to my supervisor. I asked her how I was supposed to address someone who consistantly harasses me every day and she said we could have a meeting between all three of us if I really feel uncomfortable. I don't even care. Im pretty sure I signed an arbitration agreement upon employment so its not like I can actually do anything. I fully expect to be fired by the end of next week. Unemployment just sent me my first check and it'll be more than I make this week at my job. I'll be getting double this weeks check every week until it runs out or I find a full time job (please let me find a 40 hour a week job ugh). Every two weeks on unemployment, I will make my months salary at my job. gently caress you, job, I just wanted to do my work and get paid, not play this super bitch party princess from hell game. ladyweapon fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Oct 27, 2011 |
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2011 03:13
|
|
|
2508084 posted:"everyone else would fire you without trying to work with you and make you a better employee." She's basically taken care of the first part. The hypocrisy is astounding. Good to know you will be taken care of in the meantime. Judging by your contributions to the thread and the way you've handled this situation, you should be able to find something new. Could still lawyer up, though!
|
|
#
?
Oct 27, 2011 06:59
|
|
|
Cheesus posted:What did they expect to happen by not giving him a payout option? I'm not sure they actually thought he would do it - he's pretty calm and laid-back. As far as how he amassed 13 weeks, I think he just doesn't go on vacations and they maybe thought he wouldn't call their bluff on taking his paid time - don't really know for sure, but he has a lot of experience and we don't have a lot of guys like that so I don't think anyone would fire him.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2011 05:22
|
|
|
He's hardly the only guy in that situation. People whose skills are critical to successful execution--that is, the people who are the only ones who know how to do things--generally don't get to take time off. Either they're working double shifts on the thing they do well, or they're catching up on all the corporate bureaucratic bullshit they put off during those double shifts.
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2011 17:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 28, 2024 23:33 |
|
|
I'm surprised that after he filed with HR to take 13 weeks off, someone in the chain in either HR or his direct didn't stop in and say, reasonably, "Woah woah woah! We can't allow you take that much time off. Would you be agreeable to a buyout?" Or unreasonably, and more likely, "No way you're approved to take a week off, let alone 13. Get back to work."
|
|
#
?
Oct 28, 2011 19:15
|
|