Job and General Employment Thread

[columbia]

I'm four degrees of separation from the president, which feels too close....

Not the POTUS, of course.

[mikey]

Yikes, I don't think I could do that...I also was against "showing my work" in math class back in grade school too...

Not because I cheat or because I'm a poor worker...but its the ol' "facebook status" thing for me...I'm too busy doing whatever I'm doing to sit there and document everything I'm doing...

I'm thankful I didn't have to do such a thing when I was in the positions before my current one, that would have really ants'd my pants to a point of intolerance...

[count2infinity]

Yeah, what is "weekly report"...? That sounds awful...you just write down what you did all week, every week and submit it to your boss for approval...?

We sit down every Monday as an R&D group and discuss the research we did the week before. Talking it out and sharing ideas helps everyone moving forward with their research. What we discuss is a report that we make and send out every Friday to our group and other groups that are adjacent in some way to the R&D group such as engineering or sales and marketing. Typically they don't read them or even look at them, but if they see something that they want to know more about they're invited to our Monday meeting to hear more about the research.

Reports of some kind are very, very common in science groups. They're not always weekly though.

[obhave]

Yeah, what is "weekly report"...? That sounds awful...you just write down what you did all week, every week and submit it to your boss for approval...?

We sit down every Monday as an R&D group and discuss the research we did the week before. Talking it out and sharing ideas helps everyone moving forward with their research. What we discuss is a report that we make and send out every Friday to our group and other groups that are adjacent in some way to the R&D group such as engineering or sales and marketing. Typically they don't read them or even look at them, but if they see something that they want to know more about they're invited to our Monday meeting to hear more about the research.

Reports of some kind are very, very common in science groups. They're not always weekly though.

In addition, they are very helpful to the scientist themselves to actually sit down and analyze their data. Too many scientists will skip the data plotting (or the like) out of annoyance and miss trends.

[mikey]

Glad i'm not smart enough to be a scientologist...

[Morkle]

I feel like everyone around me has off today, or took today off.

[mikey]

I walk to work every morning, and I saw no traffic, no horns blowing, I saw about three people out in their jammies walking their stupid little dogs with their little dog sweaters...

So either my over-population stuff has finally come to fruition or it's some not-quite-universally-recognized holiday...

[count2infinity]

I heard on NPR this morning that the state liquor stores are open today. They'll also be open on President's day, Memorial day, and the 4th of July.

[columbia]

One more step towards the 20th century.

[shafnutz05]

Welp, I sent my direct manager a long email today detailing all of the concerns I have with the state and direction of our team. I highly doubt she was expecting this when she chose me to be team lead last month, but I cannot be put in a position to fail. A snippet:

First and foremost, I am concerned about *losing* talented people because we are overly concerned with avoiding the hiring of additional head count. The growing discontent is most certainly there, and at some point, someone (or multiple people) is/are going to decide that the stress and consistent negative reinforcement is not worth it. We absolutely cannot afford to lose trained, talented people right now. I want to emphasize that I am not there yet, and I still enjoy very positive relationships with the majority of my hiring managers, but my stress level is rising with the rest of our team.

It will probably fall on deaf ears at the top, but I need to be on record as anticipating this problem.

[tifosi77]

Similarly, from the land of Mrs Tif....

She has a team of 10 reps, and each rep shares their territory with a contract rep (they do not report to Mrs Tif, but she still has to manage the relationships and business). So it's 20 mostly type-A motivated sales people who are all pretty high achievers. Company policy requires a rep to grow their business by x percentage every semester. One of her top reps (and iirc one of the top 3 or 4 in the country for this business unit) had grown her business so well over the last two years that her market share is so high that she mathematically cannot add enough new accounts to meet the growth target without an horrific spike in the number of cancer patients in her corner of the Bay Area. But because market share isn't a factor in performance evaluation, Mrs Tif's boss wanted Mrs Tif to give her a "Does Not Meet Expectations" on her review (which was conducted the week before Christmas, fwiw). Two of those consecutively would put the rep in a sort of 'rehab' program/probation..... and it is all but guaranteed this rep would be in the exact same situation for the foreseeable future.

Mrs Tif fought her corner and jealously defended her rep, and won a "Meets Expectations" for one of the top field reps in the whole country. And so, first thing on the first day back after the holidays, that rep gave her two week notice and has now left the company. Well done.

By and large, the meds Mrs Tif's company makes are things that bring actual health benefits to people. They aren't vanity products, nor are they addiction causing. They help you handle chemo. They prolong your life for a few months following kidney failure, allowing you to put your affairs in order and say goodbye to your family. Stuff like that. But you see something like this bottom line myopia, and all the #bigpharma stereotypes just crush your skull.

[Reveutopique]

^my company has similar situations. A rep must grow their territory by x percent in year 1. The next year is based off the year before. So some reps have to grow their territory by 300%in order to meet sales goals. To make it easier on the territory reps management has loaded onto inside sales reps. Not great.

To do away with all of this they ended up taking on a 1099. He gets 10% of whatever he "sells".
I know the company is going through changes with the changing climate of healthcare.
But the whole thing has proven frustrating for some.

---

I feel weird.

My boss asked me about one of my former co workers and I told him the truth. I just feel weird because the truth isn't great.

Has anyone had experience in this?

I didn't want to speak ill of anyone. I did say they are excellent at the actual job they are being considered for which is true. However, when it comes to other things they are a nightmare situation.

I told my boss the truth based on only things I had seen with my own eyes or experienced myself.

However I hate thinking that I played a part in someone not getting ahead even though I wouldn't hire them personally.

I also gave alternative candidates with verbal notes as he asked.

Am I crazy?

[shmenguin]

I went the last 14 years without instant messaging at work. Things were fine. At the new joint, people tend to use IM as a substitute for e-mail. This gentlemen will be ignoring as many of those messages as he can. Send e-mails folks. No one wants to deal with you on YOUR schedule.

[Craig]

I treat incoming messages as emails.

[tifosi77]

Log in as incognito or hide your online status or whatever your IM app will allow. Or set your default as away from your desk.

[shafnutz05]

I usually just turn DND on

[shmenguin]

I treat incoming messages as emails.

I can't address emails as they come in. Same with IM. The difference being that emails will be saved. Im's are gone in a day or so.

[Craig]

I treat incoming messages as emails.

I can't address emails as they come in. Same with IM. The difference being that emails will be saved. Im's are gone in a day or so.

Oh...ours get turned into an email and then i message them back...at some point.

[Morkle]

That's how ours are with Lync integration. If I don't respond they just get delivered via email.

[shmenguin]

We use gmail and google hangouts.

[LITT]

i have accepted a new position will be moving on after 5 years or so at my current place of employment. my boss and boss' boss have been tremendously supportive of me over my tenure and looking to get them something of appreciation as a parting gift. any thoughts?

[meow]

A firm handshake and a "thank you"

[grunthy]

Beer and bacon.

[Silentom]

a hooker

[Craig]

Bring in unhealthy food like cake or donuts and impose it upon them.