AstraZeneca Reps Seem Resigned to the Inevitable as Details Emerge of Buyout Package

(MoneyWatch)  AstraZeneca sales reps are reacting with relative calm to the news that they will all be offered buyouts as the company attampts to figure out how many will be laid off if too few take the package. A glance at CafePharma's message boards shows that aside from the usual clowns, the staff seem to understand that layoffs are inevitable at a company that has $620 million in outstanding legal liabilities and shown only modest gains in its existing "Enhancing Productivity" program.

News of the buyouts broke on Pharmalot:

"AstraZeneca is making changes to our sales force, which will be managed first by looking at vacancies and offering field sales employees the opportunity to self-identify whether they are interested in leaving the company. We will know the full scope of the changes in the coming weeks."

Here's a sampling of the reaction from the field:

• ... this cut is going to take a good chop at middle management, especially managers in RPT and Hospital, as well as RSM's. Certainly the first of more cuts to come. It's kind of strange when you're working with your manager, who on one hand is rating you and asking you to stay focused on the metrics, and on the other scared shitless for their job.

• Geez, this is a freaking nightmare. Everywhere I look it's layoffs. I have to give props to AZ for offering this buyout -I guarantee you that the folks over at Wyeth would have loved that opportunity, and they didn't get it.

• I have heard 2 weeks for every year of service with AZ, plus 1 week. So, a rep with 10 years would receive 21 weeks paid.There will be a minimum of 12 weeks for those with less years of service. I have heard RSD's are getting their notice this week. DSM's will be informed the week of the 26th. The following week PSS's will be notified. (first week in November)

• 3 weeks for band 5 - 6. DSM and RSD. The rest is correct.

• Yep, at least you can start planning now. I had my family in from all over the country and was telling them how much I really loved where I was at and would love to be there for a long time........then I check my voicemail!!!

• There have been literally thousands of posts here on CP about how much we have suffered as a company from poor management. We told them the Tablet PC/TSi was a sales killer and they refused to listen. They hired reps and put them into 3 person microterritories and we told them they were not needed. They forced us to spend millions on LBX programs with very little return, and they still do. Now we are laying off people. My guess is that a lot of the "bad ones" survive and a lot of good ones get let go. That's usually how it goes.
  
  I think the entire sales org. realizes that this downsizing will be repeated yearly for many years to come. The industry is headed for very difficult times. It is now the world of generics that control all.

• I am a DSM in Minnesota and we begged them not to make us hire more PSSs because access was low and we were tripping over each other, but the ASDs would not listen even in the rare time when we could convince our RSD. The smug ASDs continued to demand timely hiring (the diversity thing flew out the window - not waiting for the right pool, just get a warm body in there) so we could deliver the call metrics. Now we are laying off and getting to the number of PSSs we recommended years ago.

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