Moaning at Merck: Sales Reps Get New Cars -- Free!* -- and Many Hate It
What a bunch of whiners Merck's pharmaceutical sales reps are. The company gave them all a new car recently -- a Ford Fusion -- and, according to these complaints, many of them hate it. It's too small, not fast enough, and doesn't feel safe, they say. Management at Merck (MRK) will feel especially irked by the complaining because the company was also the target of a class action lawsuit alleging it doesn't pay overtime to its sales reps.
Here's the reaction of one sales rep, who inspired a series of sympathetic posts from colleagues on Cafe Pharma, the gossip site for drug industry workers:
Just picked up my new Ford Fusion and .... This car stinks! It's TINY and very uncomfortable. It sits really low. If you're over 5'6", good luck getting in and out of it! It has virtually no pick up... Trying to merge on the freeway is actually scary! Where are we supposed to put our stuff? There isn't enough room for the materials I carry (and I'm not a PORT rep with 4-5 drugs). It rides horribly! You feel every bump in the road. I don't feel safe in it at all. It was truly a terrible selection.Not all Merck reps feel that way. The company is going through the process of laying off 15,000 staff. Those who have kept their jobs should feel lucky, they say:
Sad state of affairs when we have a majority of our sales team complaining about what amounts to basically a free car.
No wonder the young pups are first to be axed. Bunch of wimpering spoiled kids!!!!You can read more Merck grumbling here (although the reps who chose the Subaru Forrester seem to be happier with their wheels).
The OT suit is curious for two reasons. First, the company's Schering-Plough acquisition was already the subject of a class action in Connecticut federal court. Merck lost a pretrial ruling in that case, allowing the litigation to proceed.
Second, the plaintiff in the case, Jason Frudakis, who worked at Merck in Southern California from June 2006 to September 2010, voluntarily dismissed his case on Dec. 7, a day after he filed the suit.
The complaint is even thinner than the one filed against Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) recently. Aside from giving the dates Frudakis worked for Merck, it says almost nothing about his working conditions that might have violated the law (it does insist those undescribed conditions were in violation of the law, however).
All in all, a banner week for the moaners at Merck.
*Technically, the car isn't free. Rather Merck makes a $100 monthly deduction for it from each rep's paycheck. But that deduction is tax deductible as a non-reimbursed business expense, so it's as close to free as a not-free car can get.
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