“I get up at seven, yeah, and I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin’, yes, I’m workin’ all the time
It seems to me I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess that’s why they call me
They call me the working man”
- Lee/Lifeson (Rush) – 1974
In previous blog entries I’ve mentioned some of the jobs I’ve had in my life (See “Feeling 20 Again” – 3/14/24, and “We are the World” – 6/22/24). But in this post, I’ll give a more comprehensive review of my time as a “working man”. This is particularly for my children and grandchildren, to tell them what “Pops” did for a living.
My first job out of college was as a research technician at the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR), now part of the Fox Chase Cancer Center. I spent my previous 3 summer breaks on the maintenance crew at the Institute, so they knew me, which helped get me in the door once I had my degree. I worked for the distinguished Dr. Hie Wan Hann doing research on childhood cancers, primarily acute lymphocytic leukemia and neuroblastoma. We were part of the Division of Clinical Research, headed by Nobel Laureate Baruch Blumberg. He had won the Nobel Prize in Medicine (for discovering the Hepatitis B Surface Antigen) shortly before I started working there. Dr. Hann was affiliated with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and I got to go with her to the hospital on occasion. Dr. Hann was a great boss. She graciously included me as a co-author on several publications, even though I had little to do with the actual writing of the articles, but she wanted to recognize me for my contributions doing the associated lab tests for the studies. Those were fun times- we were doing important work, and I made a lot of friends. Most of the technicians were recent college graduates. I still remember one day I was working in my lab, and a co-worker came in to introduce me to a new hire- a cute girl named Eva Schiefer. I was meeting my future wife! We had some great times at ICR, but most young research technicians eventually looked to move on to higher paying careers. Eva had two sisters and two uncles that worked at the Merck pharmaceutical company, so that was a natural fit for her. She subsequently got a job at Merck as a Virology Control technician, and when her department was hiring technicians for the new Hepatitis B vaccine, Eva gave them my name as a former co-worker who was interested in the job (not telling them we were engaged at the time). Like Eva, having worked in Dr. Blumberg’s lab made me a good candidate for a position at Merck, since he actually sold the patent that led to the Hepatitis B vaccine to Merck. Dr. Hann nearly jumped out of her lab coat when I told her my new salary at Merck- I would be making triple my meager wages at ICR, so she completely understood my decision to leave and wished me well.
I started at Merck in June 1981. I was hired for a second shift job (4:00 PM to midnight) in the Hepatitis B Testing area in Virology Control. Eva and I got married in October, and we were working different shifts. Ironically I’m a morning person and she’s a night owl, so ideally our jobs should have been reversed, but we made it work. On top of that, there were only two lab technicians on the late shift- me and another young woman, which made things a bit awkward, and led to some good-natured teasing from some of the first shift crew. The technician position at Merck was a union job, and as such, if another employee with more seniority than me lost their job, they could bump me out of my position. I eventually got “bumped”, and at that time there was only one person in the company with less seniority than me that I could bump out and take their job- they were in an area called Environmental Control, which monitored the sterility of various sterile areas throughout the plant site. The only problem was it required a degree in “microbiology”, and my degree was the more general “biology”. If I didn’t get the position, I’d be out of a job, so as a union employee I filed a grievance, and argued that I had enough microbiology courses in my education to qualify. I won the grievance and got the job. But it was clear I needed to get out of the union and move to a salaried “company” job.
I kept my eye open on the job posting board for salaried non-union positions. A friend pointed out an opening for a Process Validation Engineer, and suggested I apply for it. The job required a degree in Engineering (or something similar), and the job description sounded like it wasn’t something that really fit my background, but I figured I had nothing to lose and I applied. I’m guessing someone put in a good word for me, because I surprisingly got the job. The job was basically validating sterile filling equipment. At times it required gowning up in a “bunny suit”, climbing up on tanks, and inserting thermocouple wires and measuring the temperatures during the sterilization cycles, among other things. I was pretty clueless in that job, but I managed to bluff my way through it, and made some lifelong friends in the department, many of whom I still get together now in our retirement years. But I realized I didn’t want to spend my career there, so I watched the job board for something more interesting, and I set my sights on more of a desk job somewhere in Regulatory Affairs.
I discovered what looked like an interesting position that fit my background in an area called “Drug Experience and Epidemiology” (which was subsequently renamed “Worldwide Product Safety”). I applied, but sadly didn’t get the job. They continued to have openings, so I applied again. And again. And again. I was always close, but there was always a temporary employee or some other personal connection that beat me out. In addition, all of the coordinators at that time were women, mostly nurses, so they were a bit hesitant to go with a biologist. And I suppose they were wondering how I would fit in with a team of all women. But eventually they took a chance on me, and I spent the next 25+ years in that same department.
As a Drug Experience Coordinator, I took medical records that were sent to us by health care providers concerning potential adverse reactions and entered them into our database. We would request follow up information as needed, and write up reports to send to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) according to the requirements for reporting adverse events. Reports were due to the FDA in 15 days for serious unexpected events, or annually for non-serious or expected reactions. I really enjoyed the job- I found the medical records to be very interesting, I learned a lot about medical terminology, and I felt I did a pretty good job of writing up medical summaries for the FDA. After a few years on the job, they decided that they needed to upgrade the database, and they assigned me to the project, helping identify user requirements for the new system. While our original database was just for reporting in the U.S., our new goal was to have a global drug safety system that would be used by Merck subsidiaries around the world. A case would just need to be entered once in the country of origin and could then get sent to the regulatory authorities around the world. Needless to say, it was a huge project that took several years. It gave me the opportunity to travel around the world, meet with regulatory authorities and industry leaders, and speak at international meetings. I was part of a team that helped develop global standards for medical terminology and electronic submission standards. At the same time, my responsibilities in the department were growing, and I eventually ended up as Director of “Adverse Experience Information Management”, with a staff of 25 people, responsible for Periodic Safety Update Reporting, database queries, training, and quality control. It was the peak of my career at Merck.
I worked with a dedicated group of medical professionals to ensure the safety of Merck products. When the doctor prescribes a new medication for you, and warns you of potential side effects or drug interactions, that is often a direct result of the work of me and my colleagues. I took great pride in my work. As some of you may know, I get greatly offended when I hear comment about the “big bad drug companies” that are only interested in money. I can’t speak about sales or marketing areas and I wasn’t directly involved in running Clinical Trials, but in my 25 years in post-marketing product safety, our goal was always to identify and report on potential side effects of our drugs, and I always felt we did a great job doing that. I know because part of my responsibility was monitoring and following up on any late reports, and responding to multiple FDA inspections about our data. I even got deposed in a legal case as the expert on the Merck safety database, as I responded to a series of questions about the information we collected. I was always proud of the work we did.
Well, what goes up must come down. Once I hit 50 years old, I started noticing changes around me. The company went through a tough time after the withdrawal of Vioxx from the market. There was a constant push to do more with less. Continual “process improvement” projects put extra stress on the staff. I felt my position slipping as younger people started climbing the advancement ladder. With the younger generation, the use of profanity in meetings was more commonplace, and I remember a time when a young woman cursed, and then looked at me specifically and apologized, like I was her old-fashioned grandfather. Work became more frustrating. Meetings became more confrontational. The icing on the cake was when Merck merged with Schering-Plough. They brought in the Schering team to manage our area, and as a long-term Merck employee, they wanted no parts of me. They gave a young Schering woman who had no Adverse Event Reporting experience and no management experience a two-level promotion to be my boss. I felt like it was a real slap in the face- I had been in the department for over 20 years, had given presentations on safety reporting around the world, and directed a group of 25 people. They treated me like an entry-level employee. But they did need my help, however, as they merged the Merck and Schering databases together, since I knew the Merck side. As early retirement packages were being offered all over the place, when I raised my hand and said “I’ll be happy to leave after the database merger is done if you give me a severance package”, the response was “no, if you want to retire, then retire” but no golden parachute for me. That annoyed me even more, so after consulting with a financial advisor, I decided to call it quits at the age of 55, after 31 years at Merck. My once fulfilling career had landed with a thud.
Upon announcing my retirement, I got an offer for a part-time consulting position, working as a project manager for a safety database upgrade at Pfizer pharmaceuticals. The pay was good, but I was not really happy with the consulting firm I was working for, so I hung on just long enough to finish paying the last of our sons’ college bills, and then resigned after a year. At the same time, I had been volunteering as an usher at the Sellersville Theater. One day the general manager called me at home, and asked if I would be interested in a part-time position as a house manager at the Theater. I thought my working days were over at that point, but the job sounded like fun. I accepted, and managed shows at the theater for a few years, working with some of my favorite musicians- reviewing their contracts, setting up the green room for them, managing the show, paying them out at the end of the night, etc. It was a fun and exciting job, but eventually I had enough and decided to give up a paycheck for good, to concentrate on my health, family, volunteering, and enjoying my golden years.
In looking back, the jobs I held over my 40+ year career were a fun ride, I made lots of friends, I felt like I made an impact, and I was able to make enough money to pay our bills. But it’s certainly nice to no longer be a “working man” and I have no regrets about retiring early!
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