Pharma Veterans

The Middle Management is Squeezed and Struggling – Why and What Should be Done – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1132 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1132 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here. Credit: cottonbro studio Credit: Mikhail Nilov Preamble In the corporate hierarchy, middle managers have traditionally been the bridge between strategy and execution, vision and action, senior leaders and frontline teams. They are the interpreters, implementers, buffers, and stabilizers. But today, middle managers find themselves in an uncomfortable, often unsustainable position. With mounting responsibilities, increasing ambiguity, and little recognition, they are the most squeezed layer in modern organizations—and many are burning out.  What’s changed in the role of middle managers? Why the pressure is...

Stressed to Death: When Work Becomes a Silent Killer – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1096 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1096 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com   for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Anna Tarazevich Credit: Mizuno K Preamble Couple of days ago, several people posted about the sad death of a pharmaceutical sales officer named Harawal. He died in a road accident. From the pictures, it looked that he would be in mid-thirties, a well-built, handsome guy. During the last some time, several such cases of pharmaceutical sales personnel have come to light; young people dying of heart attack or from road accidents when they were driving themselves. Stress is the culprit, and it is well-known fact that the major pharmaceutical companies are in a mad rush of adding billions to their turnover, and they are willing to...

Learning to Say No – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1019 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1019 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Jep Gambardella Credit: leo Credit: Yan Krukau Preamble We, who live in Asian societies are particularly prone not to say No. Even when we say it, we do so with great difficulty. So, we say yes to things we cannot do, or do not want to do, and we land in difficulty. In Pakistan, it is extremely common to hide behind a litany of excuses and unattended phone calls when promises are not kept, and jobs are not delivered. This behavior is causing uncertainty, confusion, mistrust, bad relations, and poor work environment across the country. We not only yes, but add InshaAllah also, a suffix which has sadly become associated with the intent to not honor the promise.  Le...

Creating Great Workplaces – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #967 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 967 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Bali Demiri Credit: Ivan Samkov Credit: Ivan Samkov Credit: Jopwell Help for this article has been taken from Boston Consulting Group research, link at the end. Preamble Workplace is where we spend most of our active life. Whatever happens at the workplace impacts us deeply. As has been recognized the world over, work becomes our identity also. When someone loses a job, the loss is multidimensional; it is income, loss of face, fear of future, and loss of identity. The workplaces must be great places to be, but alas! These are not in most cases. Talking of pharma companies in Pakistan, due to uneven distribution of business, the best can be expected only from the...

Employees’ Burnout – Demands, Enablers, Solutions – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #925 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #925 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans  aims to share knowledge and wisdom from Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Anna Tarazevich Credit: Karolina Grabowska Credit: Nataliya Vaitkevich This blogpost is based on research by McKinsey Health Institute, published in August 2023. MHI is a non-profit-generating entity within McKinsey & Co. Its mission is to catalyze the actions needed across continents, sectors, and communities to add quality to life which is already seeing relative longevity across the world.  McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) survey included exploration of Demands and Enablers. Demands Demands are workplace factors that require sustai...

Employees’ Burnout – Pakistan Situation – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #924 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #924 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans  aims to share knowledge and wisdom from Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Artem Podrez Credit: Mikhail Nilov Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko Employees Burnout Situation in Pakistan Pakistan was not included in the study done by McKinsey. However, our local reseachers have published their work in this area. A study 1 done by A. Khalid et al, and published in Frontiers, measured the stress level in employees of banking sector. Data was collected from 1,778 male and female patients. Male employees were more tilted towards rewards, while female employees demanded better working environment. Job burnout was measured on several param...

Employees’ Burnout – Presentation, Incidence – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #923 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #923 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans  aims to share knowledge and wisdom from Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Mikhail Nilov Credit: Nataliya Vaitkevich Credit: Tara Winstead This blogpost is based on research by McKinsey Health Institute, published in August 2023. MHI is a non-profit-generating entity within McKinsey & Co. Its mission is to catalyze the actions needed across continents, sectors, and communities to add quality to life which is already seeing relative longevity across the world. Additional material is used from Mental Health UK, Burnout Report 2024. What is Employee Burnout? Burnout is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. It ca...

Is Being Passionate About Work Always Good? – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #878 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #878 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans  aims to share knowledge and wisdom from Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Credit: Amina Filkins Credit: Kindel Media Credit: Liza Summer Understanding Passion for Work Passion for work is a positive emotional state characterized by enthusiasm, motivation, sense of purpose, and commitment. A passionate person displays a strong interest in and enjoyment of one's work, a desire to put in extra effort and go above and beyond expectations, a sense of meaning and connection to one's work, and a strong dedication to fulfilling one's responsibilities and achieving goals. Passion at work may accord several benefits, including but not lim...

Women in Workplace 2021 – Part 2 – Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #546 by Asrar Qureshi Dear Colleagues!  This is Pharma Veterans’ Blog Post #546. Pharma Veterans welcome sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here. Continued from Previous…… McKinsey & Company in collaboration with LeanIn.org has been collecting data and publishing a yearly study on the status of Women in Workplace. The 2021 report is the sixth year’s report which was published few days ago. [Link appears at the end] Profession Biases – Another discrimination that women face everywhere is the profession bias. For example, women are discouraged from working in engineering jobs, even when these may not be hard ones. It is just a bias that has been there all along. While women are preferred in packaging jobs, they are n...