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...

Global Workplace Report 2025 – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1101 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1101 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: Ketut Subiyanto Credit: MART Production Credit: Mikhail Nilov This blogpost is based on Gallup® ‘State of the Global Workplace 2025 – Understanding Employees, Informing Leaders’ Report. Link at the end Preamble [Quote] Last year, global employee engagement fell, costing the world economy $438 billion is lost productivity. The primary cause was a drop in manager engagement. [Unquote] Since COVID19 pandemic, managers have been constantly under pressure from the executive to meet tough or even impossible demands. They are also under pressure from their staff for the same reason. What is being seen now is the fallout from this long stress. It cannot be o...

Bad Bosses and Mental Health – How to Save Yourself – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1097 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1097 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: Marcos Felips Credit: Yan Krukau Preamble During my first basic training program at an MNC, we were trained by three top bosses of the company. The company did not have a dedicated training department, hence this arrangement. The senior most gentleman was marketing manager, and he was teaching complex subjects also. For us, he seemed to have all the knowledge in the world. We were in awe. However, one thing disturbed us. When he asked questions from participants and did not get the reply he desired, he would usually retort with ‘sh*t’ and ‘bullsh*t’. When it happened over few days, we felt greatly stre...

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...

Mental Health Challenges of Public Protests – The Case of Bangladesh – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1009 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1009 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. Photos Taken from Various Sources This post has been inspired by an article by Md Omar Faruk from Bangladesh, published in The Lancet, October 2024 issue just published. Link at the end. Other references also mentioned. Preamble Public protests are a part of daily life in Pakistan. People come out on the streets due to dissatisfaction, anger, disagreement, and to voice their position on key issues. Some public protests are staged by parties to get into/stay in the news; some are staged to get some material benefit from the government. Public protests organized by the public against injustice are relatively uncommon in Pakist...

Money and Happiness – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #942 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #942 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: Elina Fairytale Credit: EVG Kowalievska Credit: Marc Roy Credit: Olexandr P The idea that money can buy happiness is a complex one, with strong arguments on both sides. The debate is old and shall continue. Because people in acute need of money shall rightfully stick to their thinking that there can be no happiness without money. They do not care about scholarly and philosophical concepts of what real happiness is, or what money cannot do. For them, money will be solution to all issues. On the other side of the spectrum are people who take the opposite view. They would like to say that money may give instant gratification, for example, buying a much-desired article, ...

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...

Emotional Profiles of Bosses – Emotional Immaturity – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #903 Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #903 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: Pavel Danilyuk Credit: Andrea Piacquadio Credit: Sora Shimazaki Let us talk about bosses.  For all subordinates, anywhere in the world, bosses are the most favorite topic. Bosses are discussed in great detail, from their appearance to their habits to styles to peculiar behaviors etc. ‘Bosses bashing’ is also a favorite pastime during group meetings.  I can talk authentically about Pharma industry which has been my core work during the last forty-seven years. We talked about bosses on every available occasion, and so is the case in...