Call the ethics line and establish yourself as a whistleblower. Makes it easier for,you to file a claim against the company. If you've been there a long time, im sure you can find something the SEC would be interested in. You've really got nothing to lose.

Thank you for your answers folks. I should have mentioned that I have actively, and I mean actively (looking for another job is in itself a part time job) been looking for almost a year. Anyone who isn't actively looking needs a serious reality check. Have had a number of interviews but I don't want to work in this industry any longer. I am not discouraged by the 'thanks but we went with another candidate' because it's a numbers game. Termination is imminent, don't know if I'll make it to the RIF and I've pretty much shut down. BD is a battlefield and this 45+ ethical, competent worker with a high level of knowledge and integrity is weary of slaying windmills and gulping anti-depressants.

"So has anyone out there had the experience of doing the jobs of 3 people, getting evaluated on doing the jobs of 3 people, underperforming because you can't possibly do the jobs of 3 people and figuring there's nothing left to do but prepare for termination? If so, would you kindly share your experience and/or coping mechanisms? How does one thwart the purposeful barbs of HR and a malignant, inept, ladder climbing manager? Inquiring minds want to know...."

You cut your losses and get the hell out of there. Don't wait for a severence package, because it's not worth anything. There probably won't be unempoyment checks, either, because BD will spend more than your annual salary to fight your claim, as they don't want to pay higher premiums.

You do the absolute minimum to get by and look for a better job on their dime. Start saving yourself and stop pleasing them, because it will never happen. Even if you succeed in doing the job of three by working nights and weekends, your ONLY reward will be doing a job of a fourth.

"Sorry- no bonus this year and there won't be a raise, either. We just don't have the money." Meanwhile, top management got gigantic bonuses.

How do you cope? You recognize the situation for what it is: You work for a company who doesn't value your efforts and that is probably unlikely to change. If you do manage to stay, your opportunity for meaningful career growth is slim to none. (If you were one of the golden ones, you wouldn't be in this situation to begin with, right?) You start to take control of your own destiny, rather than giving it up to them. You keep your head down, do what you must and look for something better. You remind yourself that your job isn't the most important thing in your life- your family and a healthly, fulfilled life come first. You ask yourself, "Is this how I want to spend my life?" and you recognize there are better companies and better jobs out there and you go after them. They will not come to you, as BD has contracts with most recruiters which prevent them from even talking to BD employees.

I left two years ago, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I make double the amount of money I made at BD AND I have much better benefits. Really- not exaggerating. Moreover, I like my job. My group works together as a real team and I could not ask for a better boss. I only hope to one day be the kind of leader he is.

Our corporate culture is the exact opposite of BD's. They go out of their way to reward employees for going above and beyond the call of duty. Just this week, I used our corporate rewards program to recognize two service people who worked overtime to save a customer's project and they each got a $750 prize. Bottom line, I work very hard, but I want to work hard for this company, because we all do and we are all rewarded for it.

Bottom line, you can stay there and let them take advantage of you from now on, hoping it will somehow get better and fearing for it to be your turn to go before the knuckle dragging, Shreck look-alike BD HR henchman, or you can take control of your own future and find something better. There are far better places to work. For me, life was too short to be miserable one day longer.

There is no way to defend yourself. They have annual RIFs to get rid of the non-conformers. Legal and HR bless the numbers to make sure you have no case for age or sex claims. They are bulletproof regardless of how baseless their claims are. Leave now. Don't wait until you have 10 or 15 years service and think you are a valued employee. You will be thrown under the bus to save your manager's job, and walked out the door without warning. One more thing, shed all personal items from your person workspace. They don't even give you a box. I speak from experience.

So has anyone out there had the experience of doing the jobs of 3 people, getting evaluated on doing the jobs of 3 people, underperforming because you can't possibly do the jobs of 3 people and figuring there's nothing left to do but prepare for termination? If so, would you kindly share your experience and/or coping mechanisms? How does one thwart the purposeful barbs of HR and a malignant, inept, ladder climbing manager? Inquiring minds want to know....

how about the San Diego / Pharmingen unit any news

your assessment is widely known across the Franklin Lakes campus. Yet BD seems to promote this type to be our "leaders"....Clueless

A few very specific moves to consolidate some of the smallest mfg facilities into larger existing facilities in the US. Always difficult to do, but this company needs to clean up its mfg operations. At that they appear to be giving people over a year notice. Wish other companies would do that.

So any news about the RIF starting this august? Word is that they will start with voluntary seperation packages. Depending on how many take the package will determine the scope of the RIF.

BD continually evaluates its global manufacturing network to ensure we are leveraging infrastructures, reducing costs and improving efficiencies.

As such, BD has made the difficult, but necessary, business decision to close the Madison, Wisconsin media manufacturing facility. Media manufacturing will be consolidated to a media center of excellence plant in Sparks, Maryland. This process will involve multiple phases. The target date for closing the facility is March 31, 2014. This closure will impact all associates located at the Madison, Wisconsin facility.

This decision is in no way a reflection upon the performance of the Madison facility, which has consistently met increased volume demands, custom product demands, and made several technological improvements to the manufacturing process.

There is no immediate impact on BD customers. Madison will provide redundancy of product while Baltimore is going through the validation process.

Bruce Roed
VP, WW Operations

Yes please do.

I can copy and paste the email from VP Bruce Roed if you want about the Madison deal.

Becton sold?

No way....

Yes. They are closing their doors in March 2014.

Apparently in the same place they found the dumb$&@ CFO Elkins

Another town hall (rah-rah circle jerk) today in FLKS. To quote the new PAS prez as he grinned and gesticulated wildly at the financials and INNOVATION on the 20 ft. screen - 'Isn't this great stuff?' Where the hell did they find this Ken doll used car salesman????

BDB is pushing hard to work on BV dyes. But the cost for making the products is very expensive. I don't know if we realy make any money with this project or this is just some top leaders political strategy.

The LT in Pharm Systems are selfish back-stabbers who have no appreciation for hard working employees. Mr. EB it seems would do anything to get ahead in life.

Haven't heard that one but San Lorenzo, PR is in big trouble. Suzhou is expanding (there's a surprise...) and a lot of European shared services are going to Poland. Rumor is that the Becton Bldg. has been sold, remaining proles will move to Howe and lab operations and most of IT will be outsourced. The garages and pantries are all getting facelifts perhaps in preparation for a big real estate transaction? Being up to code = an easier sale. Stranger things have happened.

I'm hearing that the BD facility in Madison, Wisconsin is closing down and the operations are moving to the Sparks, Maryland plants? Any truth to that rumor??

Ah Delta... 1 person doing the job of 3 and then getting rid of us because we aren't performing. I must commend HR though - they sure have their bases covered. We think we are proactive so we document everything and refute their BS - they already had consultants figure out every angle to thwart us. I guess in the Machiavellian Kool Aid stand that is BD, time well spent is 20% of your day documenting the badgering, covering your a$$ and defending yourself. I wonder how we include those activities on our IIGs? Hope my searches will finally pay off before the huge RIF in Sept and if not - I'll survive. I wish you all success with your exit plans or peace if you decide to stay, miscreants excluded.

The sad fact is you should look elsewhere because nothing is going to change. The LT has this misguided transformation plan which is basically a ponzi scheme of firing employees over 45 and hiring consultants to do the work until shipping the jobs to Mexico, oh I mean Texas, where there is no institutional knowledge. . Vinnie gets his pat on the back from the Board and flys off on the corporate jet to vacation with his family.

Please don't let the "miscreants" get you down. The performance plan is an easier "out" for them legally. If you're fired, there are to many ways for an individual to fight back, and they do not want that! I've been gone for 5 years now, and it appears that BD's shenanigans continue. I dare say that though I don't know you personally, I assume that it's not "you," it's just the callous way that BD handles "Human Resources." If you are miserable, then work to get away and start anew.

Good luck.

So why don't they just fire us? Why do we have to endure the 60 day performance improvement plans that set us up for failure? How can any of these miscreants sleep at night? On top of guping prozac, why do they force us to suffer these indignties?

The false sense of entitlement catches up at some point and they will get smacked down to earth. Their partners will cheat when BD becomes more important than they are. Their privileged kids raised by nannies in Randolph will end up on a therapist's couch in 20 years. Yale Girl/Guy will be 45+ before they know it with a new generation of go-getters replacing them. And the makers of Prozac and Xanax will continue rolling in $$$.

Even though we 45+ers are being targeted for involuntary departure, we've been there, done that with Corporate America. The 27 year old Kool Aid drinkers willing to work 24/7 with Blackberries up their a$$es and have no lives but BD don't realize they are becoming wage slave automatons
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Sad to see these young brown-nosers believe they are smarter and more experienced than their superiors who've been in the business over 10 yrs longer. Absolutely no respect. Hope they all burn out and really see what this business is all about. Good luck to those arrogant aholls. Yes, you- Yale girl, who thought you put your phone on mute during a global mktg call, while you dialed another phone to talk about your weekend plans- you suck girl and you are freakin useless, and you know it!!!

Do the right thing?
Treat each other with respect?

Even though we 45+ers are being targeted for involuntary departure, we've been there, done that with Corporate America. The 27 year old Kool Aid drinkers willing to work 24/7 with Blackberries up their a$$es and have no lives but BD don't realize they are becoming wage slave automatons. Poor, texting eager beavers with $250,000 worth of student loan debt, Beemers and broom closet sized condos in Hoboken - welcome to The Machine...

That is nauseating...

Did BD require attendees at EL's retirement party to pay for their food, like they make woker-bees pay for their lunches during employee appreciation day?

What about all those 45+ loyal workers they kick to the curb every other quarter to avoid paying pensions? Do they even get retirement parties?

Kinda' shows who BD really values, doesn't it?

Me too! I had my first solid bowel movement in over 7 years after I left this month.

"I thank God every day that I am no longer witnessing all the crap that goes on at Flakes on a daily basis. I've been there too long and been away long enough to see how sick that place really is."

I have been diligently trying to extricate myself from this company for months and hope my efforts pay off before the end of FY12. I would like nothing better than to recycle your quote for myself. Everyone I know that has left or been let go/fired says the same thing and also adds that once you're out of there the knot in your stomach goes away, the heart palpatations go away, you are able to sleep again and you get your soul back. May it be so.

The Upper Brass loved using DG, like a puppet, to do their dirty work. She was as clueless as a $5 hooker and played the part well. They used her to get rid of the aggregated dead-wood and detritis that had collected over the previous 5 years.

Even though DG is dumb as a post and has the most repugnant ethics you'll ever encounter, she was effective in getting rid of the last of the employees who had any useful technology and applied business experience and any spine. She served her purpose.

I am sure that Big BD is done with her by now, however.
Her career in conniving, backstabbing and ass-kissing is now over.

I heard that she had to sleep with BB in order to get her promotion. I wish I hadn't heard that. It's creepy and vomit-inducing.

So all the typical brown-nosers were in place in front I bet, as usual, thinking they're so superior to everyone else in the room . What an arrogant organization with a-holes for leaders. I thank God every day that I am no longer witnessing all the crap that goes on at Flakes on a daily basis. I've been there too long and been away long enough to see how sick that place really is. If you look closely enough there's always that black cloud over rte 208 called BD.

So it was EL's retirement gala today at FLKS complete with sushi, wine, enough flowers to pay for 3 future layoff employees' salaries, a portrait unveiling and enough oral and bendover behavior from corporate toadies to make a seasoned Riker's Island falling soap shower bitch blush.

BB is worse than 10 terrible employees combined.

The "MARKETING GENIUS" DG is a seriously toxic, self-aggrandizing, backstabbing, myopic pig. No original ideas. Steals ideas and parrots them to get ahead.
She fooled her bosses, but she should have been torched ages ago.

The BD MANAGEMENT TEAM really admired that DG got a fourth-rate MBA so she could spew nonsense powerpoint verbiage at other employees and divert attention from the fact that she contributed nothing.....That behavior is rewarded generously by the geniuses at BD.

The layoffs can't be soon enough or big enough to make up for all the bad business practices that doomed this company.

So the buzz today is huge layoffs in September (gee, why ruin the annual chopfest?) and several plant closings but I bet I know whose getting his bonus.....

Anything to do with the sale of the Falcon business to Corning? I am sure some halfwit has made a fortune off that great idea.

So the buzz today is huge layoffs in September (gee, why ruin the annual chopfest?) and several plant closings but I bet I know whose getting his bonus....

And they paid consultants thousands of dollars to come up with that! That's genius.

Well his legacy at FLKS are those nifty mouse pads that say '75 and sunny'. Wish I was that clever.

Speaking of weasels...how is wonder boy TP doing these days? Still trying to prove that he is a marketing genius compared to everyone else who's been doing it for 20 yrs? Or did he finally stop micro managing and start looking at the big picture ie leading? LOL,LOL. What an ass.

Dear The Friendly Recruiter,

Can you please find jobs for the weasel-like, back-stabbing, ass-kissing, non-contributors who make up The Management of BD?

Thank you,
Friendly BD Worker Bee

Are you saying that BB is a Nazi war criminal who should be tried and sentenced?
Is that what you are saying?

Is that what you are saying?

Talking about layoffs - it's been WAY too quiet at BD lately. No scuttlebutt, no all day conference room reservations by HR for the numerous 15 minute 'you're no longer needed' meetings, no dead man walking. Wonder what the hell is going on?

I think you just described every marketing executive out there.

The "MARKETING GENIUS" DG is a seriously toxic, self-aggrandizing, backstabbing, myopic pig. No original ideas. Steals ideas and parrots them to get ahead.
She fooled her bosses, but she should have been torched ages ago.

She made A TERRIBLE company just THAT MUCH worse.

When you speak of Leadership you want to believe that the best have been placed in the right positions. This has not been the case with BD as it has been said by most of you posting it seems like you get the job by the just kissing ass no matter how big it is. No intergity, no self worth,just step on me and I will take it. What a bunch of whimps. Men who shouldn't wear pants as making poor investments have cost us dearly and most of our co-workers have lost their jobs because of the wrong choice. We need to look at top management and the roles they play. What have they done for the company? If you want top dollar then work for it,stop taking credit were it is not deserved and invest in the company you work for. If your a LEADER then LEAD and pull your head out of your ass.

Excellent point, and so true. I stand corrected.

The ones who didn't kiss ass left years ago. The ones leaving now or being let go of just didn't kiss hard enough and are just now paying the price. At some point a culture based on back stabbing and flattery will turn on itself.

The Embarrassment which is BD....6th round of lay-offs.

Great. another opportunity to get rid of the over 45 yr olds. And those that actually have an opinion don't kiss ass and don't blindly follow the Nazi orders from upper mgt.