Let’s say you are an executive at any drug manufacturing company in America with hiring responsibilities. You have interviewed several candidates for an open sales position in upper Michigan. The choice comes down to two candidates with equal experience and qualifications. Here are their pictures. Which one do you hire?
Candidate #1 Candidate #2
Of course it’s candidate number one! In fact, there is no doubt in my mind candidate number two would get shut out even if he came into the interviewing room holding hands with the Surgeon General. It’s just the way it is in pharmaceutical sales. That seems to be the case with most local and national television news channels as well. Just take a look at Fox News. Even ESPN, for years the exclusive domaine of the American male, is moving ever forward in this direction. And who’s to say the policy doesn’t work. It would with ESPN, you would have to think. I mean the audience has got to be close to 90% male. Most of the good looking blonds are relegated to sideline reporting anyway. That job is mostly for show, not substance, so I guess I’d rather be looking at one of them than, say, Tony Siragusa. Filling payroll slots with someone that’s easy on the eyes couldn’t possibly hurt. Oh, whoops! I forgot about Britt McHenry. It never fails. It’s just a matter of time before people that self-absorbed end up embarrassing themselves. An attempt like Britt’s to save face is like trying to bail out of burning airplane by pulling the rip-cord on a shit parachute- the thing isn’t going to open right, you’re going to hit the ground with a thud, and you’ll end up covered with shit. I say get rid of her, and eliminate the sideline reporting altogether. What purpose does it serve anyway? You can tell by the stupid questions asked that the networks and professional teams control content of the questions in the first place. I hope that’s the case anyway. The same stupid questions get asked over and over. If any of these questions are actually an original thought coming from the brain of a sideline reporter, my guess is it’s all her mouth can do to keep from hiding under the bleachers in embarrassment.
When I first started practicing pharmacy, things were really different. That was 1970. For at least ten years I never encountered a female of any description hawking drug products. It was all guys. In fact. my pharmacy class was 80% male. It was practically an all male professional world, from top to bottom. Of course that’s all changed. Towards the end of my career I became dumbstruck by the number of good looking blonds pharmaceutical companies were hiring. Not that they spend much time in a pharmacy. Those days are over also. As I got older the only reason they came into my pharmacy was to drop off savings coupons for their over-priced drugs, and the sooner they left after the coupon drop off, the better for them That’s because they didn’t want to have anything to do with explaining how much time is completely wasted trying to load computer data off their precious coupons in order process them. But in the scheme of things I suppose there’s a fruitful payoff for hiring hot blonds as pharmaceutical sales reps. Physician contact is what pharmaceutical sales are all about and male ones, at least, are much more responsive to eye candy. It’s no secret drug companies mince and dice all kinds of data, and know how to manipulate it as well. But I’d be curious to see the statistical evidence they use to conclude hot blonds are the way to go in pharmaceutical sales. It seems to me the guys in whatever department this would be making this kind of decision have to believe they have fortuitously fallen into the arms of the mother of all sweet jobs. I wonder if they take their work home with them?
Looking back, if you didn’t know the circumstances you might think my hiring practices followed a similar pattern. When I first started working for Target late in my career, I happened to hire four consecutive cute women as pharmacy personnel. I guess my only accomplishment in the way of diversity was at least two of them were brunettes. But I didn’t deliberately go out of my way to bring only cute girls on board. I am absolutely guiltless as far as any charge of ignoring diversity goes. I was desperate on all occasions and hired the first person that wanted the job. They all had very good credentials and I wanted all to start working as soon as possible. They just fell into my lap. Not that way of course. What I mean is I got lucky. Again, not in the way you are thinking. Is it just me or is it really hot in here? To be continued.