Read this when you are having one of THOSE days. ;)

[flagger]

When you have one of "those" days, try this. When you are out and about, stop at your pharmacy and go to the thermometer section and purchase a rectal thermometer made by Johnson and Johnson. Be very sure you get this brand.

When you get home, lock your doors, draw the curtains and disconnect the phone so you will not be disturbed. Change into very comfortable clothing and lie down on your bed. Open the package and remove the thermometer. Carefully place it on the bedside table so that it will not become chipped or broken.Take out the literature and read it carefully. You will notice that in small print there is a statement:

"Every rectal thermometer made by Johnson and Johnson is personally tested."

Now, close your eyes and repeat out loud five times:

"I am sooo glad I do not work for quality control at Johnson and Johnson."

Have a nice day and remember, there is always someone with a worse job than yours!

[mamahill]

Been there, done that. They had good benefits. Unfortunately, the glass ceiling held me back from further promotion...

DH and I are laughing out loud. Thanks for the insight. I'm tempted to go buy one just to read the literature...

[egoldber]

Hmmm. I worked for Johnson&Johnson for many years and was very happy there. But I guess I'm glad I didn't work at the Personal Products division in Skillman, New Jersey! People always joked about how awful it was to work at Skillman, but I never knew.... :)

I'm a little surprised at your comment Sarah. When I was there they were VERY aggressive about recruiting women and minorities into management and leadership positions. But I guess depending on the division there may have been more of an old boy network (certainly the J&J Executive Committee was all older men!).

[COElizabeth]

Sarah and Beth,

Between my first and second years of business school I did an internship with J&J's international strategic marketing group for the pharmaceutical division, so I am really interested in your exchange. I absolutely loved the people I worked with and was lucky enough to be assigned to one of the best mentors I have ever met (who was a man, incidentally). I also was very impressed with the ethics of those I met. I came very close to working for the group after graduation but decided to go back to my original plan to move to Colorado (jobless!) because I had always wanted to live there. I have no regrets about that, but I occasionally wonder what my life would be like now if I had taken the job. Very different I am sure!

Elizabeth
Mom to James
9-20-02

[flagger]

What a small world we truly live in. I just posted that last night just to put a smile on someone's face. I had no idea that we had actual former J&J employees here.

[egoldber]

Well, it's not THAT small a world. J&J has over 100,000 employees world wide and if you count FORMER employees... It is the largest medical products company in the world with a ton of obscure divisions that the average person has never heard of! They make everything from cotton balls and Band-aids to the famous baby products, to Tylenol (and all its derivatives), blood glucose monitoring systems, Acuvue contact lenses, a host of skin care products (including the Neutragena, Clean&Clear and Aveeno brands), many pharmaceuticals, highly sophisticated surgical instrumentation and so on and so on...

I really enjoyed my working experience there. I found them to be a very ethical company and that was extremely important to me. There are of course, always individual exceptions to that rule, but on the whole I felt the managament was committed to doing the right thing for their customers and their employees. They certainly treated me very well, although I must say that I definitely know others who were not so happy there.

[mamahill]

Sheepish grin - I never actually worked there. Was trying to make a joke that the job wasn't so bad. Guess I should rethink my responses on 4 hours of sleep, and getting to bed late. I'm sure J&J is a great company to work for. Sorry for the confusion!

[mamahill]

Now I REALLY feel bad. Sorry for the confusion! I need more sleep...

[egoldber]

OMG! I am such a MORON! I JUST got it, glass ceiling, thermometer ha ha ha... :)

And there used to be only one large J&J location in Northern CA (Milpitas) and a very small one in Fremont. I was racking my brain wondering if I could remember seeing you around! :) :)

You wouldn't think I'd be so quick to defend a company that laid me off would you? (But I did get a pretty sweet package...)

[mamahill]

No worries! I was just thinking, "Oh no! I've totally offended Beth!" You know how sometimes you make jokes that you think are funny and nobody else gets it? That's my world. That WOULD have been funny, had we worked at the same company. But no, I was in high-tech (Pleasanton and San Jose - yucky commute!). Hence my lay-off as well! Glad it was cleared up...

[egoldber]

Oh, I wasn't offended! But I WAS dying of curiosity as to which division it could have been and if anyone I knew was involved, LOL!!!! :)

[flagger]

Ms. Flagger just called to say she bought a thermometer today for me as punishment for torturing others with my bad jokes.

It is bad enough that SHE has to hear them.

[kathsmom]

Flagger,

Thanks for posting this! I was about to fall off my chair laughing. DH asked what was so funny, so I read it to him. He thought it was hilarious too.

Have fun with your thermometer that Ms. Flagger bought!

Toni - mom to Katherine (5/19/96) and Andrew (9/23/02)