😑 I have to encounter Merck in a Professional Setting

[tryingeveryday]

I’m going to an awesome recruiting event in July with elite companies recruiting recent college grads.

I’m going through the list of companies for my interest. Merck is a participant of the event. Regardless of whether I indicate interest, I will still have to interact politely with them.

I have extremely negative emotions towards this company. I hate that I even own shares of Merck through mutual funds.

It’s hard to be friendly with a company that has regularly shown willingness to kill people for money. It would be satisfying to rise in merck and affect change, but that’s not in my cards.

Does anyone have advice on how to not come off like I absolutely hate everything they stand for? I don’t want jobs with them, but it could hurt my employment offers from other amazing companies.

This company has set my life back by atleast 3-5 years and has my mental health capacity at 25% of what it was. My cognitive abilities are at 90% of what they were too. Like merck.

Would be really happy to get some advice on navigating this! TIA

[Exsexgod]

If you visit a gun manufacturer, they are not lying and tell the people a bullet in your head is a good massage for headache.
Or a chemical producer doesn’t tell that Cyanide only makes some stomach pain and the rest is all in your head.
But there are other pharma cartel members selling Accetuane, Mirtazapin, Citalopram…

[Greek]

They’ve already damaged you. No need to let them do more to you. I suggest you smile and nod politely when the time to speak to them arrives.

[Scotsman]

I once had to do work for a client as part of their campaign to preserve a piece of legislation in Scotland which meant that school teachers couldn’t discuss homosexuality which was being considered for repeal. This client was a millionaire who was also an alleged “Christian”. I was only a small cog in a team given this work and I was completely against both the legislation and this man who wanted to not only preserve it but also use his wealth to try and influence the debate, and in my eyes cause further harm to young non-conforming Scots. My distaste and feeling of compromising myself at having to be play a part in his campaign had me looking to try and redress this in some way. Despite having to go out of my comfort zone, this discomfort was strong enough that I felt that I had to become involved in the campaign to scrap the legislation, which I probably wouldn’t have done if not for this. I think what I am trying to say is sometimes we have to do things at work which don’t sit comfortably with us, but we can still preserve our integrity by performing acts which counter what can feel like a personal betrayal of our ethics. Like Greek says, you can still engage pragmatically with the team from Merck, but counter that with a personal act which maybe “balances out” this discomfort, whether that is by a single donation to the Network, or an act of awareness, like taking part in a podcast etc. There are ways of maintaining your integrity whilst not compromising yourself professionally which wouldn’t be in your personal interest. Just the knowledge that you hate everything that they stand for whilst shaking their hands maybe feel like a secret act of empowerment, knowing that you are active in fighting against them.

[Frustrated]

You can just smile and if you are forced to talk to this person then you can just tell them that you aren’t interested in working for the pharmaceutical industry.

The representative that you might be meeting with is an extremely low level employee that is likely a very low level human resources employee that is unlikely to have engaged in any serious immoral behavior on behalf of the company.