To avoid being laid off, a third of biopharma professionals would take a pay cut and nearly a quarter would take a demotion, according to BioSpace LinkedIn polls. We spoke to several professionals about their layoff experiences and what they would—and wouldn’t—have done to keep their jobs.
Even in a challenging job market, biopharma professionals have mixed feelings about taking pay cuts or demotions to avoid layoffs, according to two new BioSpace LinkedIn polls whose findings align with a recent ResumeBuilder.com survey.
When asked “Would you take a pay cut to avoid being laid off?”, there was a nearly even split across BioSpace poll responses. Just over a third (36%) of the 1,247 respondents said “no,” a third (33%) chose “yes” and just under a third (32%) selected “maybe.” The “yes” votes nearly matched ResumeBuilder.com’s survey findings, which showed that 31% of the 1,250 U.S. workers surveyed would accept reduced pay to keep their jobs.
Demotions found less favor among BioSpace poll respondents. When asked “Would you accept a demotion to avoid being laid off?”, nearly half (49%) of the 1,065 respondents said “no.” Less than a third (30%) chose “maybe,” while 22% selected “yes.” ResumeBuilder.com survey respondents were more open to demotions, with 32% saying they’d take one to stay employed.
The poll and survey findings are noteworthy given the economic climate and biopharma job market. The unemployment rate rose from 4.1% in June to 4.3% in July, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data reported earlier this month. BLS also announced that on the last business day of June, there were 941,000 fewer job openings over the year.
In the biopharma space, nearly half (43%) of surveyed biotech and pharma professionals are unemployed, according to a BioSpace job trends report released last month. The report also noted that almost a quarter (21%) of surveyed companies anticipate making layoffs in the second half of this year.
Pay Cuts: Who Takes Them, and Why?
When it comes to pay cuts, multiple BioSpace poll commenters questioned whether top executives would participate in decreases. In addition, Maria Granger, a sales lead at Innovative Research, noted that an employee’s willingness to take a cut depends on its conditions and duration as well as the person’s role, demographic profile and psychographic profile.
Granger provided what she identified as “exaggerated scenarios” for the sake of demonstrating two different situations:
- Asking a startup’s vice president who has no dependents and makes above the industry-standard salary to take a three-month pay cut due to unexpected economic turbulence so employees can maintain their salaries and continue production
- Telling an international multibillion-dollar corporation’s lab technician who has children and receives $20 an hour to go down to $18 an hour indefinitely while C-suite executives maintain their salaries
“I might tolerate the first scenario at this point in my life but I certainly wouldn’t tolerate being the lab technician in the second situation,” Granger wrote.
Demotions: Who Takes Them, and What Are Their Drawbacks?
Regarding demotions, similar to with pay cuts, a BioSpace poll commenter pointed out a biopharma professional’s willingness to take one depends on their situation—specifically, the stage of their career.
“Young 30s and on a fast track? Probably not,” wrote Matthew Clement, a life sciences specialist. “Early 50s, financially-comfortable, and offered a role with a better work-life balance? Yep, I’d take that in a heartbeat. Not everyone aspires to be a go-getting VP. Some are happy with a stress-free 9-5 role that pays enough to cover the bills.”
Another commenter noted the drawbacks of taking demotions. Stacey Berzak-Reyes, a senior clinical project manager at Parexel, wrote, “A demotion could potentially ruin any future career moves as a recruiter or future employer may see that as a bad sign without asking why. It could potentially prevent even getting a call back. It would not be advisable unless you were close to retirement and not looking to career progress.”
Nearing Retirement: A Reason to Take a Pay Cut, Demotion
Being near retirement is one reason a biopharma professional who requested anonymity said they would have taken a pay or title cut to stay at the company that let them go last year. They noted it’s hard to find a job at their age.
I didn’t even start getting interviews until I Botoxed my resume. But it’s hard to do when you’re in science, because my entire publication history is in PubMed, and anyone can find out how old I am by doing some simple math.
They shared that they applied to dozens of jobs over 18 months through their network and LinkedIn and only recently found a position. The new role equates to a multiple-level demotion and includes a more than 60% cut in pay. Because of the salary decrease, this biopharma professional said they’re moving out of a high cost-of-living city to somewhere more affordable.
Still, they were willing to take a lower-level job not just to secure full-time employment but also because they enjoy their chosen field.
“I love science,” they said. “As long as I’m doing science, I don’t care what you call me. I don’t care if I have reports or not.”
Negotiated Exits: An Alternative to Pay Cuts, Demotions
Not everyone is willing to take pay cuts or demotions to avoid a layoff. Another biopharma professional who requested anonymity shared that had the organization that let her go last year offered her a pay cut to stay on, she probably would have declined, as her forced exit “felt like a slap in the face.”
She felt even more strongly about a potential demotion. She said that had the company offered her one so she could stay employed, she would have said no given it likely would have involved moving down from her executive position to the same level as her direct reports.
There is one option this biopharma professional—now an independent consultant—said she likely would have taken to avoid a layoff: a negotiated exit. She explained she could have announced her retirement or that she was moving on, then wound down her time at the company, probably over a three-month period.
“When it’s not your choice, it has a different feeling than if you have a seat at the table and are helping to design it,” she said.
Consulting: An Option for Some to Avoid Layoffs
Pilar Nava-Parada, a drug developer executive leader and consultant, is among the biopharma professionals who’ve avoided layoffs. She shared that when she worked at OSI Pharmaceuticals, Astellas Pharma took over the company and asked her to do consultant work for one year. She’d be a consulting physician, which had a lower level of responsibilities than the full-time associate medical director job she’d had at OSI. Astellas did not promise her full-time employment when the year ended.
Nava-Parada said she chose to do that consulting work, which she described as a career pause given she couldn’t seek a higher-level job during that time, for two reasons. She wanted to gain skills in different areas of the drug development business and felt it would be easier to find her next job if she were “employed,” so to speak. Nava-Parada does not regret that choice because of what happened next.
“They did offer me full-time employment,” she said, referring to the medical director position she accepted, “but most importantly, I gained expertise and experiences that I would have not gotten if I did not stay and I had not chosen to pause my career and then do what they were asking me to do.”
While Astellas eventually hired Nava-Parada, other employers let her go. For example, Pfizer laid her off at the end of 2021, after nearly eight years at the company. She said that while she was not offered an option to avoid the layoff, she likely would have taken a demotion or pay cut in exchange for job security and the benefits of being at Pfizer.
Layoffs as Opportunities vs. Losses
While Nava-Parada has been let go from more than one job, she’s found some positives in those experiences, noting they can represent opportunities rather than losses.
Really, for the employee, it’s an opportunity to reinvent your career, reinvent yourself and perhaps even change completely what you are meant to do. And it’s never too late to do it.
Nava-Parada is applying that mindset now as she spends half her time consulting and the other half engaging with the community, which includes collaborating with nonprofits that support cancer research. She noted that while she’d like to have a biotech job again, “This time has given me the opportunity to say that’s not the only way that I can do science or the only way that I can do something for drug development and bring drugs to the market. There are other ways that I could also put my skills to the service of people.”
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