Resources for Humans editor Celeste Blackburn reviews the book “Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman” by Jamie Reidy and finds it an interesting read, but one more likely to give HR professionals nightmares about slacking employees than offering real solutions to problems.
In his “behind-the-scenes look at pharmaceutical sales and the most talked-about prescription drug in history, Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman
He carried this work ethic over to his first real job out of the Army (where he realized early that doing only average in basic training testing would keep him away from the more dangerous jobs and the front line) as a sales representative for Pfizer. While the week-long initiation and training definitely worked to indoctrinate him to thinking that Pfizer was the best company out there (and developing a distrust and dislike for other pharma companies and their reps), it didn’t do much for his work ethic.
Reidy spends most of the book detailing his schemes for getting out of doing work. One-by-one, he and a network of like-minded colleagues found a way (and shared with each other) to foil each of the company’s methods for ensuring they were acutally working. At one point he even notes that if he’d put the amount of effort into working as he did to not working, he would have been a top salesman. So if he sounds like every manager and HR professional’s worst nightmare, he probably is (in addition to being a professional slacker, he also admits to flirting with nurses and doctors to get business, telling crass jokes on business calls, and giving drug samples to friends).
There’s not a lot of practical advise for HR practitioners to take away from the book, but if you are looking for a quick read that will offer insight into the mind of a professional slacker, this is your book.
Celeste Blackburn is managing editor of HR Insight and Diversity Insight. She has taught composition at the collegiate level and worked as a journalist.