Job Bias

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****Thanks to all those who commented. Comments for this post are now CLOSED. We all have different life situations, and I would ask that you respect ours. We have openly shared where we are because we felt it best to be honest. But, now we are done discussing this topic and will be moving on. Thanks.****

We've been asked several times about my husband's job: initially, what he does, and upon finding out he works for a medical supply and pharmaceutical distribution company (yes, that's true), how it is not a conflict of interest for us to be against the medical industry. So, we thought we'd share with you a bit about our background and why we are where we are.

We met in 2005, when Ben was working as a manager for CompUSA. He was still in school then and hated the job, but needed to work full time at something that had evening/weekend hours. In March, 2006, he had a friend who had worked at CompUSA with him who had moved to Cardinal Health. He told Ben how flexible they were, so Ben interviewed and got a job with them. At this point we weren't exactly pro-pharmaceutical, but we sure weren't anti. We both used OTC drugs (Tylenol, Motrin, etc.) when we didn't feel well, and the cats we got in June 2006 were vaccinated.

In December, 2006, Ben began to suffer from chronic pain. We went to urgent care one night, and saw our regular doctor several times. She thought he had an infection and prescribed antibiotics, several courses. There was no change. She sent him to a specialist and they did several painful tests and tried more antibiotics. STILL no change. This went on for about a year, and ultimately chiropractic adjustments put an end to the pain. That was the beginning of us stepping back from the medical industry.

In July 2007, we were visiting my parents when Ben fainted and got taken to the emergency room. He was pretty annoyed by this because he had fainted before and he knew what was going on. The doctors there would not take a history and would not listen to us about anything. They ran a million tests and found nothing (they even ran neurological tests!). We began to suspect that they were doing so many because we have really good health insurance. My grandmother is a retired nurse, and had given us Phenergan in the past when we were sick (it is an antihistamine but commonly used for anti-nausea) and we knew this would help (he gets really sick when he wakes up from fainting). They ignored us for several hours and finally gave it to him...and then he was fine. Later, we learned from doing our own research and talking to family members that he has something called "Situational syncopea" which basically means certain types of overstimulation can cause him to lose consciousness. There's nothing that can be done but avoiding the triggers. This wasn't helping our opinion of doctors.

In January 2008, we had a bad experience at the hospital with Bekah's birth. At one point I was about 4 cm dialated and in a lot of pain. I said I could handle it, even with an IV and sitting in bed, if I was just left alone. The doctor called (she didn't come in until less than ten minutes before Bekah was born) and insisted on talking only to ME (wouldn't talk to Ben, even though I was having contractions every two minutes) and said "This is a hospital, we move things along here. If you don't like it, you can go home. You're getting your water broken." Several more things were pushed on me -- pitocin (apparently, according to the monitor, my contractions weren't strong enough -- that is CRAP because 18 months later I delivered my son at home with the exact same labor pattern), stitches, Motrin, epidural, etc. This, too, turned us against doctors/drugs.

My daughter's few illnesses turned us further, her allergy issues further still (our chiropractor wants to have her hair tested for chemicals, because since we removed the city water from her diet and limited baths, she's slept through the night 10 days in a row, we're going on a record number of nights in a row now. He thinks it is chemical sensitivities and if we can get the stuff out of her body, we can heal her). Our own research and experiences healing on diet and other natural remedies turned us further too. Even just Bekah's situation now, it seems that we are the ones who observe her and figure out what's going on! Yes, one problem is that doctors simply are not there everyday and do not observe the patients, do not have enough time to spend with them. But they also like to jump in and treat symptoms and not look for underlying problems.

So, anyway, when Ben took his job, we were not anti-pharmaceutical. That has come over time with various experiences we've had. At this point, Ben is in a rather advanced field: continuous auditing. This means that through using computer programs, he is able to check all of the company's issues (employee databases, spending accounts, etc. -- all that stuff companies need to operate) instead of looking at only a sampling, which is the way auditing was previously done. He is leading this shift and it is a passion for him. His goal, someday down the road (5-7 years), is to work on this area for a number of different companies. At this point he is unable to do that because it is just too new of an area.

There is also the plain fact that Ben has to have a job. We are slowly transitioning our lifestyle to where we want to be; we aren't there yet. Ideally we will move to a farm, and Ben will work from home, consulting for various businesses. That is where we are heading, but it can't happen overnight. We have talked about Cardinal and conflicting interests many times, though. I'll let him explain that to you. :)

Like Kate said, I had been working for them for about 2 years before we started taking serious strides toward alternative medicine/treatments. Since I've now been there for nearly four years and the fact that first and foremost I work to provide for my family, I have good reason to stay. Even if I completely disagreed with what Cardinal does, my family still comes first, obviously, though I would be adamantly searching for a new job.

That being said, I has been pointed out that Cardinal is primarily a pharmaceutical distributor and since we're now firmly anti-drug, that should be a conflict. Well, yes and no. First of all, Cardinal makes most of its profit (percentage wise) from its Medical Product and Manufacturing division. (Cardinal is the largest manufacturer of surgical gloves and instruments in world, and also makes tons of other product - feel free to search it) Obviously Cardinal is going to expand the businesses that a) the consumer wants most and b) makes them the most money. As consumers shift away from drug based care, Cardinal will follow. They are not the problem, the end users (aka doctor/hospital/pharmaacist) is.

The second main reason is that I do firmly believe that drugs can help people. What did I just say!? Seeing as how November is diabetes awareness month, I'll use that. I've seen various studies that say that most diabetes is preventable. I've seen some that say in up to 95% of cases it can be shown that the person's weight was the primary cause. So where does that leave our beliefs and Cardinal? Well, obviously the best course of action was to not be overweight, exercise, eat right, and avoid all the risk factors, especially if it runs in the family. On the other hand, even if a person ignores all warnings and common sense and basically causes their own diabetes, I still think that they should have the ability to buy insulin to prevent their death.

The simple truth is that most people will not take proper care of themselves, and at some point will need a "treatment" to fix a problem. Since most people believe drugs are the answer, that will be the option of choice for most. Even if my family will never use drugs, we will still use many of the products Cardinal supplies (like gloves, gauze, etc. which we purchased for our son's home birth).

In the end, at this point I feel that I can do good inside the organization by changing the hearts and minds of my coworkers. While there is a part of me that feels a conflict, this is very minimal to me. Once you go down that path of being super critical, it will never end. We're pro-life, so does that mean we can't shop at Dairy Queen? (Until 2003, DQ's parent company Berkshire Hathaway used to donate to pro-choice groups.) If you look deep enough, you can find a problem with every person and company. We are choosing to look at the intent of the company, and not nitpick. I would totally agree that working for a pharmaceutical manufacturer would be a total conflict of interest for us. In Cardinal's case, I think they are doing much more good than evil, and even if it's not ideal at this point, we can live with it.

There you have it! Thanks Ben. :)

Are there other questions? How do you balance your real life with your ideal life?