Resuming 2024
Completing my first full year as a freelance CRA, well almost „full“, but let´s talk about this later, is reason enough for me to reflect on the year and its ups and downs. After 2023 was such a highlight for me, because I was able to establish my independence as a freelance CRA, I was keen on continuing like that in 2024 and confident, that everything would be working just fine. But well, you know how life goes and it taught me better. Both my main clients had to end their contracts with me due to budgetary reasons prematurely. For one of these, it came out of the blue for me and having both clients cancel on me simultaneously, pulled me into a kind of desperate situation. Having been a freelancer for only a bit over a year, my savings were not big enough for me to be able to „sit it out“ until a new offer might, or might not, appear on the horizon. All in all, the second half of the year, it became quite quiet in the freelance clinical research market. After carefully considering my possibilities, I decided to get into a permanent position again with one of the clients that had previously released me and was now working with a global CRO for staffing, to streamline processes within Europe and make the countries more „comparable“.
I had enjoyed working for this client a lot, which was the main, if not the only, reason for me, to go ahead with this CRO, as I had a previous, very unpleasant experience with them before. Unfortunately, working for them the second time proved me right having left that company in the first place. I mean, in personal relationships, we are talking about red flags, and I feel they are valid for working relationships just as much. First of all, the company forgot the start date of the other colleague and me. We were starting on Monday, Dec 2nd, and the week before, about midweek, I had to send an email to the hiring manager, asking about our equipment. Because no one had reached out by then to schedule anything. It arrived the Friday before the start. On our first day, we had a call with a local European manager, who let us know, that the manager who was supposed to be ours in the future, was sick (that’s probably why they forgot about us in the first place). Another manager was supposed to be responsible for me and took this over from the sick colleague, as I was already added to his reporting line in all systems.
However, I know both companies, the Sponsor I would be working for and the CRO which was my Line Management and Employer. Therefore, everyone in the CRO seemed to expect me to know everything already and take care of everything myself. The CRO forgot to enter me in all their working systems and every time I encountered a system that I needed to use, I had to take care of getting access myself. And the question, I got asked all the time: „How about your colleague? Does she have the same problem?“ This brought me to the conclusion, that they didn´t onboard her properly either, though she was new to the client and the company. Instead, they once asked me to support her onboarding. It´s not that I don´t want to help, but how about companies doing their job onboarding two newbies? Is the new standard „newbie onboard newbie“? The experience of these first two working weeks, made me want to leave again immediately. And this was only on top of what I had gone through during the hiring process! Let me tell you about that as well.
When the recruiter first reached out to me, a certain annual compensation where car allowance and bonus would be added upon, was promised, which, in the end, wasn´t met at all in the contract draft. Speaking about that, the recruiter told me, that the initial offer was the total (annual compensation, plus car allowance plus bonus included) and that I „must have gotten this wrong“. Yes, surely. 😉 But it would still come close to that annual total. in the end, I was so desperate, because there was still no new offer on the horizon and I really wanted to work for that former client, that I agreed with the contract. I asked, if I was allowed to keep my last rather small client for a sidekick, but even that was declined without gathering any further information on what I was doing.
During the hiring process, after the contract was signed, a background check was performed by a third party. I remembered it from the last time I was working for respective CRO, but not, how badly this really was conducted. The agreement I had to sign, stated, that I allowed respective third party to reach out to previous employers and clients to confirm my details on working duration and experiences /tasks. The past year, when I was a freelancer, it was quite complicated to prove, as I was never given a resignation letter. So for all my clients AND previous employers, the company asked me to provide the contracts I had. I was allowed to reduce personal data and everything that falls under confidentiality. Surely, I declined this and told them, that I signed for them to reach out to the companies and clients but I would not provide contracts, not even first and last pages, as requested. When providing these, the 3rd party stated they would not be able to locate the start dates and in general didn´t understand the document (it was in German, while the company was US-based). After several weeks of discussion, I got in touch with a data protection guard and asked for advice. I was told to never send any page of the contract to such a company (unless I would be working for the government) to prove my employment. If I would have to do so, I needed to get written confirmation of agreement from the other party. After I forwarded this information to the 3rd party, I was threatened that if I did not adhere to their process, my start date would have to be postponed. So basically, they asked me to disregard German law. Of course, I didn´t and escalated this to the CRO. In the end, they let me start on the agreed date.
After these experiences, two weeks were sufficient for me to decide, that this was not how I wanted to work. Even though I loved the client (Sponsor), and they hated to let me go, as they knew I was experienced with their ways of working and systems and all, after two weeks, I handed in my resignation. that was when for the first time, my manager called me and asked why I wanted to leave again. I was being straight and honest and told him everything I had written down here as well, and he apologized for not having been around more. I told him, that I totally understood, that he had so much on his plate, that it wasn´t possible for him, and really, I do understand that. But that doesn´t make it better at all, since I know it is a systemic error within the CRO. That is what I told him as well. Along with the fact that this shows me, that employees are only numbers for them and how they are seen and valued – not at all.
During the last weeks of 2024, the market became more vivid again in regards to clinical research and a few offers came in, so I decided to take a leap back (or better: forward) and decided to stay a freelancer. Having taken this decision, I felt much lighter and happier immediately and even though freelancing has its downsides, like insecurities, for me, it is, at the moment, the best way to work.
What do I take with me out of this experience to the year 2025? Don´t give up. When you realize something is good for you and helps you shine and thrive, stick with it, even it the road gets bumpy. Plus: Creating some financial reserves in order to stay calm when the air is getting thin is crucial.
So, let´s make 2025 a happy, healthy, funny, loving, peaceful, successful and enjoyable year! I am looking forward to meet and work with new people and companies with strong values, seeing lots of concerts and travelling a bit!
Happy New Year to all of you!
PS: If you find yourself looking for a reliable clinical research professional with a strong work ethic, don´t hesitate to get in touch! 🙂
