The End of an Era

This week I started a new job. This post is just a shout-out to my old employer, Watson Laboratories, and the good folks I worked with there.

I started at Watson right out of college in May of 2002. My amigo Will Green (Nob) helped get me a job there since my plans to work for the state (I was a Political Science major, after all) didn't pan out.

I worked in the Quality Assurance department as an auditor and got to learn a wide variety of things there. Over the six years I was there, the site launched a bunch of new drug products and the size of our department grew. There were a lot of stressful times there, including a supervisor and director that were fired for inappropriate behavior, the addition of a night shift and weekend shift, the addition of an off-site warehouse, the construction of a new building, and an extremely high turnover rate (something like 23 people left our department in the six years I was there).

Still, I gained a lot of good experience at Watson. When I interviewed for my new job, everyone was very impressed with the number of quality functions that I had experience in. I also worked with a lot of wonderful people over the years.


This is Bipin. He is from India. We worked together and shared an office for the last several years as QA auditors. Before that he worked in the manufacturing area and so he had a lot of important insight into our manufacturing audits. He was a pleasure to work with; one of the hardest-working people I've ever met. He was also a political junkie, a Jain, a vegetarian, a pacifist, and a newly sworn in American citizen. I learned a lot from him.


This is Andrew. We got to be fast friends due to our eeriely similar love of all things trivial or current. When the two of us got together our eyes would kind of glaze over and we'd enter a geek dimension and argue (or discuss) topics ranging from alternate Star Wars plots to game show ideas to zany inventions to Mormonism to World War II to who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman (it's Batman, by the way.) We were like walking, talking versions of Wikipedia: filled with information not necessarily deemed accurate, but full of cross-references and able to consume an entire afternoon dispensing information. I miss that guy.


This is Sarah. She's a QA inspector and good friend. She is the Yin to Andrew's Yang. I hope that didn't sound too dirty. Able to hold her own in conversations with Andrew and I but not loud, obnoxious, or even particularly concerned with making her point known. One of my favorite things at Watson would be walking down the hall toward my office and hearing the two of them quarraling in their office. I would stop in, hear both sides of the argument, and pass judgement on who was correct and who was an idiot. Good times. Sarah was also useful for 1 - 2% of the crossword puzzle answers we needed. They were generally related to colors, fashion, or cooking.


This is Ruzanna. She is from Armenia by way of Provo. She was the newest addition to the QA auditor group. She is a real sweetheart. She goes way out of her her way to do nice things for people. On my last day at Watson, she organized a shindig in my office and invited all of my work friends to come by. She ordered cakes (also from Armenia), decorated the office, and then gave me the cutest little memory book that contained pictures and paraphernilia of my Watson days. She's also one of those employees who doesn't mind doing the tasks that nobody else wants to do. Also, if it's messy (whatever it is): it's only a matter of time before Ruz organizes it. She is a wonderful addition to the department.


This is Habte. He is from Ethiopia. Habte started on the day I came back to work after Emma was born. He came as a temporary worker to help us keep up with our responsibilities in the manufacturing area. He picked up on the job so quickly and he was a great help to the rest of us, especially on Mondays and Fridays and any other day during the week when one of the auditors was not there. Habte is one of the smartest people I've ever met and will be successful in whatever he pursues in life -- work or school. If anybody reading this needs a laboratory genius: Habte's your man. He and his wife are also expecting their first child this summer. Congrats!


This is Kathy (and Ashley). For the majority of my time at Watson, Kathy was my supervisor. She was great. She came to the department when there was a lot of ugliness and helped get the problem employees out of there. She was the best to work for: she knew what her employees did so she could accurately provide feedback on their performance...she could also step in and help when things got busy. She always stood up for her employees when pressure came from above. She was just able to make crappy situations better. When she could finally take no more nonsense at Watson, she left for another job earlier this Spring. After she left, the things that were once minor annoyances just seemed to become too stressful for me. Kathy was the best supervisor in the whole wide world!

I worked with a lot of other very talented, good people over the years at Watson. I don't have time (or pictures) to list them all.

After Kathy left, I started looking casually for new job opportunities and eventually ended up here at Edwards Lifesciences. I do have a lot of fond memories of Watson -- as well as a few ulcers.