Member-only story
CORPORATE GLOSSARY
How Your Employer is Stealing Your Leave
Corporate Glossary: every Friday, learn the secret meaning of common corporate words
There's a scene in the series "Dopesick" where Purdue Pharma's sales leaders have a big problem.
Purdue's medical doctor clients begin to see their patients showing signs of addiction to Purdue's flagship drug OxyContin®. No surprise, this drug was always a strong, addictive narcotic, but this was before the world discovered that.
Purdue's solution? Renaming the symptoms of addiction "pseudo-addiction." Purdue coached their salespeople to tell doctors these seeming signs of addiction were merely an indicator the patient was taking a too-low dosage of OxyContin®. Purdue instructed salespeople to teach their doctor clients about "pseudo-addiction" and tell them to prescribe more.
Cha-Ching!
Renaming things is dangerous, and it happens all the time because it’s also profitable.
This week's term: Sabbatical Leave
Let's go Biblical just for a second.
Most of us are familiar with the book of Genesis notoriously referring to God's "day of rest," but the Sabbath, we're talking about drops…