Better Because of Bayer –and the Great Furniture Heist

Camilla Perrotta-Fowler, Quality Compliance Sr. Specialist, Pharmaceuticals, Bayer U.S.

Short Story:

One night recently, I spent just over an hour on the phone to place an order for some furniture. After some patience on my part and from the customer service rep, and 64 eGift Cards later, I snagged thousands of dollars of furniture for the cost of only tax and shipping, all thanks to Bayer’s Better Because of You (BBoY) program!

One of the amazing ways Bayer shows appreciation for its employees is the BBoY award program. It is a great way to recognize your colleagues for their above and beyond efforts that demonstrate our LIFE values (Leadership, Integrity, Flexibility and Efficiency) while helping fulfill our purpose — Science for a better life. I’ve been the lucky recipient of these awards from time to time and I’ve been saving the points I’ve received for something big from the BBoY catalog!

Back Story:

Ok, so some of you have heard of Extreme Couponing, yes? Where people purchase a large amount of items for a teeny tiny amount of money? Seems like a lot work if you ask me, and my recent “extreme couponing” shopping experience was just that…but so worth it! Most people who coupon clip them from the newspaper, the junk ads that fill up our mailboxes, or even online. My “coupons” came from the Bayer BBoY catalog! Here’s how I got some of them.

I work for Bayer at our Berkeley, CA site, our global biotechnology development and product supply organization, where we manufacture and distribute all of our products globally to treat patients with hemophilia A. One of the recent projects I am proud to have played a role in was the successful deployment of the Inspection Prep Subject Matter Expert Boot camp training.

We are subject to health authority inspections at our site. We had experienced a major reorganization, and an inspection was coming up. To prepare for that, we pulled a few key teams together and decided to pilot an all-day interactive, engaging, and hands-on Inspection Readiness boot camp training session for subject matter experts here who present information to inspectors during Audits and Inspections. The pilot was a huge success, with highlights such as:

• Panel of Star Presenters who shared their knowledge and experience of inspections
• An immersive “experience” where trainees were exposed to the shop floor tour environment, complete with realistic equipment background noise
• Assessment Obstacle Course

Together, we brought the boot camp to ‘LIFE’ in time for our first health authority inspection following the reorganization. Though the boot camp was intended to be a small pilot, we received an overwhelming response from the organization and the training session was held for 36 colleagues! The boot camp was a tremendous success and the feedback from the participants was overwhelmingly positive. For this, I received a BBoY for Innovation. It feels amazing working for a company that appreciates and recognizes my creativity and continues to provide me with creative outlets!

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled blog post…

The BBoY and the great shopping deal (aka furniture heist)! My husband and I wanted to get furniture to put in our loft and bedroom, and a major retailer was having a fantastic sale at the time. I wanted to take advantage of that…but the sale was ending that night. This is where my shopping story takes a curious turn.

The BBoY catalog offers lots of options to redeem points awarded, including gift cards. The larger value gift cards ($500) in the BBoY catalog can take a few weeks to arrive in the mail. The eGift Cards arrive instantly via email, but only come in increments of $25. Choices, choices…and what did I choose to do? I used all of my BBoY points and purchased enough $25 eGift Cards and only paid tax and shipping for five pieces of furniture! What…a…steal! Yep, I’m THAT person. You can imagine how many 16-digit eCard numbers I had to give and then repeat to the customer service rep that night!

This is just one example of how Bayer has permeated my home life. Aside from business jargon in everyday conversations at home, such as “error trap,” “risk assessment,” or “data integrity,” and Bayer products purchased for a discount at our Company Store, I look around my house and see other BBoY items in my home. These all remind me that Bayer said, “Thank you for doing what you do and being awesome!” From my stainless steel pots and pans, my vacuum, my waffle iron, my Bluetooth speakers, and now my loft and bedroom furniture, I look around and know that my home is Better Because of Bayer, and so am I.

#BetterBecauseOfBayer #ExtremeCouponing #ILoveMyJob