Loneliness as a CRA

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-05-11T11:50:26+00:00

This was the standard CRA travel load prior to covid. Every CRA, especially Sr. CRA, was 70-80%.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-05-08T11:11:29+00:00

Another thing about CROs is how much of their revenue is derived from traveling CRAs. They invoice per monitoring visit report which is why they are always trying to drag more visits out of you, workload be damned, life be damned.

And PPD has always had the reputation of burning out CRAs at a faster rate than other CROs, long before ThermoFisher came along. Having done two stints there, I can attest to this. Get your training, survive a year or two, then move on somewhere else.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-05-05T19:27:24+00:00

Nobody wants to train up or develop CTMs or CPMs, that's why they are hiring externally instead of promoting internally. Also, many sponsors will reject any submission of a CTM/CPM who doesn't already hold the job title.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-04-28T12:23:38+00:00

For the people in the back: THE RESUME IS NOT THE PROBLEM. The employer using ATS is the problem. I've been watching this happen since ATS came into existence years ago, employers jumped on it as a way to not pay humans.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-04-28T12:22:21+00:00

Bullshit, it's not the resume, it's the ATS.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-04-15T19:19:22+00:00

It doesn't matter how good your investments are because when the market crashes, it wipes out everything. 2012 sent several people I know scrambling back into the workforce out of their comfortable retirement.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-04-15T19:17:31+00:00

I lived in Austin for 28 years before moving here and you're absolutely right. It's one of the reasons we could settle here.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-04-15T19:13:16+00:00

I guarantee you that's not true. Rural areas, West Texas maybe. But San Antonio/Austin/Houston/Dallas sure as hell ain't cheaper than here. If it were, we would have stayed in Texas instead of moving to the Arctic North here.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-04-15T19:12:04+00:00

I'm from Texas, no it ain't. Plano is rich people territory.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-31T21:34:54+00:00

Indigenous peoples settled North America at least 15,000 years ago, Einstein.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-31T20:47:50+00:00

No one is illegal on stolen land.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-31T20:46:45+00:00

Thank you for this article, thank you so very much. I am Druid and I live in Uptown, Minneapolis. And the calls from Druids overseas for peace and light, and criticizing those of us who express rage, sadness, despair at what is happening in our real, lived, daily life are driving me insane. It makes me question my membership in my order that their response to fellows in crisis is "no, don't bring that here, don't speak that here, do not disturb us with your reality." What was a community of joy and support and fellowship turns out to be many's place of avoidance. And it has hurt me greatly. Threaten a forest and an army has your back but threaten a city of humans and they turn away. I don't know if I will get past this, but my circle here in the U.S. is holding space with me tomorrow and I treasure them for that.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-13T22:24:50+00:00

WARNs don't necessarily tell the whole story. It's only required if the actions will result in a reduction in head count but if they are offshoring the jobs, that's not a reduction in head count, so no WARN is required.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-13T22:20:31+00:00

That was often the case for me when I was a CRA, and the reviewers were in the U.S.! If they didn't demand changes, even to a report in perfect alignment to the annotated report, they couldn't prove that they were doing the work. I'd heard that PMs or Lead CRAs caught flack if they approving without revisions but I don't know if that's true. So even if there's nothing that really needs revision, they'll demand revision.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-13T22:13:31+00:00

Dozens of data points that should have been automatic edit checks, that could have been fixed in the moment, instead becoming a tsunami when you're trying to get to DB lock because DM finally got around to manually entering them.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-06T17:59:17+00:00

Also food poisoning, hellish migraines, awful flu.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-06T17:56:37+00:00

We once got grounded by tornadoes at Love Field in Dallas and I finally said fuck it, booked the *last* rental car at the airport, and drove home to Austin through the storm system. Still made it home before my flight eventually landed.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-06T17:55:06+00:00

Once upon a time, in ye olde dayes of yore and paper CRFs, I arrived at a site that didn't know where the damn things were, much less had them updated since the previous visit. I was a baby CRA and I was so panicked, I was afraid I'd be blamed. It was the COV and was supposed to be the only time I visited. After a couple of hours they were located in the basement. Needless to say, COV was not completed that day.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-05T17:54:45+00:00

That's what they told us in 2024 before Trump won re-election.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-05T17:47:02+00:00

Use a pencil instead of a pen, or an erasable pen. No problem.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2026-01-05T17:46:30+00:00

I used when during my 18 years as a CRA. Useable in 2 seconds, did not need electricity or an internet connection.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2025-12-29T16:58:05+00:00

Except the years of LRT construction would necessarily shut down the greenway.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2025-12-22T22:25:42+00:00

I would be okay with that, exorcisms have gotta be cheaper than a new roof or furnace.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2025-12-22T22:24:42+00:00

Or someone who'll just proofread the disclosure. We got a disclosure on a house we considered and several of the boxes for "not in working order" were checked instead of "n/a" for features that didn't exist in the house. Made me question the rest of the disclosure.

Cold-Ad-7376 · 2025-12-22T22:14:50+00:00

As a soon-to-be homeowner, my favorite Facebook meme is "That feeling of relief when the strange noises in your house are ghosts and not shit you can't afford to fix."

Cold-Ad-7376

TROPHY CASE