I swear I am a happy go lucky person. I love life, love my life and am generally in good spirits (unless you catch me on a hormonal day). I say this because my blogs tend to come across a bit angry. The thing is I don't dwell on any of this stuff. I think about it and push it to the back of my mind. That's why I like to be around people who aren't filled with drama and negativity...because then those thoughts would escape from the back and be there all the time and then I wouldn't be so happy.
We could all spend lots of time thinking about the shitty parts of life...the bad people (criminals), the really bad people (whole countries of criminals) and the truly evil people. But we don't get much time here on earth so if you can't change it, don't dwell on it.
That doesn't stop me from having opinions about stuff and even sharing it on facebook--mostly civil rights stuff, but sometimes gun stuff and animal cruelty crap. But I realize that I am probably not going to change anyone's mind....and yet I want to be sure that I don't keep quiet when I see injustices because I don't want people to ever assume I agree with their back ass opinions. But, again, I don't sit around getting irritated by it...my face is getting enough lines from aging...I am done adding worry lines to the mix!
I wanted to get that off my chest before I start another angry blog. This is the story of how I came to hate Walgreens and why I had to quit. And just like my Prozac story wasn't just about Prozac, this pertains to the many nasty evil corporations, because Walgreens and CVS really aren't that different.
I ended up at Walgreens after many short stints at other retail pharmacies. I was with Drug Emporium for 12 years, same job since graduation. After they went out of business I had a hard time replacing them. It wasn't a small company, there were stores in many states...maybe 80? But it wasn't a large behemoth like Rite Aid and CVS. My bosses always knew my name and my work ethic. I even knew the big wigs. They were good people. They listened to your side when a customer complained. They knew how to criticize constructively and how to praise when deserved. It was a great place to work and I never truly appreciated that because I was too busy hating my career to realize that my JOB was good.
After Drug Emporium I went to Giant, it seemed like a grocery store might be less stressful, the problem was it was full time, which I wasn't used to, and I was low man on the totem, so I was a floater. I lasted 6 months and moved on to a family owned grocery store. I thought smaller might be better and it would be more like DE...wrong! I lasted a little more than a year before the nepotism and backstabbing became unbearable. Back to Giant I went...I lasted 3 years this time. I think at this point PeriMenopause began and the hormone shifts really caused most of my discontent. I didn't realize that then, now I can differentiate between what I really feel and what my hormones make me THINK I feel. So on a work related trip to the Post Office I called Walgreens. They were going to give me a schedule I wanted, so I jumped ship again. Thank God the days of sign on bonuses had ended (just a month or two before I started with them). Their bonuses required a 3 year commitment. I lasted about 2 1/2 years.
Right away I was unhappy because the people I worked with didn't like each other a lot and the manager was a control freak with authority issues. It wasn't the most pleasant work environment, but I was working 3 eight hours days, so I thought I could suck it up. I really liked some of the people, just the tension between them was stressful. Upper management was constantly changing so no one got to know me or what kind of worker I was. I don't think it would have mattered anyway --all they cared about were metrics.
What are metrics, you say? How does that relate to pharmacy?
Well, you weren't expected just to check the prescriptions that the techs at your store were filling, you were supposed to check other stores, too. God forbid you weren't busy every second you were there. When I first started I actually got a lunch break...that didn't last long, the demands were so high that you couldn't take a lunch break. They kept taking away help while asking more of you. They convinced me to become an immunizer. They expected you to call assigned customers to ask about their recent prescriptions. I was in charge of calling parents of children who recently got antibiotics filled. I know I wouldn't want my pharmacist calling 3 days later to ask how my kid was feeling and if I had any questions. I was good at figuring out which people wouldn't answer so I could just click the "No Answer" box...yes, there was actual form to be filled out on the store's intranet...at CVS they actually timed your call to make sure you were trying hard enough (or so I have read on pharmacy message boards). We were supposed to start doing counselling that we(the company) would be paid for by insurance companies...it was all to get customers to use less expensive meds. You were supposed to call the Dr. and get the ok to change the drug and then call the patient to tell them what you were doing. There was a class action lawsuit that got that all changed....now you had to have patient approval BEFORE you called the doc...how many people do you think want to switch off a med that's working for them just to save their insurance company some money? Luckily, being part time, I got around doing that crap.
I was ok with the flu shots at first. They were done at clinic times, assigned when one pharmacist could devote their time to just doing that. But then some genius decided they should be offered every day 9-5. I once worked almost 30 days in a row because I was the only one willing to do shots in our store. Never once did I get a thank you and then they even screwed me out of Jury Duty pay...saying my hours over the previous year didn't average out to enough for me to get pay. Stockholders should love Walgreens because all they care about is $$$. They pretend to care about your health but refuse to stop selling cigarettes and even launched a lawsuit somewhere in CA when a law was passed not allowing pharmacies to sell cigarettes but big box stores still could.
Eventually they realized flu shots were very lucrative and customers liked the convenience of not going to their doctor. So someone got a bug up their ass that EVERY pharmacist in every store was going to be an immunizer, like it or not. They wanted 100% compliance not 99%. They wanted to offer shots round the clock, no appointments...but not schedule an extra pharmacist, you were just going to squeeze people in in between scripts...sounds like a recipe for disaster. And it was. Mistakes were increasing....because all the while the metrics were increasing and staffing was still dropping. It was mentioned on the weekly conference call (which HAD to take place on Monday, the busiest day in a retail pharmacy!) but it was dismissed as not really being a problem. The metrics now included not just how many scripts you needed to fill at other stores but now you needed to do x# of shots a day as well. And start pushing the Pneumonia shots...even though most patients need these ONCE in a lifetime and half the old people can't distinguish between a flu shot and a pneumonia shot, but we had to take their word, if they said they wanted it, give it to them.
Through all of that bullshit, I stayed. Until they took the 100% too far. The following summer they started hounding the pharmacists who hadn't gotten certified. One of the pharmacists had an ethical objection. He watched his friend die slowly from Guillan Barre syndrome, which depending on who you believe is either a very rare side effect from the flu or perhaps happens much more commom but isn't reported as such. I now know of at least 3 people who have known people who got Guillan Barre from a flu shot. And yet it allegedly only occurs in less than 1 in a million people....
So he refused until the last hour when he was told he needed to become certified but did NOT need to administer shots. He finished the training within the deadline but was taken off of the schedule....he was not called to be told he was off the schedule. The original threat was if you don't get certified you will not be allowed to work during flu shot season, unless you are in a store that has an immunizer there with you...most stores are not busy enough to warrant 2 pharmacists round the clock so basically you weren't going to work from September through January.
I don't remember the specifics of how he handled discovering he wasn't on the schedule but basically he was told that if he refused to immunize it didn't matter that he had become certified. The policy on the store intranet had been changed so the wording no longer stated that you had to be certified, you now had to immunize! He is a smart man and had printouts of all emails and the policy before it was changed. He also asked about working at another store that would have an immunizer with him...they offered him an overnight shift an hour's drive away...hardly accommodating. He declined and decided to wait it out. Meanwhile consulting a lawyer. It was discovered that there were 2 new hires, neither an immunizer, working alone in a store much closer than the one he was offered. No explanation could be given as to why they were exceptions.
To cut the story short (ok- not AS long!) one day he calls Human Resources with a benefits question and finds out he was terminated...this in December, he still thought he would be coming back at the end of flu season! The lawsuit is still in progress 3 years later...
The day they did this to him I made a phone call to my future new employer. I dragged my feet because I truly do hate changing jobs and switching to an independent filled with all male pharmacists seemed a bit overwhelming (it wasn't!) but eventually I got out before December.
The biggest reasons I left were because Walgreens made it abundantly clear they do not care about their employees at all....I didn't mention the several pharmacists who are afraid of needles and were forced to get certified..one even PASSED OUT during the skills portion of the testing. Just so they could have commercials that say ALL of our pharmacists are certified immunizers. They don't mention the shitty training you get...which brings me to the second reason. It wasn't enough to make us give flu shots, now we had to offer ALL vaccines. The shingles shot being their next pet project. The flu shot is an IM shot...in the muscle, not that hard to do, and yet with some larger patients, I am sure I didn't hit the muscle and their vaccine leaked out...no one told us what to do in THAT situation. The shingles shot is SC --under the skin. The sum total of my experience in training was 2 IM shots and 1 SC shot...and that had been done 2 years previous. The shingles shot can give some sort of rashy reaction in some people and isn't quite as simple as the flu shot. I did not feel comfortable doing this but of course that didn't matter. I NEVER gave a shingles shot, I avoided it until I quit, finally confessing to the pharmacy manager that I would NOT give the shot and that my days were numbered.
The final reason I left was I had a really strong feeling they were going to be changing the pharmacy hours and that I would either lose a shift or be forced to work one in another store...and as bad as my store was...I had worked in worse! I was right within 6 months they changed the Saturday hours and my shift was gone.
Some may say it's a corporation, it should be concerned with it's bottom line....that may be fine when safety isn't compromised but I promise you...when checking other stores scripts virtually, I caught some BAD mistakes, some on refills...and I witnessed some bad mistakes....some requiring hospitalization (and ironically that one never got reported properly because it was the bitchy Miss Perfection who would write your ass up if you misspelled a word on a label but she didn't report her own potentially fatal mistake...and remember the reports are to PROTECT the pharmacist not penalize them....un hunh....sure!) I had 2 evaluations while there, both mediocre compared to evaluations I received elsewhere and in the comments section on areas I could improve I put that if I was provided with proper adequate help I am sure the number of STARS (that would be mistake reports) would go down. I was covering my ass for the possible "real" mistake that might happen with the pressure from trying to reach the metrics with less and less help.
This is just how they treat their pharmacists....the professionals....the ones they used to have to bribe with $10,000 sign on bonuses before the economy went down the tubes. I guess they don't realize the economy won't always suck..and one day when they start opening stores on every corner again, they will have a staffing problem and no one will want to work for them. They treat their front end people just as bad...just in my district I would see managers and assistant managers driving 30-40 miles to their store while driving past several other stores on the way. And the people in those towns would be driving 30-40 miles to my store. Why can't they just let them work in the store closest to them? They just want to play mind games with them...let them know who holds the cards. They are asses....could it be it was just the district I was in? I suppose...but the store intranet had a site where employees could respond to the big wigs blog...and even though you KNOW they KNEW which computer was being used to make the comments, these people would say the same things about their districts. There were lots of dissatisfied employees at Walgreens. And that's why you get such shitty service.
I recently read that Trader Joe's treats their employees really well and that the company is doing really well, because they have happy employees. The article blamed Circuit City's demise on unhappy employees with shitty working conditions. I am sure Walgreens is too big to fail but Oh how I secretly wish for their failure so they can see that you can not treat people that way and make it.
I do my best to not shop there, I have bought bottled water when on vacation because God their stores are everywhere! But they will never see me there, mainly because their prices are ridiculous...even with my discount their prices were double and triple that of Walmart. And their $4 plan...you have to pay $20 a year to get those prices and people are stupid enough to keep coming there. I guess some people hate Walmart--because let's face it they fall into the evil category also..but they are the only major pharmacy where a pharmacist is not being FORCED to immunize....
and how do you feel about that? Getting stuck by someone who was bullied into doing it...with only an 8 hour course...maybe had a fear of needles...do you think that's a good idea?
A lot of pharmacist went into pharmacy instead of nursing or medical school because they didn't want direct patient contact...so much for that...I can't tell you how many people didn't bother to shower before coming for their shot...I think the gloves I wore may have been to protect me!
On a final note...don't be an ass to the person with a syringe...I would talk softly and with a relaxing tone and tell them the secret on how to make the needle go in unnoticed to MOST people....but not the dickheads...they just got stuck, no pep talk! (The secret is to keep your shoulder relaxed, I could tell if the shoulder is hiked up next to the ear...it hurt...the nice ones I would actually push down on the shoulder to help them realize they weren't relaxing or distract them with a question and then BOOM! but the dick heads ---oh how I enjoyed watching them wince! Maybe I have a little evil in me too!)
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