Target 65% tech hour cuts for the new year. Not a good time to work for Target.

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Target 65% tech hour cuts for the new year. Not a good time to work for Target. Just don't my friends.
Actually, I have no idea how they figure this out as 65%.
It looks like every store is getting different cuts even when they started out with the same hours.
40hrs -----> 24-28 hrs ; 30hrs -----> 17-18 hrs; 20hrs -----> 5hrs; 10 hrs ------> 0


That is our new year so called "staffing guidelines" at Target. Pharmacies that are doing less than 650 per week will have their tech hour cut. About 10 pharmacies will down to zero tech hour. Some stores are only given 2 tech hours a week. Why on earth would someone want to keep a 2 hour a week job, and no one would want to be trained to become a tech for a 2 hour a WEEK job. SERIOUSLY

Oh, and our only pharmacist supervisors (Business Partners) had no say in this whatsoever. I find this very insulting. They basically think we are worthless, and only do two hours worth of work a week. I am answering stupid store customer questions for the store two hours a DAY. Where is the restroom? Where are the Q-tips? While answering all those meaningless questions, I actually have to do everything in the pharmacy. Yes, we already work alone most of the day.

What can I say, it's a decision made by a business major who has never worked in a pharmacy and obviously doesn't know what it takes to run a pharmacy. This project is totally ignoring how the company believes that that pharmacy customers spend more money in the store than non-pharmacy customers. None of them was smart enough to shorten pharmacy open hours instead. They are just saving pennies this way to look good on paper.

Of course none of them is taking location into account. Someone up top in the company should have thought about this before putting pharmacies in all Target stores. If they decided to do that they should have predicted this. The strange thing is right now one store does less than 650 earns about 1 hour every 16 rx. The other store does more than 700 earns 1 hour every 8 rx. So the low volume store is being punished for bad/poor location and the company was the one who failed at marketing.

I hope all their good pharmacists quit. Or may be they just wanted to close those low volume stores in the first place. I guess I didn't escape the hell of retail/community/chain after all. Any ideas on how to put this business major son of a you know what back to idiotville?

65% cut? How did they justify such a drastic move? What is your current staffing model? This will give us a better understanding of how deep of a cut it is.

This makes me sad. I had always heard great things about working there as a rph

What about unionizing and going on strike!

Originally Posted by AminoAcid777

What about unionizing and going on strike!

All the 2012 grads will swoop in and take your jobs!

Yeah I would like to know the current staffing model as well. If you're doing less than 100 scripts per day with more than five Full Time Equivalent technicians, then I can't say I disagree with a 65% cut. So how many FTEs does the typical Target have? Also is it true you don't have drive thru's or are some Targets adding those in? Without a drive thru I think a pharmacist at a slow store only needs 1-2 technicians on any given day (but of course it depends on how "slow" the store is).

Originally Posted by AminoAcid777

What about unionizing and going on strike!

rofl...what is this, 1970?

Originally Posted by confettiflyer

rofl...what is this, 1970?

Ah, yes...back before the *******s with money brainwashed everyone into thinking an organized workforce is a bad thing.

Its a race to the bottom everywhere.

Also, if they cut your tech hours to 2 hours...and its a 65% cut...what did you get by on like 3 hours before?

Also, do you really need that much help if you are doing 100 a day? My day partners do 120/day by themselves on holidays...and then complain about how slow it was that day...

Originally Posted by WVUPharm2007

Ah, yes...back before the *******s with money brainwashed everyone into thinking an organized workforce is a bad thing.

Its a race to the bottom everywhere.

Also, if they cut your tech hours to 2 hours...and its a 65% cut...what did you get by on like 3 hours before?

Also, do you really need that much help if you are doing 100 a day? My day partners do 120/day by themselves on holidays...and then complain about how slow it was that day...

Target customers are supposedly needy. For example, if you are expected to explain to them where everything in the store is and/or walk out with them to find items, then 2 tech hours per day is rough. Or how about the "orgigami" label and leaflet folds?

650 scripts a week at most other retailers would have the pharmacist working alone. The only surprise is how they didn't make this cut earlier.

Originally Posted by clachan3

Targe



What can I say, it's a decision made by a business major who has never worked in a pharmacy and obviously doesn't know what it takes to run a pharmacy. This project is totally ignoring how the company believes that that pharmacy customers spend more money in the store than non-pharmacy customers. None of them was smart enough to shorten pharmacy open hours instead. They are just saving pennies this way to look good on paper.

I hope all their good pharmacists quit. Or may be they just wanted to close those low volume stores in the first place. I guess I didn't escape the hell of retail/community/chain after all. Any ideas on how to put this business major son of a you know what back to idiotville?

Welcome to the reality most of us have been dealing with for years. Target is now no different than every other chain.

If all the good pharmacists quit where would they go? Its just as bad if not worse at the other chains. You want to know real pharmacy hell? Get a job at CVS.

Honestly, I have been waiting for Target to pull out of the pharmacy business. They did it back 80's. For a business like Target that is barely in the pharmcy business anyway the liability and shrinking profit are not worth it.

Originally Posted by AminoAcid777

What about unionizing and going on strike!

Yeah, go on strike for the two hours a week you are scheduled. That will bring them to thier knees!

Originally Posted by MountainPharmD

Welcome to the reality most of us have been dealing with for years. Target is now no different than every other chain.

If all the good pharmacists quit where would they go? Its just as bad if not worse at the other chains. You want to know real pharmacy hell? Get a job at CVS.

Honestly, I have been waiting for Target to pull out of the pharmacy business. They did it back 80's. For a business like Target that is barely in the pharmcy business anyway the liability and shrinking profit are not worth it.

But this might mean no more ultra cool wedge shaped pill bottles in the future

Retail is pretty much the same anywhere.

The only place I'd leave my job for is Costco/Sam's.

Originally Posted by 007rx

Yeah I would like to know the current staffing model as well. If you're doing less than 100 scripts per day with more than five Full Time Equivalent technicians, then I can't say I disagree with a 65% cut. So how many FTEs does the typical Target have? Also is it true you don't have drive thru's or are some Targets adding those in? Without a drive thru I think a pharmacist at a slow store only needs 1-2 technicians on any given day (but of course it depends on how "slow" the store is).

We are at 1 or 2 part-time techs right now.

Originally Posted by joetrisman

But this might mean no more ultra cool wedge shaped pill bottles in the future

Honestly, I think that is one thing that drives our cost up

Originally Posted by WVUPharm2007

Retail is pretty much the same anywhere.

The only place I'd leave my job for is Costco/Sam's.

I agree. I didn't expect Target to be that much better, but this has gone a little too far considering they are giving stores 2 hours a week.

Originally Posted by MountainPharmD

Yeah, go on strike for the two hours a week you are scheduled. That will bring them to thier knees!

Sounds like fun, but I'm usually too nice to say no to my patients.

Originally Posted by MountainPharmD

Welcome to the reality most of us have been dealing with for years. Target is now no different than every other chain.

If all the good pharmacists quit where would they go? Its just as bad if not worse at the other chains. You want to know real pharmacy hell? Get a job at CVS.

Honestly, I have been waiting for Target to pull out of the pharmacy business. They did it back 80's. For a business like Target that is barely in the pharmcy business anyway the liability and shrinking profit are not worth it.

I did work at CVS, so I know real pharmacy hell then for 3 years actually. I really don't mind if they want to close our doors. Times are tough these days, some of us might have to take jobs that have nothing to do with pharmacy. I think part of this is Target doesn't want to be the company on the news for laying off people. They really should have hired the right people to consider the liability and shrinking profit before open their pharmacy doors

Originally Posted by ethyl

650 scripts a week at most other retailers would have the pharmacist working alone. The only surprise is how they didn't make this cut earlier.

I cannot agree more. Only if they would make their pharmacies more closed off than how they are now. Being interrupted constantly by store customers, filling prescriptions with PDX, folding and labeling like origami, dealing with customers who refuse to show us their new year insurance cards (still want their rx bill through insurance) and oh, waiting on the stupid workbench to load crap....

Originally Posted by WVUPharm2007

Ah, yes...back before the *******s with money brainwashed everyone into thinking an organized workforce is a bad thing.

Its a race to the bottom everywhere.

Also, if they cut your tech hours to 2 hours...and its a 65% cut...what did you get by on like 3 hours before?

Also, do you really need that much help if you are doing 100 a day? My day partners do 120/day by themselves on holidays...and then complain about how slow it was that day...

Pharmacists work hours pass their scheduled shifts, that's how we do it. I don't think you work at Target, WVUPharm2007, but if I was using the CVS computers, I probably wouldn't complain as much.

Was it 120 per 12 hour Holiday shift? just wondering. I guess it would be a different story if we all work alone every single day week day or not, no matter how many scripts or problems we run into.

It would be really nice If all we do is just filling prescriptions, no phone answering, no managing inventory, no placing drug orders or putting orders away, no sudafed selling, no ringing up store customers, no cleaning/staying organized/basically let the pharmacy turn into a pigsty I would have been just fine.

Originally Posted by KARM12

All the 2012 grads will swoop in and take your jobs!

They probably would, as long as they work at a profitable store they would be fine I suppose

Originally Posted by clachan3

Target 65% tech hour cuts for the new year. Not a good time to work for Target. Just don't my friends.
Actually, I have no idea how they figure this out as 65%.
It looks like every store is getting different cuts even when they started out with the same hours.
40hrs -----> 24-28 hrs ; 30hrs -----> 17-18 hrs; 20hrs -----> 5hrs; 10 hrs ------> 0


That is our new year so called "staffing guidelines" at Target. Pharmacies that are doing less than 650 per week will have their tech hour cut. About 10 pharmacies will down to zero tech hour. Some stores are only given 2 tech hours a week. Why on earth would someone want to keep a 2 hour a week job, and no one would want to be trained to become a tech for a 2 hour a WEEK job. SERIOUSLY

Oh, and our only pharmacist supervisors (Business Partners) had no say in this whatsoever. I find this very insulting. They basically think we are worthless, and only do two hours worth of work a week. I am answering stupid store customer questions for the store two hours a DAY. Where is the restroom? Where are the Q-tips? While answering all those meaningless questions, I actually have to do everything in the pharmacy. Yes, we already work alone most of the day.

What can I say, it's a decision made by a business major who has never worked in a pharmacy and obviously doesn't know what it takes to run a pharmacy. This project is totally ignoring how the company believes that that pharmacy customers spend more money in the store than non-pharmacy customers. None of them was smart enough to shorten pharmacy open hours instead. They are just saving pennies this way to look good on paper.

Of course none of them is taking location into account. Someone up top in the company should have thought about this before putting pharmacies in all Target stores. If they decided to do that they should have predicted this. The strange thing is right now one store does less than 650 earns about 1 hour every 16 rx. The other store does more than 700 earns 1 hour every 8 rx. So the low volume store is being punished for bad/poor location and the company was the one who failed at marketing.

I hope all their good pharmacists quit. Or may be they just wanted to close those low volume stores in the first place. I guess I didn't escape the hell of retail/community/chain after all. Any ideas on how to put this business major son of a you know what back to idiotville?

Wow.. I'm guessing this has to do with the amount of transfers that the larger volume stores are receiving. We do about 2,100 per week and have gained quite a few tech hours based on the amount of transfers we have done since January 1, 2012.... quite possibly at expense from the lower volume stores.

And I hear new bottles and pink rings are coming sometime this year...

I work for target in the bay area. Other than the origami comments it seems like nobody here knows what they are talking about. All the stores I work at do well over 650 a week. We have also had a significant increase in our techs hours in response to the increased volume from wags transfers. There's plenty of good pharmacists working for target as well. I interned at CVS and Walmart and met some practicing nightmares there. Not that I would claim either doesn't have any good pharmacists.

Originally Posted by indebtpharmd

I work for target in the bay area. Other than the origami comments it seems like nobody here knows what they are talking about. All the stores I work at do well over 650 a week. We have also had a significant increase in our techs hours in response to the increased volume from wags transfers. There's plenty of good pharmacists working for target as well. I interned at CVS and Walmart and met some practicing nightmares there. Not that I would claim either doesn't have any good pharmacists.

Such insightful comments. I'm glad you can speak for every Target pharmacy in the States. No one knows what they are talking about here. Target pharmacies that fill >650 do not get the same workload that low volume stores do. Try dividing the number rx by the number of tech hours, rx per hour is different for stores >650 versus <650. Or may be you've never looked into that because it doesn't affect your stores negatively.

Target work flow is drastically slower than CVS/Wags...300-400/day in Target is like working at an 800-1000 Rx store at CVS...the bagging, the checking, the computer layout, the tracking of Rx's throughout the process, just takes more time

Originally Posted by Muse600

Target work flow is drastically slower than CVS/Wags...300-400/day in Target is like working at an 800-1000 Rx store at CVS...the bagging, the checking, the computer layout, the tracking of Rx's throughout the process, just takes more time

This I didn't know.

Interesting.

I imagine trying to put the pills in those stupid looking bottles takes more time, too.

Originally Posted by Muse600

Target work flow is drastically slower than CVS/Wags...300-400/day in Target is like working at an 800-1000 Rx store at CVS...the bagging, the checking, the computer layout, the tracking of Rx's throughout the process, just takes more time

haha this is so true, I did my IPPE at another chain that filled more prescriptions than target, but I had wayyyyy more down time at the other store... I guess target lost bunch $$ on that nightmare of window based computer system, and need to cut hours

Originally Posted by Muse600

Target work flow is drastically slower than CVS/Wags...300-400/day in Target is like working at an 800-1000 Rx store at CVS...the bagging, the checking, the computer layout, the tracking of Rx's throughout the process, just takes more time

In a city where there is a Walgreen or Cvs or both on every corner I had no idea targets did over 200 rxs a day.

Why do chains have such different standards?
Some groceries like Krogers and Randalls average 100 a day. And there's at least one tech for every pharmacist

Originally Posted by MountainPharmD

Yeah, go on strike for the two hours a week you are scheduled. That will bring them to thier knees!

__________________
I am no longer a Pharmacist. I am a manager of the metrics. Wait time, ready rate percentage, auto refill percentage, inventory to goal, out of stock percentage, and the performace board are my sole reason for living. My total value and worth as a Pharmacist and human being hang on making those metrics. Pray God you do not miss one because you will be written up and it will reflect poorly on your perfromance evaluation!!!!! Its all about the metrics baby is my credo.

I have not been around lately, but to come back and read your signature made my day. I am now a pic at shevs and feel exactly like that. Soon they are going to add text messaging metric. I run one of the best store in our district metric wise, so the pressure is high to keep it a "flag" store for our area.

Originally Posted by Deja

haha this is so true, I did my IPPE at another chain that filled more prescriptions than target, but I had wayyyyy more down time at the other store... I guess target lost bunch $$ on that nightmare of window based computer system, and need to cut hours

I liked RedRx, though I only got to use it on the last day of my rotation at Target. Maybe that's just because I'm used to Windows based computer systems at the chain where I work.

Originally Posted by AminoAcid777

What about unionizing and going on strike!

Unions in pharmacy is like a windbreaker during a tornado.