wags corporate strikes again: overlap rph shifts canned!!!

Started by lorain
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lorain

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so in our district, the busy stores have a 3rd pharmacist, like 10-6 or 11-7pm, the stores lost them per corporate today....some stores had that overlap 5 days a week, and lost all of that coverage, our store had it 2 days a week, gone, there were only a few certain stores that got to keep about 1-2 shifts per week (one store i think kept 3)....we do 500 on mondays, one of our overlap day, its just going to be crazy with that overlap gone....i know 2 managers who are about to quit as soon as they get another job

another cutting cost move i suppose, the part time rph who covers our overlap was pretty much let go today and told he will only be called in for coverage on a call off.
 
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lorain said:
so in our district, the busy stores have a 3rd pharmacist, like 10-6 or 11-7pm, the stores lost them per corporate today....some stores had that overlap 5 days a week, and lost all of that coverage, our store had it 2 days a week, gone, there were only a few certain stores that got to keep about 1-2 shifts per week (one store i think kept 3)....we do 500 on mondays, one of our overlap day, its just going to be crazy with that overlap gone....i know 2 managers who are about to quit as soon as they get another job

another cutting cost move i suppose, the part time rph who covers our overlap was pretty much let go today and told he will only be called in for coverage on a call off.
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Another step in the wrong direction for our profession. Further proof that Wags along with CVS are hell bent on the total destruction of the profession.

We have been reduced to standing at a computer screen all day desperately trying to verify our half of 500 prescriptions in 8 hours while trying to answer 5 phone lines that never stop ringing and two drive through lanes that never stop dinging. No time to take a bathroom break let alone a lunch break. Certainly no time to counsel patients or do anything remotely close to what we were trained to do for 6 years. Just standing in the same spot making sure the tech entered the prescription correctly and the pill in the bottle matches the picture of the pill on the screen. We are nothing but an expendable and replaceable cog in a giant corporate machine. I shake my head at the absurdity of it all everyday. To think I have 30 years of this left…wow.
 
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its ridiculous....the one manager called our pharmacy and literally was in tears simply b/c her store needs the third rph, she averages 440 on the weekdays (with 500+ on monda)...its going to be simple....im gonna make the wait time one hour in store and 3 hours in the drive thru
 
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MountainPharmD said:
Another step in the wrong direction for our profession. Further proof that Wags along with CVS are hell bent on the total destruction of the preofession.

We have been reduced to standing at a computer screen all day desperately trying to verify our half of 500 prescriptions in 8 hours while trying to answer 5 phone lines that never stop ringing and two drive through lanes that never stop dinging. No time to take a bathroom break let alone a lunch break. Certainly no time to counsel patients or do anything remotely close to what we were trained to do for 6 years. Just standing in the same spot making sure the tech entered the prescription correctly and the pill in the bottle matches the picture of the pill on the screen. We are nothing but an expendable and replaceable cog in a giant corporate machine. I shake my head at the absurdity of it all everyday. To think I have 30 years of this left…wow.
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QFT. Wow, I think about this everyday, and I just starting working on Aug.
 
lorain said:
its ridiculous....the one manager called our pharmacy and literally was in tears simply b/c her store needs the third rph, she averages 440 on the weekdays (with 500+ on monda)...its going to be simple....im gonna make the wait time one hour in store and 3 hours in the drive thru
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I think if a customer complains about the wait time, you should tell them to call corporate.

I have my supervisor's portrait and phone number in the pharmacy, I would just point to him.
 
Agreed. If they want to save money. Also start scheduling techs accordingly. In NYS, there can only be two techs for every pharmacist on duty. If they take your job... so be it; good riddance!
 
stevephhs016 said:
I think if a customer complains about the wait time, you should tell them to call corporate.

I have my supervisor's portrait and phone number in the pharmacy, I would just point to him.
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im going to have the supervisor name and phone #, print it out, have multiple copies, and just hand it out to each customer who even thinks about complaining
 
lorain said:
im going to have the supervisor name and phone #, print it out, have multiple copies, and just hand it out to each customer who even thinks about complaining
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im so happy i dont have to deal with this corporate crap 🙂
 
lorain said:
me quitting would do nothing to hurt their campaign, im a easily replaceable part, thats what pharmacists are becoming and the whole point
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You are replaceable but you will have your health and your mind will be at ease. That is something you can't buy.
 
lorain said:
me quitting would do nothing to hurt their campaign, im a easily replaceable part, thats what pharmacists are becoming and the whole point
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They're going to **** themselves over sooner or later. Once something really bad happens due to a lack of adequate staffing (like a ****load of people getting the wrong medication and dying because there wasn't enough time to verify every script), and the corporation's only defense in court was "Well, we were trying to save money". I feel really bad for the pharmacists who will inevitably have to be part of the fall once the **** hits the fan.

Like I've said before, all of these cost-cutting, profit-increasing moves are a disaster waiting to happen.
 
BMBiology said:
You are replaceable but you will have your health and your mind will be at ease. That is something you can't buy.
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You can't buy health? WTF? Why do I spend hours listening to a professor tell me about the economics of "buying health"? Next time she says that, I'm going to interject and tell her to shove it. :meanie:
 
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BMBiology said:
You are replaceable but you will have your health and your mind will be at ease. That is something you can't buy.
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I cannot begin to tell you how much healthier I am after leaving the corporate world...I am loving it and urge many of you to follow what ever it is you dream of doing in pharmacy...Retail chains are NOT your only option...Explore...sigh...I am in a euphoric state right now...just thinking of not having to listen to that little mans voice telling me that there is a freaking DRIVE UP CALL and that there are 3 FU--ing pharmacy calls and my TECH telling me that there are 2 consults on the phone and that my SUPERVISOR is on the phone asking about the complaint from earlier...

Again...follow your dream🙄
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
It upsets you? Then stop working for them. If retail pharmacists only grew a spine...
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Awesome solution Mike!👎 What do you suggest all of the dissatisfied retail pharmacists do once they "grow a spine" and quit? Flippant answers like that really are not helpful.

Six years ago at the height of the shortage was the time to do something. Instead, and myself included, we cared only about how much money and how big a sign on bonus. Instead we should have been negotiating staffing ratios and working conditions that would still be in place today. No one likes the thought of a union but I see little else we can do. Joining together as one collective voice is the only way we will force any change on the big corporate chains.
 
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WVUPharm2007 said:
It upsets you? Then stop working for them. If retail pharmacists only grew a spine...
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Most people would rather put up with retail chains than be unemployed. Keep in mind that many areas are quite saturated. Why do I intern for a chain? Because I couldn't find an intern job anywhere else. Why do students go to chains even at tech pay? Because No one is hiring interns now. At this point in time you really have to be at the right place at the right time to get a hospital job, heck, any intern job in my area.

BTW sounds like Wags is now like Rite Aid and CVS. It used to be slightly better.
 
MountainPharmD said:
Awesome solution Mike!👎 What do you suggest all of the dissatisfied retail pharmacists do once they "grow a spine" and quit?
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Work elsewhere. Start a union and renegotiate. Refuse to work. They need us...not the other way around. Whining isn't going to solve anything. Either be spineless or do something radical that will change things. One or the other. You're being outplayed by a bunch of ******ed business degree holders. You aren't given change, you have to create it.

Maybe you should start something right now. We are in the internet age. Try to organize a national strike for a day or two....hell, do something. At least call the local workers' union and see if they could maybe try to help try to unionize your regions' pharmacists. And if you don't try to do something, then that means you're not at your breaking point yet...which means they will keep taking things from all of you...and you lose influence and power day by day. Wait 5 more years and you'll be begging for work.

Honestly, I don't think the pharmacists in this country have the collective balls and will to force the corporate hand. And the sad thing is - they easily could. Just band together and tell them to **** off unless we get our way. We'd get whatever we want within a week. That's part of the reason why I'm seriously considering leaving the country. Pharmacists elsewhere have a pair. They find out we have drive-thru windows and they laugh at me.
 
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WVUPharm2007 said:
Work elsewhere. Start a union and renegotiate. Refuse to work. They need us...not the other way around. Whining isn't going to solve anything. Either be spineless or do something radical that will change things. One or the other. You're being outplayed by a bunch of ******ed business degree holders. You aren't given change, you have to create it.

Maybe you should start something right now. We are in the internet age. Try to organize a national strike for a day or two....hell, do something. At least call the local workers' union and see if they could maybe try to help try to unionize your regions' pharmacists. And if you don't try to do something, then that means you're not at your breaking point yet...which means they will keep taking things from all of you...and you lose influence and power day by day. Wait 5 more years and you'll be begging for work.

Honestly, I don't think the pharmacists in this country have the collective balls and will to force the corporate hand. And the sad thing is - they easily could. Just band together and tell them to **** off unless we get our way. We'd get whatever we want within a week. That's part of the reason why I'm seriously considering leaving the country. Pharmacists elsewhere have a pair. They find out we have drive-thru windows and they laugh at me.
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as long as they offering 55 per and 20K to sign on, they run the tables....money talks, we all know it
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
And that's fine. It's just that makes you all basically prostitutes. And as such, you really have no right to complain about working conditions if the money makes it worthwhile.
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ESPECIALLY when you have a choice of stores.. you could go rural and only have to fill 200 a day, eliminating the entire workflow hassle altogether.
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
Work elsewhere. Start a union and renegotiate. Refuse to work. They need us...not the other way around.
Click to expand...

Didn't someone just post an article on here about retail chains hiring thousands of foreign pharmacists to work here on visas? Between foreign pharmacists and recent graduates who need to pay back loans and support a family, it seems like they'd be able to replace you easily.
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
And that's fine. It's just that makes you all basically prostitutes. And as such, you really have no right to complain about working conditions if the money makes it worthwhile.
Click to expand...

I agree with WVU. If you are fine with the money, then there is no point in complaining especially on a forum mainly for students.

If I am working in retail right now, I am not sure if I would have the balls to organize a strike. But, I don't have to make that decision. I worked in retail as an intern for 2.5 years and I knew it wasn't for me. Even after they mailed me the early sign on bonus when I didn't even sign the contract, I made sure to return it. I wasn't going to make a pack with them.
 
i saw the email today at work

the new number is consistent 550 a week for more coverage, email also said that rph shouldnt bother with transfers as they will be denied at the moment
 
type b pharmD said:
ESPECIALLY when you have a choice of stores.. you could go rural and only have to fill 200 a day, eliminating the entire workflow hassle altogether.
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the choices are dwindling, there is more and more pharmacists being graduated and less spots available
 
lorain said:
i saw the email today at work

the new number is consistent 550 a week for more coverage, email also said that rph shouldnt bother with transfers as they will be denied at the moment
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Have you ever thought about printing that email and blacking out your identification and mailing it to the board? Your state may have a limit on how many rx a pharmacist should fill in one day.
 
BMBiology said:
Have you ever thought about printing that email and blacking out your identification and mailing it to the board? Your state may have a limit on how many rx a pharmacist should fill in one day.
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maybe if i was in it for long term....i was leaving in the summer, but now i dont know, i might just be putting my 2 weeks in next week and move on
 
lorain said:
maybe if i was in it for long term....i was leaving in the summer, but now i dont know, i might just be putting my 2 weeks in next week and move on
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That just shows your willingness to put up a good fight. And, where are you going to go? CVS? They don't treat their pharmacists any better.
 
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IrishHammer said:
They're going to **** themselves over sooner or later. Once something really bad happens due to a lack of adequate staffing (like a ****load of people getting the wrong medication and dying because there wasn't enough time to verify every script), and the corporation's only defense in court was "Well, we were trying to save money". I feel really bad for the pharmacists who will inevitably have to be part of the fall once the **** hits the fan.

Like I've said before, all of these cost-cutting, profit-increasing moves are a disaster waiting to happen.
Click to expand...
It's their obligation to make a profit. How would you feel if the company that you had invested in stopped worrying about profit? The fact that chains are still alive post-2008 says something...


I agree with increasing wait times. What else can you do?
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
Work elsewhere. Start a union and renegotiate. Refuse to work. They need us...not the other way around. Whining isn't going to solve anything. Either be spineless or do something radical that will change things. One or the other. You're being outplayed by a bunch of ******ed business degree holders. You aren't given change, you have to create it.

Maybe you should start something right now. We are in the internet age. Try to organize a national strike for a day or two....hell, do something. At least call the local workers' union and see if they could maybe try to help try to unionize your regions' pharmacists. And if you don't try to do something, then that means you're not at your breaking point yet...which means they will keep taking things from all of you...and you lose influence and power day by day. Wait 5 more years and you'll be begging for work.

Honestly, I don't think the pharmacists in this country have the collective balls and will to force the corporate hand. And the sad thing is - they easily could. Just band together and tell them to **** off unless we get our way. We'd get whatever we want within a week. That's part of the reason why I'm seriously considering leaving the country. Pharmacists elsewhere have a pair. They find out we have drive-thru windows and they laugh at me.
Click to expand...

Touche! Well said. Who wants to start a union with me?
 
If you do plan on increasing your wait times (which is obviously the call to make), be sure to mark them as waiters in the computer system. Every single in store drop off. I believe it's 13 unprocessed waiter scripts make a one hour wait time, and you know as well as I do that you can get 13 scripts between 3 people, 2 on a bad day. Every person who drops off a script claims they *want* to wait, and this way you can point to the computer wait times when corporate gets complaints about your wait times. After all, the computer is *never* wrong.
 
BMBiology said:
Have you ever thought about printing that email and blacking out your identification and mailing it to the board? Your state may have a limit on how many rx a pharmacist should fill in one day.
Click to expand...

Most pharmacist (a few of us probably dont remember) signed a piece of paper of confidentality at the start of our employment. It holds the pharmacist liable for damages if we give out any company information.

Furthermore, I am sure a company email would have a paragraph somewhere that says this e-mail is only to be read by its intended recievers blah blah blah... just in case it gets sent to the wrong person.
 
BMBiology said:
That just shows your willingness to put up a good fight. And, where are you going to go? CVS? They don't treat their pharmacists any better.
Click to expand...

There are some pharmacist(s) on here that would disagree with you...I for one agree with you! I have never in my life worked so hard day in and day out only to be told that the PCI calls arent getting done and your over in payroll...Go F--k yourselves is what I said...:laugh: I had the last laugh...i laughed all the way home on my last day...It felt great.
 
Aznfarmerboi said:
Most pharmacist (a few of us probably dont remember) signed a piece of paper of confidentality at the start of our employment. It holds the pharmacist liable for damages if we give out any company information.

Furthermore, I am sure a company email would have a paragraph somewhere that says this e-mail is only to be read by its intended recievers blah blah blah... just in case it gets sent to the wrong person.
Click to expand...

Yeah, well they also made us sign a piece of paper that stated "you are about to be FUBAR when you work for our company". If you dont know what FUBAR is, google it...
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
Work elsewhere. Start a union and renegotiate. Refuse to work. They need us...not the other way around. Whining isn't going to solve anything. Either be spineless or do something radical that will change things. One or the other. You're being outplayed by a bunch of ******ed business degree holders. You aren't given change, you have to create it.

Maybe you should start something right now. We are in the internet age. Try to organize a national strike for a day or two....hell, do something. At least call the local workers' union and see if they could maybe try to help try to unionize your regions' pharmacists. And if you don't try to do something, then that means you're not at your breaking point yet...which means they will keep taking things from all of you...and you lose influence and power day by day. Wait 5 more years and you'll be begging for work.

Honestly, I don't think the pharmacists in this country have the collective balls and will to force the corporate hand. And the sad thing is - they easily could. Just band together and tell them to **** off unless we get our way. We'd get whatever we want within a week. That's part of the reason why I'm seriously considering leaving the country. Pharmacists elsewhere have a pair. They find out we have drive-thru windows and they laugh at me.
Click to expand...

hmmm...im starting to respect you a little more everyday...:laugh: Well said Mike!
 
Aznfarmerboi said:
Most pharmacist (a few of us probably dont remember) signed a piece of paper of confidentality at the start of our employment. It holds the pharmacist liable for damages if we give out any company information.

Furthermore, I am sure a company email would have a paragraph somewhere that says this e-mail is only to be read by its intended recievers blah blah blah... just in case it gets sent to the wrong person.
Click to expand...

Send it in anonymously. While it might not be usable in a court of law, at least it gives the Board a heads up.
 
Doctor M said:
There are some pharmacist(s) on here that would disagree with you...I for one agree with you! I have never in my life worked so hard day in and day out only to be told that the PCI calls arent getting done and your over in payroll...Go F--k yourselves is what I said...:laugh: I had the last laugh...i laughed all the way home on my last day...It felt great.
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I cant wait. I am counting down the days until my student loans are over and then not care about their corporate bs anymore. 👍
 
This isn't happening in my market. I haven't heard of a change of the current policy of getting a mid-shift if you average more than about 400 per day.
 
genesis09 said:
This isn't happening in my market. I haven't heard of a change of the current policy of getting a mid-shift if you average more than about 400 per day.
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like i said its the district i work at

i talked to 3 other rph today, they are ready to put 2 weeks in
 
Aznfarmerboi said:
Most pharmacist (a few of us probably dont remember) signed a piece of paper of confidentality at the start of our employment. It holds the pharmacist liable for damages if we give out any company information.

Furthermore, I am sure a company email would have a paragraph somewhere that says this e-mail is only to be read by its intended recievers blah blah blah... just in case it gets sent to the wrong person.
Click to expand...

This is just nonsense. If a company does something improper, you have the right and sometimes, even the duty to complain to the regulatory agency.
 
BMBiology said:
Being ready and actually resigning are two different things. You were "ready" last summer.
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im qutting this summer to go to residency....now im just wondering whether to quit outright now or just grind it out till end of may
 
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At my residency interview, when asked "Why do you want to be a clinical pharmacist?" I replied honestly (from the bottom of my heart), "Because I am incompetent to work in a retail setting, and HAVE TO HAVE TO to stay in a hospital setting the rest of my life."

The interviewers all knowingly nodded and agreed themselves. 🙂

I admire everyone working (including techs) at Walgreen. I won't last a day myself. Probably get fired halfway into my shift. That said, I would volunteer to go on strike if someone will organized one (hopefully someday).
 
WVUPharm2007 said:
It upsets you? Then stop working for them. If retail pharmacists only grew a spine...
Click to expand...


How does anyone expect current retail pharmacists to grow a spine and go on strike when the ones with half a spine are leaving retail! We all know its not going to happen any time soon.
 
BMBiology said:
This is just nonsense. If a company does something improper, you have the right and sometimes, even the duty to complain to the regulatory agency.
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Companies do improper things everyday. CVS + Caremark????? Im not even gonna get into it...
 
BMBiology said:
This is just nonsense. If a company does something improper, you have the right and sometimes, even the duty to complain to the regulatory agency.
Click to expand...

The regulatory agency for pharmacy is the State Board of Pharmacy. They exist to protect the publics interest. They historically have had no interest in working conditions or staffing ratios. That is an issue between the pharmacist and the company and not something they are willing to touch. The bottomline is the State Boead is there to protect the publics interests not the Pharmacists.
 
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