So - I was one of those RPh's who thought - hey - I'll give this a try (ACS-Xerox) so
I will provide you with what my experience was --
First off - this "contract to hire" terminology that they use is double-talk for "temporary work" -- knowing this would have alleviated a lot of angry people who were let go. I knew several people who left other jobs, and a few who even traveled from out of state for the job, and were let go less than 2 months after being hired. (not due to anything they did)
Regarding hiring from media riders: Total snow job from Media Riders. They bug you to death until you say yes, and then you can't get anyone to respond to you when you need something (like getting an actual pay stub printed). Ugh. I would likely not want to deal with these folks again.
The verbiage "Xerox hires 90% of our people" is complete malarkey. They might as well say We'll fly you to the moon and back. They have no idea what ACS-Xerox will do and frankly, my impression was that neither did the Xerox folks.
They hired at a frenetic pace, and literally RPH's and techs were packed into hot, stuffy offices/cubes like sardines. About half the people were working at those cheap fold up tables you get from Costco (8 to a table mind you). A lot of chaos and lack of direction, information, management.................
I am a long time RPH who has worked everything from retail, community, corporate, pharmaceutical consulting, internet management for pharmaceutical, hospital.....a wide variety of experiences in pharmacy related areas, dealing with anyone from everyday people to international pharmaceutical corporate executives.
I can honestly say this was the most poorly run project I have ever been a part of.
"Training" was pretty much on the fly -- and management, team guidance, project direction were non existent. One day you are told one thing, the next day you are told something completely different YET you are then "dinged" for your work -- repeatedly -- whether the rules have changed or not.
In the same way that hospitals and retail pharmacies have rules & regs, the three pharmaceutical corporations that I have worked doing regulatory type work for had very clear policies and procedures......but not here ---these folks work from "emails" (which (in my experience) is completely unacceptable, particularly in regulatory type work settings).
Someone sends an email about doing something completely differently from what you were originally told to do, and it trickles down after a day or two to those doing the actual work, but by then you've processed hundreds of cases the way you were trained, and now your work is "wrong" (and you are "dinged" for it) By "dinged" - I mean your name is added to an email list sent around to anyone involved in your ultimate hiring by Xerox, and you will be asked about it at some point either via email or in person.
Were this to happen occasionally would be understandable. That this happened daily, sometimes multiple times was an unacceptable way of handling regulatory work.
In addition to taking live calls, they also expect you to process upwards of 40 "computer cases" a day and repeatedly check your email (because again -- there is always something changing and this is their mode of corporate communication). Total lack of policy and procedures.
The operating systems are somewhat archaic (of course expected wherever federal government work is involved), which adds to the chaos.
Our hands on "training" was shortened from 4 weeks to 2 1/2 before we were thrown into actually processing cases. One day I was unable to get into the Xerox computer system itself, and it took almost 3 hours for someone from IT to walk next door to get me back into the Xerox system (at least the government systems you can call for help, and get back on rather quickly). The next week I was questioned as to why I was "not working" for 3 hours that day............
Because there are two locations (Raleigh NC & Houston TX) and there is no official training and/or trainers, the new employees get a variety of opinions on how to handle certain cases......If you are the one cleaning up someone else's case who was done "wrong" (depending on that day's rules) -- then your name gets tagged with a problem case, and you will be questioned about it at some point. It becomes a Houston pointing finger at Raleigh folks and vice-versa.
They tell you right up front that no one will handle two cases the same way and that you could "both be right"............completely maddening.
An example - If a doctor writes for temazepam for insomnia, we were "trained" that it was an automatic approval, since there were no other benzodiazepines listed for insomnia on the silverscript formulary. The other BZD's were listed under the "anti-anxiety" formulary heading. These cases were surefire "dings" because Houston thought it should be done one way, and Raleigh thought differently.
There were so many cases going "untimely" (not processed within the federal regulatory timelines) that the federal government finally "lifted" (removed) the prior approvals on many drugs (since they didn't have enough staff to process all the untimely cases). Ultimately, that meant less rejects, less prior authorizations, and goodbye to the vast majority of new hires for Media Riders/ACS-Xerox.
Literally, I was let go via email. Others I knew were let go within an hour after arriving to work. Yes, I did hear there were several enraged people over the whole thing -- who made scenes at the actual "office."
Of course, anyone would agree that it is enraging to be a "professional" and to be basically lied to.
There are other pharmacy jobs out there, and in the long run it will be just another experience that I have learned from.
The good thing about the job is that you were not on your feet for your shift, and you did not have to work weekends (without monetary compensation).
The bad things, other than what I've already mentioned, is that it was really stressful to feel you were under the microscope and yet - you had no control over your own work performance. Many days - I went without lunch or bathroom break so I would not be labeled as "a slow worker or not working".............
Sorry for the long post, but this should give you an idea at least of what my experience with them was. I am not a new RPh, nor an "old" RPh -- just a seasoned professional with a variety of work experiences.
I'd say avoid this whole situation, unless you need the job.....................
