is it really worth it to stay with Walgreens?

[timbo301]

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[fub5623]

trust me you're better off with walgreens, first of all their computer system is more convenient, they're linked us-wide unlike. and think about this when you finish pharm school you've been there for 8 years whih means you get 3 weeks vacation or such benefits, that if you were to quit and get rehired as a pharmacist you'd start from scratch. no vacs no sick days no nothing by the way all pharmacies are open from 8-10pm or 24 hours so your schedule will always rotate no matter where you go. unless you work for mail-order

 

[letjin]

I think WAG has pretty good benefits, but I wouldn't accept the scholarship...unless you really needed it.

 

[fub5623]

why not its free money, you're going to work and get paid either way, is not like you're in a sweat shop verifying rx's for free

 

[letjin]

Just because it ties you to an obligation. It limits you. What if he decides to not do retail? He will have to pay it back to them w/ interest. If you decide to work w/ them after you graduate you can get that money as sign on bonus later. (Right now scholarships or bonuses max out at $10,000).

 

[ultracet]

don't forget folks...

benefits are negotiable.....

i plan on asking for 3 wks vacation when i get out no matter where it is.

 

[fub5623]

don't forget folks...

benefits are negotiable.....

i plan on asking for 3 wks vacation when i get out no matter where it is.

they are?
seriously hahaha, even retail? wow thats a first

 

[timbo301]

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[funnyshoes84]

Walgreens sounds a lot more organized than where I work, Long's Drugs in CA (so many problems makes me want to quit right now but I'm poor ) I would take maybe just one set of the scholarships though b/c agreeing to work for 6 years in retail is a huge committment when there's endless possibilities out there.

 

[roybears]

I think WAG has pretty good benefits, but I wouldn't accept the scholarship...unless you really needed it.

Can't you just repay the scholarship and be free of any obligation?

 

[bananaface]

I would advise any student not to trade "scholarship" money for an agreement to work with a company after graduation. You are going to potentially screw yourself over in terms of wages, a sign on bonus, location selection, and with chains you'll often be forced to float. It's absolutely not worth whatever piss amount of money they want to give you now.

If you don't like WAGS, find someplace else. Enjoying your job is one of those intangibles that you shouldn't have to compromise on.

 

[teachtopharm?]

Not to mention they are paying me really well as a pharm tech right now with raises each year as I am in pharm school.
help!

If you don't mind my asking, what does Walgreen's pay for pharm techs in Houston?

I am moving there soon and looking for a pharm tech job. During high school, I worked as an assistant in a pharmacy, but that's it. I am studying for the PCTE in July and plan on passing it before finding a pharm tech job.

It would be great to know a ballpark estimate of what starting pay is for pharm techs in Houston (Walgreens and/or otherwise). Thanks!

 

[letjin]

Can't you just repay the scholarship and be free of any obligation?

Ya, but if you plan to pay it back, why not take more student loans? The interest rates for these scholarship is high...close to 9-10% if my memory is correct.

 

[Violetwings929]

i personally work for WAG, yeah some days suck but yesterday, we just arrested this lady for fake rx! anyways, I heard if you take the scholarship money and ended up not working for them, you just have to repay them back. hey, it's free money with no interest. i would sign up for them. plus, once you become a pharmacists, you really won't have to do the dirty work cause it's us techs who do it anyways! that's just my two cents on it....

 

[timbo301]

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[rxforlife2004]

Wow, there sure is a lot of talk about Walgreens on this forum. My issue is that I am sick and tired of working for Walgreens. I've been a tech there for almost 4 years already and am dreading work. Maybe it is just me and that I can't hang with everything Walgreens is expecting me to do.

I just got accepted to UH pharm school and they are already throwing scholarships at me so I'll stick w/ them. one is that they give me 3000 dollars in exchange that I work for them for 2 years after pharmacy school. the other is a progressive scholarship where I'll get 1500 dollars, then 2000, then 2500, then 3000 respectively for each year I'll be in pharmacy school in exchange that I work for them for 4 years after pharmacy school. So that could be 6 additional years I'm signed w/ them. Not to mention they are paying me really well as a pharm tech right now with raises each year as I am in pharm school.

But is it really worth it? Are there other retail stores that have better perks? Better Insurance? Better hours? better anything? getting paid a few thousand more in the future if i sign w/ them is not worth going crazy every night and being stressed all the time.

For anyone who works at Walgreens, I can't stand the whole KPI crap and having everything you do analyzed. How phone calls must be picked up w/i 3 rings. how scripts should be filled w/i 15 minutes. eh theres more but you get the jist of it.

help!

You're a lucky bastard, you know that?

 

[Mongoos150]

What is KPI? Calls must be picked up in a certain amount of rings? Yeesh, sounds like they're treating their doctors (PharmD) like two year olds!

 

[Julianne]

I just got accepted to UH pharm school and they are already throwing scholarships at me so I'll stick w/ them. one is that they give me 3000 dollars in exchange that I work for them for 2 years after pharmacy school. the other is a progressive scholarship where I'll get 1500 dollars, then 2000, then 2500, then 3000 respectively for each year I'll be in pharmacy school in exchange that I work for them for 4 years after pharmacy school. So that could be 6 additional years I'm signed w/ them. Not to mention they are paying me really well as a pharm tech right now with raises each year as I am in pharm school.

I'm in a similar situation - been with Walgreens for 6 years, getting ready to start school in the fall, and trying to decide if I want to take the PEAP and PPEAP. I have several concerns about these programs (most of them have already been addressed in this thread) but my biggest fear is this (from TERMS OF WALGREENS PROGRESSIVE PHARMACY EDUCATIONAL ASSISISTANCE PROGRAM fineprint):

"To avoid any repayment obligation, recipient must graduate from the approved pharmacy school, accept employment in the location designated by Walgreen Co., and remain employed as a full-time fully licensed pharmacist for a cumulative period of time equal to the sum of the number of years recipient participated in the Program(s) "

"Walgreen Co. reserves the right to employ recipient in any geographical location. All employment determinations by Walgreen Co. shall be based solely on Walgreen Co.'s nationwide employment availability, and Walgreen Co. shall be under no obligation to place recipient in accordance with recipient's geographical location preference."

I don't have a problem with fulfilling my obligation to them as far as working for said number of years or paying the money back within a certain amount of time if I break the "contract", but the location issue sounds a bit over-the-top to me. I have asked nearly every pharmacist in my district if they've ever heard of this "rule" being enforced and no one has - I just don't want to be the first! Maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't have so many ties (like a house, children, etc.) to worry about...

For anyone who works at Walgreens, I can't stand the whole KPI crap and having everything you do analyzed. How phone calls must be picked up w/i 3 rings. how scripts should be filled w/i 15 minutes. eh theres more but you get the jist of it.

Gotta love "big brother" watching ya all the time - NOT!!

 

[Darvocet]

What is KPI? Calls must be picked up in a certain amount of rings? Yeesh, sounds like they're treating their doctors (PharmD) like two year olds!

yeah its terrible. everyweek there is a new "report card" that you can look over to see how you are doing. they actually give you letter grades!
everyone has their own sign on name to our network so they know which station or cash register you are working.

here is a few of my favorite KPI's

-answering phone calls within 3 rings (like that's possible when its just you and the pharmacist and you're both already on the phone or taking care of a customer at the window)

-filling prescriptions for waiters in less than ten minutes (if you're currently backed up can't mark any scripts as waiters or the little radar thing in the corner of the screen will start flashing red. instead put the scripts for an hour or so and tell the filling tech who the waiters are)

-not using the price verify button (when working the cash register and a confused customer asks the price of an item you can hit the price verify button and scan the item. the machine will then tell you the sale price. this action counts against your KPI's. why? i have no idea. )

-getting the patient's email address when registering a new patient ( i gave up asking for email a long time ago. the only answers i ever got were a blank look or "i'm not giving that to you, i already get enough spam")



oh, and i know this is off topic but it crossed my mind as i was typing this. how do you get into negative refills? i was looking at a patient profile and it said he had -3 refills on one of his meds. anyone ever encounter that phenomena?

 

[Julianne]

-not using the price verify button (when working the cash register and a confused customer asks the price of an item you can hit the price verify button and scan the item. the machine will then tell you the sale price. this action counts against your KPI's. why? i have no idea. )

I know that from a management/loss-prevention standpoint they don't want you using it regularly because it sends up a reg flag for possible theft (i.e. get enough of them and they think you're trying to figure out prices so you can tell someone a total without actually ringing it up and pocketing the money... kind of the same principal as a buch of line or item voids). A way that you can circumvent this is to use a Telxon to check the price... of course if your store is anything like mine, the stupid machine is either the broken one from up-front or someone on the floor has confiscated it

oh, and i know this is off topic but it crossed my mind as i was typing this. how do you get into negative refills? i was looking at a patient profile and it said he had -3 refills on one of his meds. anyone ever encounter that phenomena?

Hmmm... the only thing I can figure on that is maybe someone added too many refills and tried to fix it by taking some off (and maybe took off too many) - that, or your server is about to crash Ours always acts wonky right before meltdown...

 

[kynsik]

"To avoid any repayment obligation, recipient must graduate from the approved pharmacy school, accept employment in the location designated by Walgreen Co., and remain employed as a full-time fully licensed pharmacist for a cumulative period of time equal to the sum of the number of years recipient participated in the Program(s) "

"Walgreen Co. reserves the right to employ recipient in any geographical location. All employment determinations by Walgreen Co. shall be based solely on Walgreen Co.'s nationwide employment availability, and Walgreen Co. shall be under no obligation to place recipient in accordance with recipient's geographical location preference."

I have only worked for walgreens for 2 years but I have an awesome pharmacy manager. I'm actually going to take the incentive money for working in a high need area, but as I live in Arizona, I want to come back here. So what my manager did is set me up for a meeting with my DM and we agreed that I will take the money in exchange for a clause added to my contract saying I will come back to her district. This way, I won't get stuck being sent to Chicago or anywhere else I don't want to go.

 

[kynsik]

negative refils happen if you add refills to a patient's rx and then it is deleted. This happened to us with an alprazolam script. The guy had #60 with no refills and paid cash for 16. Then he called me and wanted the rest but it said no refils. When I went in and added the 44, his medicaid didn't go thru so he didn't want it so I pressed cancel. In his history it said 44 then -44. When he called to transfer the rx, my pharmacist was so confused!

 

[Mongoos150]

Kynsik, doesn't that affect your signing bonus/relocation bonuses (if any in your situation) etc...? I had heard taking money for school devestates your cash bonuses compared to someone w/o a Walgreens relationship at time of hire. Also, where in AZ? I'm at UA.

 

[Julianne]

I have only worked for walgreens for 2 years but I have an awesome pharmacy manager. I'm actually going to take the incentive money for working in a high need area, but as I live in Arizona, I want to come back here. So what my manager did is set me up for a meeting with my DM and we agreed that I will take the money in exchange for a clause added to my contract saying I will come back to her district. This way, I won't get stuck being sent to Chicago or anywhere else I don't want to go.

Wow - sounds like your RXM is really going to bat for you! I never thought of approaching it from the angle of adding a clause to the agreement.... thanks for sharing. You've given me a little ray of hope ( I have no idea if my current/future DM would go for this, but it never hurts to ask!)

 

[kynsik]

Kynsik, doesn't that affect your signing bonus/relocation bonuses (if any in your situation) etc...? I had heard taking money for school devestates your cash bonuses compared to someone w/o a Walgreens relationship at time of hire. Also, where in AZ? I'm at UA.

I have 2 friends who are pharmacists in Scottsdale AZ. They both graduated from UNebraska and both took the scholarships. They received the same sign on bonuses as the rest of their class. If you think about it, why wouldn't they? You could still choose to go somewhere else based on the sign on, even with having to pay back your scholarship. Walgreens would rather have you as a loyal pharmacist and give you the same sign on then have you leave them and burn that bridge. Walgreens in my opinion is a great company. In the two years I have worked there, they have trained me, paid for my certification, and promoted me to senior tech. My pharmacy manager even offered to ask my DM to allow me to keep my employment by working a couple days everytime I would come back to Arizona. (the closest walgreens to my school is 2 hours away) I think they attract some of the most caring and intelligent people in the world. I don't think of working for Walgreens for 5 years after school as a jail sentence, but as a great opportunity.

 

[Mongoos150]

Nice. At what point in your collegiate career did you become a tech for WGS? What education level do they require? I'm a freshman, but would like to take up this opportunity when eligible.

 

[kynsik]

Nice. At what point in your collegiate career did you become a tech for WGS? What education level do they require? I'm a freshman, but would like to take up this opportunity when eligible.

I started working for Walgreen's when I decided I wanted to go into pharmacy, which was my third year in school but I completely changed gears so more like my first year of prereqs. You can apply to be a tech at any time, we have some techs who don't even plan on going to pharmacy school. They really love people who want to become pharmacists, since they have a better chance of those techs working for them when they graduate. If you are honest and hard working and intelligent, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a position. You should start looking right away, and you can apply online, but I suggest going into a local Walgreens, preferably 24 hour, and finging out who the pharmacy manager is. Then go in on a weekend, since during the week the PM wont have time to talk, and introducing yourself. My pharmacy manager loves applicants who do this, because she has a name to go with the application. The one problem is that our slow season starts in June and that is when we start cutting hours. So the sooner the better or you might have to wait until fall. Good Luck!

 

[Mongoos150]

Thanks for the info!