Publix pharmacy has gone completely CORPORATE now

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IDontHateYou

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I have been an intern at publix pharmacy for almost two years now and I was really excited at first. Now, what I see happening in Publix lets me know that I won't be working there for long besides a part time job while I find something else.

1) Publix doesn't care about the pharmacist. They are cutting hours and have pharmacist working in busy stores, with no technician help for half of the day.

2) Publix was suppose to be one of the more "relaxed" retail places to work but in reality, its getting to become just as bad as CVS and Walgreens. District Managers just walk in and start slamming you about FLU shots as if you are a salesman or something. I guess they want my pharmacist to just start stabbing people with needles and billing them, whether they want it or not.

3) When you ask them about your hours, they nicely tell you to shut up and just do your job.

I am not even a pharmacist yet and I see what my future at Publix will be.

I'm young in the profession and I just don't understand why the board isn't stepping in and implementing some ground rules for the retail environment. I am beginning to think the big corporate chains, the board, & pharmacy association are all in cahoots.

I am not one of the debby downer posters, and I came into the profession very optimistic, but these are just my observations. On top of that, you have people that come up to the counter to ring up groceries and NOT picking up a prescription and if they complain, you get a call from your DM. There is just no respect in this retail setting anymore.

My brother is a clinical pharmacist and he hates retail and now I get it. I just can't.

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I just accepted an offer with Publix after graduation to be a FT pharmacist and have been working for them for 9 years (cashier, tech, intern), let me tell you IT IS more on the relaxed side of the pharmacy world still. After going through APPEs at CVS, Walgreens, and etc, I would take a busy Publix any day of the week compared to those big chains. Yes, there is some change but not as bad as many others.
 
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lol "it's getting to be as bad as Walgreens and CVS"

Disclaimer: Has no idea what Walgreens and CVS are like.

Child, you're describing what Walgreens and CVS were like 7 years ago.
 
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I want to work at a Publix pharmacy just so I can have easy access to the hot wings.
 
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.... and I just don't understand why the board isn't stepping in and implementing some ground rules for the retail environment.

actually, the board did step in to implement ground rules. there's a max number of techs they can hire and be supervised by number of pharmacists.. although the irony is corporates do NOt care about the max.... corps want to "minimize" the number of techs down to ZeRO, while the clueless board members are still trying to look utterly dumbfounded.
 
actually, the board did step in to implement ground rules. there's a max number of techs they can hire and be supervised by number of pharmacists.. although the irony is corporates do NOt care about the max.... corps want to "minimize" the number of techs down to ZeRO, while the clueless board members are still trying to look utterly dumbfounded.

Let me ask you something. How many pharmacies do you know that would have more tech hours but they're at saturation? Corporate does not want to "minimize" the tech - they want to have one pharmacist supervising sixteen techs in a store that does 800 prescriptions day. Removing the max tech limit is not something that helps pharmacists, it's only something that corporate lies to the working class about so they can get a grassroots effort to support their end game
 
Let me ask you something. How many pharmacies do you know that would have more tech hours but they're at saturation? Corporate does not want to "minimize" the tech - they want to have one pharmacist supervising sixteen techs in a store that does 800 prescriptions day. Removing the max tech limit is not something that helps pharmacists, it's only something that corporate lies to the working class about so they can get a grassroots effort to support their end game

You're under the assumption that these grocery stores do 800 prescriptions a day. They don't. They usually average 100-200 a day, meaning they've usually already cut down the number of pharmacists to one at any given time. So their next step is to tech or minimize tech hours.

Though in larger stores with high script counts, I would agree that the primary goal is to limit pharmacist hours.
 
You're under the assumption that these grocery stores do 800 prescriptions a day. They don't. They usually average 100-200 a day, meaning they've usually already cut down the number of pharmacists to one at any given time. So their next step is to tech or minimize tech hours.

Though in larger stores with high script counts, I would agree that the primary goal is to limit pharmacist hours.
Right, but that has nothing to do with ignoring the"max tech limit." - corporate loves techs. They would much rather have four techs that they can pay 7 dollars an hour than a pesky pharmacist May not have been sosoo's intent, but it's a huge pet peeve of mine. About six month ago, I think it was the state of Texas that had a hearing to try to increase or eradicate the maximum technician rate, and CVSgreens had all of their pharmacists calling into the state board talking about how much they needed more tech help and that they're so busy, when this in fact had nothing to do with the maximum tech hour ratio and instead was their cheap ass company not properly staffing the pharmacy
 
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Right, but that has nothing to do with ignoring the"max tech limit." - corporate loves techs. They would much rather have four techs that they can pay 7 dollars an hour than a pesky pharmacist May not have been sosoo's intent, but it's a huge pet peeve of mine. About six month ago, I think it was the state of Texas that had a hearing to try to increase or eradicate the maximum technician rate, and CVSgreens had all of their pharmacists calling into the state board talking about how much they needed more tech help and that they're so busy, when this in fact had nothing to do with the maximum tech hour ratio and instead was their cheap ass company not properly staffing the pharmacy

Yes yes yes YES! This is a great post. I still have the state board documents with all of the people who wrote in favor and in opposition to the proposed change to eliminate technician ratios. CVS and Walgreens pharmacist signed letters in the 100s saying that they wanted more tech help. What they failed to realize is that they were slashing their own throat. With an unlimited technician ratio, why would your scheduler send an extra pharmacist to your store? This was nothing more than a scheme to eliminate pharmacist hours.
 
Bottom line is Corporate doesn't care about you or even really the patients but the dollars. Profit is good but greed will kill you. Or as my father would say 'Pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered'. We need a maximum amount of scripts that can be verified safely. The problem is the BOPs don't really care either or they would have solved this problem a long time ago
 
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Bro, until you have worked for walgreens or cvs (and not just during APPEs...cuz you don't do sht on these rotations anyways besides filling), you don't know what understaffed is....
 
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Bro, until you have worked for walgreens or cvs (and not just during APPEs...cuz you don't do sht on these rotations anyways besides filling), you don't know what understaffed is....
preach. Today I was doing PCQ calls, pulling for my tech, answering doctor calls / voicemails, working drop off / OT and giving immunizations. All at once. My tech would count and work both drive thru and pick up. My pharmacist handled QV and helped count when things got close to red. Publix doesn't touch CVS and even Walgreens for that matter.
 
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CVS and Walgreens are "worse". Most of my friends wrk at cvs , and I get full detailed explanations on what it's like. My assistant manager came from CVS a few months ago and has also told me what it's like. I'm quite aware that it's bad.

But, were not discussing CVS, were discussing Publix. My whole point is, they're becoming like cvs and Walgreens and within the next 5 years, working for publix will be practically the same as working for CVS.

We recently had a few pharmacist from my district quit publix and go back to cvs because the stress was becoming the same and and about 10,000 a year less.

Also, I met a post 1 year graduate who worked with cvs for 5 years and now that she switched to publix , she is beginning to have second thoughts about it.

Yes I haven't worked at cvs myself but I am in contact with tons of people from CVS, so I do have at least some idea of perspective
 
Do you have time to use the bathroom at Publix? If yes then it's not as bad as CVS. Is there even a drive thru?
 
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If you have pharmacists flocking to CVS from Publix, Publix field management for that area must be ****. I definitely have multiple thoughts about switching Walmart. The grass is not always greener. Ultimately, I could live with CVS with better field management.


I've done stores where 99% of filling is done by pharmacists and stores where one pharmacist verfies 450-550 Rx/day on the regular. Get back to me when you see stuff like that on a regular basis at Publix.
 
Work one day at the crackhouse and then tell me how it compares
 
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I'm a 4th year Publix intern (been with them since starting pharmacy school) and I'm ashamed that you think Publix is just as bad as CVS/Walgreens.
 
I just accepted an offer with Publix after graduation to be a FT pharmacist and have been working for them for 9 years (cashier, tech, intern), let me tell you IT IS more on the relaxed side of the pharmacy world still. After going through APPEs at CVS, Walgreens, and etc, I would take a busy Publix any day of the week compared to those big chains. Yes, there is some change but not as bad as many others.

Just curious, did your district have a lot of other interns also working for Publix? The reason I ask is because in certain districts in the southeast, I have heard that most interns are either not getting hired after graduating from pharmacy school (due to lack of openings), or they're only being hired to work 1 or 2 PRN days per month.
 
Been working at cvs for 5 years. Our Vice President left and took over publix. So yeah you're right, it will be very similar to cvs pretty soon
 
Yeah, I currently intern at another Grocery chain (I'm a P4) and my PIC left Publix. She basically said that the climate has changed a lot over the years which lead to her leaving the company. I also interned at Walgreens for 2.5 years and while I'm sure Publix is becoming more corporate, It can't as bad as my old employer. For me, where things got completed was the limited amount of tech help we had at Walgreen's. I will never forget once when I filled in at a busy 24 hour store. It was just me and pharmacist for about 6 hours. I manned a two lane drive, rung up patients at the front, typed up new rx's, and answered the phone. The pharmacist tried to help me out when she could but is kind of hard to stop when you busy filling and verifying rx's.
 
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Yeah, I currently intern at another Grocery chain (I'm a P4) and my PIC left Publix. She basically said that the climate has changed a lot over the years which lead to her leaving the company. I also interned at Walgreens for 2.5 years and while I'm sure Publix is becoming more corporate, It can't as bad as my old employer. For me, where things got completed was the limited amount of tech help we had at Walgreen's. I will never forget once when I filled in at a busy 24 hour store. It was just me and pharmacist for about 6 hours. I manned a two lane drive, rung up patients at the front, typed up new rx's, and answered the phone. The pharmacist tried to help me out when she could but is kind of hard to stop when you busy filling and verifying rx's.

I don't understand how people can tolerate those kinds of conditions.
 
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We don't have a Public, but we have Kroger and Harris Teeter which I'm assuming is functioning the same way. You have no idea how much better grocery stores are compared to CVS/Walgreens. Trust me. You have better hours at a grocery store.

My pharmacist friend used to bring flu shots to church to give everyone their flu shots in one day. Worked at CVS. She was able to tackled several dozen people in one go. Talk about efficiency.
 
I don't understand how people can tolerate those kinds of conditions.
I know. After while you just learn to tolerate them. I only worked their once but my head was spinning. One of my best friends interns there regularly and she always talks about how crazy that store is. My home store wasn't as bad but we definitely had our days. I remember days where the phone was ringing like crazy, I had line at the drive through and a line at front as well. It makes the day even worse you have a tech who sits in the back and count and won't help you out. Man that really used to burn me up LOL.
 
I have been an intern at publix pharmacy for almost two years now and I was really excited at first. Now, what I see happening in Publix lets me know that I won't be working there for long besides a part time job while I find something else.

1) Publix doesn't care about the pharmacist. They are cutting hours and have pharmacist working in busy stores, with no technician help for half of the day.

2) Publix was suppose to be one of the more "relaxed" retail places to work but in reality, its getting to become just as bad as CVS and Walgreens. District Managers just walk in and start slamming you about FLU shots as if you are a salesman or something. I guess they want my pharmacist to just start stabbing people with needles and billing them, whether they want it or not.

3) When you ask them about your hours, they nicely tell you to shut up and just do your job.

I am not even a pharmacist yet and I see what my future at Publix will be.

I'm young in the profession and I just don't understand why the board isn't stepping in and implementing some ground rules for the retail environment. I am beginning to think the big corporate chains, the board, & pharmacy association are all in cahoots.

I am not one of the debby downer posters, and I came into the profession very optimistic, but these are just my observations. On top of that, you have people that come up to the counter to ring up groceries and NOT picking up a prescription and if they complain, you get a call from your DM. There is just no respect in this retail setting anymore.

My brother is a clinical pharmacist and he hates retail and now I get it. I just can't.
 
I could write a book about my exp. at Publix, very political, must have a Pharmd, be young and perky. They are actively getting rid of legacy RPH (too old), in my 10 years with them never saw anyone over 50 hired. Flu shots started as just one trained pharm per store, then next year became mandatory or you were told you would lose your store and be a floater. Then came shot quotas that nobody could achieve.
 
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I could write a book about my exp. at Publix, very political, must have a Pharmd, be young and perky. They are actively getting rid of legacy RPH (too old), in my 10 years with them never saw anyone over 50 hired. Flu shots started as just one trained pharm per store, then next year became mandatory or you were told you would lose your store and be a floater. Then came shot quotas that nobody could achieve.
pharmacists were transferred to different stores based on whim of supervisor-told move or lose your job. The store manager let the pharm dept know HE was their boss(PIC could not hire anyone without his personal approval) He would stand outside the pharmacy and ask customers if they had waited too long. Some of them (the oxy crowd) would start going directly to him if pharmacist said "too soon". Had to get DM to get store manager to back off (thought EVERYBODY should be happy).
 
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Sounds like Walmart (making immunization certification mandatory or lose your job actually, i.e., you can take a position at Walmart outside of pharmacy, like anyone would do that) and made-up immunization quotas like 40 expanded a month instead of going off what the company has actually calculated as goals on the P&L (does CVS require even 10 expanded a month on MPC now?) What is next year, 60 expanded a a month?
 
Sounds like Walmart (making immunization certification mandatory or lose your job actually, i.e., you can take a position at Walmart outside of pharmacy, like anyone would do that) and made-up immunization quotas like 40 expanded a month instead of going off what the company has actually calculated as goals on the P&L (does CVS require even 10 expanded a month on MPC now?) What is next year, 60 expanded a a month?

Do you work for Walmart? I do and we are constantly getting harassed about IMZs. They tried to make it mandatory if we didn't do a IMZ (at least one per day) we had to email and explain why and how we will do better.
 
My comment was just to confirm that expectations are ever-increasing across the chain retail landscape. WM and Publix probably still have better staffing levels than the drugstore chains though. For example I still am around 1 tech hr for every 8 Rx sold (or every 9 Rx sold if it is EBT week) across the week whereas CVS you might see 1 for every 15 depending on how bad the location is

There used to be a weekly regional manager conference call for those netting zero shots in a week and for MTM and there are now mandatory conf calls for low QPF and low IMZ performance (again not based on actual IMZ targets as calculated by HO but made-up goals) along with other regular conf calls. Action plans for this and that. These calls may be region or market specific
 
How else would you expect Publix pharmacy to stay in business? Of course they are going to go all "corporate". Why wouldn't they? They want to maximize profits and want to grow as much as possible.
 
For example I still am around 1 tech hr for every 8 Rx sold (or every 9 Rx sold if it is EBT week) across the week whereas CVS you might see 1 for every 15 depending on how bad the location is

Do you work for Publix? Because I'm getting 1 tech hour for about every 21 rx's sold (fill around 1100 rx/week, 52 tech hours as of last week).

I've worked at Walgreens (5+ years) and also Publix (5+ years) and totally agree that they are becoming just as bad. The thing that lured me away from Walgreens was the focus on customer service at Publix, but that appears to be long gone now. It's all about the money.
 
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I could write a book about my exp. at Publix, very political, must have a Pharmd, be young and perky. They are actively getting rid of legacy RPH (too old), in my 10 years with them never saw anyone over 50 hired. Flu shots started as just one trained pharm per store, then next year became mandatory or you were told you would lose your store and be a floater. Then came shot quotas that nobody could achieve.
IMO, if you are working retail then you should be expected to administer immunizations. Similar situation where I work about people who didn't want to give IMZ were told they would lose their store or go to a floater position etc. it's not in the business best interest for you to not administer IMZ. Based on business needs those threats could have been carried out if RPhs refused to get the certificate.
 
Do you work for Publix? Because I'm getting 1 tech hour for about every 21 rx's sold (fill around 1100 rx/week, 52 tech hours as of last week).

I've worked at Walgreens (5+ years) and also Publix (5+ years) and totally agree that they are becoming just as bad. The thing that lured me away from Walgreens was the focus on customer service at Publix, but that appears to be long gone now. It's all about the money.

wow you cant be serious 1100 for 52 tech hours is a joke! My first gig out of school was 600 rx about 80 tech hours. I hear publix pays low wages too!! Maybe CVS aint so bad LOL
 
wow you cant be serious 1100 for 52 tech hours is a joke! My first gig out of school was 600 rx about 80 tech hours. I hear publix pays low wages too!! Maybe CVS aint so bad LOL

I think that can't be true/OP is exaggerating. I'm efficient and have a similar weekly volume and you just can't do that volume with basically 1 other person every day.
 
I think that can't be true/OP is exaggerating. I'm efficient and have a similar weekly volume and you just can't do that volume with basically 1 other person every day.

I wish I was kidding. I'll post the actual script count at the end of the week.

FWIW, I still think Publix is the best choice out of all the retail options in my area. But like I said previously, they are becoming just as bad. Add in the tanking stock price and all of the positive attributes of working for them quickly become blurred.
 
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I have been an intern at publix pharmacy for almost two years now and I was really excited at first. Now, what I see happening in Publix lets me know that I won't be working there for long besides a part time job while I find something else.

1) Publix doesn't care about the pharmacist. They are cutting hours and have pharmacist working in busy stores, with no technician help for half of the day.

2) Publix was suppose to be one of the more "relaxed" retail places to work but in reality, its getting to become just as bad as CVS and Walgreens. District Managers just walk in and start slamming you about FLU shots as if you are a salesman or something. I guess they want my pharmacist to just start stabbing people with needles and billing them, whether they want it or not.

3) When you ask them about your hours, they nicely tell you to shut up and just do your job.

I am not even a pharmacist yet and I see what my future at Publix will be.

I'm young in the profession and I just don't understand why the board isn't stepping in and implementing some ground rules for the retail environment. I am beginning to think the big corporate chains, the board, & pharmacy association are all in cahoots.

I am not one of the debby downer posters, and I came into the profession very optimistic, but these are just my observations. On top of that, you have people that come up to the counter to ring up groceries and NOT picking up a prescription and if they complain, you get a call from your DM. There is just no respect in this retail setting anymore.

My brother is a clinical pharmacist and he hates retail and now I get it. I just can't.

Just goes to show how corporate does not think of things scientifically. It really pisses me off when corporate starts slamming someone who spent at least 6 years studying.
 
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I wish I was kidding. I'll post the actual script count at the end of the week.

FWIW, I still think Publix is the best choice out of all the retail options in my area. But like I said previously, they are becoming just as bad. Add in the tanking stock price and all of the positive attributes of working for them quickly become blurred.

I really want to see this. Not even the great wagrxm2000 would want to do that.
 
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Nothing corporate about those Publix subs though.
 
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I have been an intern at publix pharmacy for almost two years now and I was really excited at first. Now, what I see happening in Publix lets me know that I won't be working there for long besides a part time job while I find something else.

1) Publix doesn't care about the pharmacist. They are cutting hours and have pharmacist working in busy stores, with no technician help for half of the day.

2) Publix was suppose to be one of the more "relaxed" retail places to work but in reality, its getting to become just as bad as CVS and Walgreens. District Managers just walk in and start slamming you about FLU shots as if you are a salesman or something. I guess they want my pharmacist to just start stabbing people with needles and billing them, whether they want it or not.

3) When you ask them about your hours, they nicely tell you to shut up and just do your job.

I am not even a pharmacist yet and I see what my future at Publix will be.

I'm young in the profession and I just don't understand why the board isn't stepping in and implementing some ground rules for the retail environment. I am beginning to think the big corporate chains, the board, & pharmacy association are all in cahoots.

I am not one of the debby downer posters, and I came into the profession very optimistic, but these are just my observations. On top of that, you have people that come up to the counter to ring up groceries and NOT picking up a prescription and if they complain, you get a call from your DM. There is just no respect in this retail setting anymore.

My brother is a clinical pharmacist and he hates retail and now I get it. I just can't.

It's all relative, I've been interning at Publix for 2 and a half years and would be lucky to get a job there when I graduate as opposed to other bigger chain stores. It's hard to go wrong with most grocery store pharmacies, among pharmacists in my area Publix is one of the best companies to work for and they take care of their pharmacists better than most. My first APPE was a Walgreens that did 500-600+ a day and while it was tough, it was also manageable, but I would take my ~200 a day Publix any day. I was also at an independent that did 1000+ a day, and while they had a bunch of help it was very hectic. After both of those it's really hard for me to have any legitimate complaints about Publix, I'll be trying to stay with them when I graduate.
 
Just goes to show how corporate does not think of things scientifically. It really pisses me off when corporate starts slamming someone who spent at least 6 years studying.

Not to defend 'corporate' or anything, but their job is to make as much money as they can. They aren't paying pharmacists $100k/year out of the goodness of their heart, or because they want want us to pay off our debt and live comfortably; they are paying us because they expect us to make that money (and more) back for them. In a meeting with corporate, the pharmacist can be (and probably is) the most educated member in the room, but if you aren't able to lead a team or provide adequate customer service, then it won't matter if you have 3 doctorates, you gonna get slammed :diebanana:
 
I wish I was kidding. I'll post the actual script count at the end of the week.

FWIW, I still think Publix is the best choice out of all the retail options in my area. But like I said previously, they are becoming just as bad. Add in the tanking stock price and all of the positive attributes of working for them quickly become blurred.

How is that a best choice? even at my cvs we run 3000 ish on 200 tech hours with 2 overnight rph additional. 1100 sold on 52 hours leaves no time for manager's work unless you have rph overlap? Do you have clerk hours or intern hours additional to the 52 per week?

Also, how is the free antibiotics program working? Has corporate deemed it a big draw for other sales? It cheapens my profession and I do not think it adds fresh/front store sales, would like to hear from the front lines haha.
 
Try working at Walmart. I can't count how many times I've heard a patient say "my doctor said it would only be 4 dollars". Umm no Trulicity isn't on our 4 dollar list... Same thing with Medicaid patients. All that not working makes them way too busy to fill out their Medicaid paperwork and once they lose coverage they transfer everything to Walmart. Again no Latuda and Trintellix is not on our 4 dollar list... ‍♂️


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Sorry guys, I exaggerated. We did 1080 rx's last week with 52 tech hours, not 1100. So that brings us to 20 rx/tech hour.

We do have 3 hours of pharmacist overlap, which is basically used as a tech shift since the pharmacist is alone 25 hours per week.

I just hope we get some of these hours back now that the flu season is approaching.
 
Overnight, averaging about 15-20rx/hour with zero tech help from midnight to end of shift (doing a bunch of non filling tasks as well); however, this is with the help of automation.
Welcome to the chain standard
 
Sorry guys, I exaggerated. We did 1080 rx's last week with 52 tech hours, not 1100. So that brings us to 20 rx/tech hour.

We do have 3 hours of pharmacist overlap, which is basically used as a tech shift since the pharmacist is alone 25 hours per week.

I just hope we get some of these hours back now that the flu season is approaching.

What are your general store hours? I do the same volume per week spread over 55 store hours. Even if not including a clerk being there at all times, I can't see how you can safely do everything at that volume with only 1 other person.

I guess I will count myself lucky at my grocer. We avg 8 Rx/hr and 17Rx/hr for techs and RPh at my store respectively, and our DM acts like we are rock stars of efficiency compared to our other stores labor use.
 
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Who else has been frustrated with Publix Pharmacy lately? I do about 600 prescriptions a day with no overlap. I get in trouble for my techs getting OT. The higher ups want me to do RTS, Sync, Outcomes/Mirixa, etc. everyday and I don't have the time to do anything with how busy we are. Oh and the new pharmacy tech training is complete BS!
 
Do you work for Walmart? I do and we are constantly getting harassed about IMZs. They tried to make it mandatory if we didn't do a IMZ (at least one per day) we had to email and explain why and how we will do better.
I've started to interrupt them when i call for transfers.

I don't have time to listen to their depressing ".... Where we self immolate... I mean immunize daily"
 
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