Long story, but basically, I done eff'd up and ended up failing a required course I AA school. I was given the opportunity to return and start over from day 1 in the program but foolishly turned down the offer. Thought that pharmacy would be a good back-up plan. Several months after starting pharmacy school, job market in practically every non-BFE locale in the southeast (my region) became saturated. Now here I am. That's my story.
Walgreens freezes salary
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Long story, but basically, I done eff'd up and ended up failing a required course I AA school. I was given the opportunity to return and start over from day 1 in the program but foolishly turned down the offer. Thought that pharmacy would be a good back-up plan. Several months after starting pharmacy school, job market in practically every non-BFE locale in the southeast (my region) became saturated. Now here I am. That's my story.
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You bring nothing to this forum yet continue to come here.
It's might fault for recommending creating a new account.
Huh? You still think I am GrapePropel?
Ok, whatever, back on topic. So does anyone have any idea when Walgreens' new salary schedule will be released? Figured they'd have it out before 2018.
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Speaking negatively in a wonton and unrealistic manner is not the same as speaking genuinely negatively in a reasonable way. If you can accept that some people hold a different opinion from yours and it might not be all sunshine take some sertraline HCL 50 mg QD
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what is AA bc to me it means Administrative assistant. but i'm guessing it means a PA program? so like now you are living at home chilling?
owlegrad
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I can't really close threads on a whim, but because I think we all need a safe space from time to time, I kicked PA (and Grape) out of your thread. You're welcome.
(But seriously, put him on ignore so he won't bother you anymore. It's really, really simple and easy.)
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It’s really not quite that simple because he (PA) starts to hijack and derail threads, with everyone getting into an argument with him. So effectively, if you ignore him you are still gonna be reading messages directed at him. Really, the issue that everyone has with him is that he turns every thread into a thread about himself, which is not going to be helped by the ignore button. It really makes no sense why he is still not banned from this forum.
owlegrad
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Fair point, but you can also ignore those posts as well. Plus when you start a thread about freezing wages you pretty much have to accept that you're going to bate some trolls, I mean come on really.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using SDN mobile
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Actually, the "Gate of Residency" is being created to get a a discounted year of labor out of a Pharm D. Hospital salaries are never going to rise.....most hospitals are non-profit, and even the ones that aren't have to deal with the ramifications of Emtala. In other words, hospitals don't have money to pay more for pharmacists. Far more likely is that 2 and 3 years of residency will become the norm, so hospitals can get more discounted rates for Pharm D's.
I completely disagree. Knowledge isn't forgotten that quicly.
Retail has always payed more than hospitals, and that was true in the 80's/90's. (for the reasons I quoted above, non-profit, Emtala and also the lifestyle differential) That isn't going to change. As retail salaries decrease, rest assured that hospital salaries will decrease. The only reason hospital salaries have went up in the 90's, was because they were forced to in order to compete with retail.
Oh no, are you telling me that PA has alt accounts to troll us now?
This has been a rough couple of weeks on SDN. We've been inundated with posts from recent grads who can't find work or are getting terrible offers, and have also had posts from prospective students who write at a sixth grade level. Truly the disastrous future of pharmacy is upon us.
This has been a rough couple of weeks on SDN. We've been inundated with posts from recent grads who can't find work or are getting terrible offers, and have also had posts from prospective students who write at a sixth grade level. Truly the disastrous future of pharmacy is upon us.
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Wow, the market is really taking this Amazon thing seriously .
Walgreens stock is down 15 percent over the past month with cvs 10%.
Walgreens stock is down 15 percent over the past month with cvs 10%.
I had asked this is a different post, but will try here as well:
What makes a dedicated competent pharmacist stand out?... seems the quality of the profession has plummeted, and I see little correlation between hiring and competence...
Is this really "pharmageddon"? Now?
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It means that retail and hospital pharmacies no longer have to hire foreign graduates. Which is good. No amount of knowledge is going to do you good if you can't adequately communicate it to the patients and other healthcare workers.
Standards for pharmacy schools have plummeted, but I still think there are plenty of competent pharmacists being churned out. We won't be needing your help.
The nature of this profession is such that it's difficult for most pharmacists to stand out based on a resume. I look for people that are realistic, down to earth, generally competent and confident, who can handle their business and not cause trouble. Many pharmacists have that glassy-eyed, vacant stare that tells me they are brainwashed pharmbots that can't think for themselves. These are the type that lack "big picture" thinking and will delay patient care to speak with a physician of absolutely clinically insignificant "errors" that they should either just let slide or fix themselves if it bothers them so much. This type will likely have a PGY2 and two board certifications and feel that this entitles them to the position held by a 20-year veteran because they only have a BSPharm.
Okay, I'm obviously going off into rant territory so I'll wrap this up: Don't be a crazy person -- this tends to be a rare trait with inpatient pharmacists and as such I value it greatly.
I was born and raised in the US....
"We" won't be needing "your" help??? Wow! Unbelievable
When I hire, I don't give a **** what school you went to and what clubs you were in. Now this is for retail, I don't know nor care about the hospital setting. I've hired interns and even sat in on interviews with my DM. I look for #1 can this person work with the technicians or will this person be so square where he won't be able to because of the communication boundaries. #1 for me is articulate well and show you can work with real life human beings. Thats what technicians are. Most barely got through highschool. You have to know how to communicate and get them to do what you need to be successful.
Next is leadership. I want examples, any previous retail job (doesn't have to be pharmacy) show me that you've led people, put people in positions to succeed and in time of chaos they all looked to you for answers and you got everything rolling.
Last is can you learn from your mistakes? You will make them when you are new and first start (not talking about dispensing errors). Can you learn from those mistakes such as how you handled a troubled employee, or a customer interaction. You won't know 100% everything when you begin, what will separate is your willigness to man up, own your mistakes and learn. No different than a QB in the NFL. Will you be Blake Bortles after a INT? Or Tom Brady after a mistake?
Bonus, lastly if you sound like a winy little b*tch who sounds like you rather point the finger than pull the thumb i'm not bothering with you. A lot of us Pharmacist's (not all) b*tch like no other. Just don't do it.
Thanx!!!
Interesting point about "technicians ".....besides not being a D$&k, and treating with respect and dignity, I wonder how one might learn to deal with techs.....my limited experience with techs is that they are all underpaid, never pronounce the names of the drug correctly, and are angry because the pay is low, respect is low, and it is never clear to them why the pharmacist who verifies the medications which are pulled get 5X the salary......
I also wonder where the line is between being a "whiny b$&@h" and protecting oneself...one as an intern cannot just assume the responsibility of every f$&@-up that could happen in a pharmacy...some are just stupid and without real consequences, some are ethical and legal violations...
The intern is always the easiest to blame, especially in a larger pharmacy where the pharmacist(s)is not always watching what is happening...precarious for the intern
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That's how I got my start in LTC way back. Btw I'm pretty sure we work for the same company. Use AS400?
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You know it baby! AS400 FTW!
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Best system ever, but gotta watch out for that suspense file! Lots of refills fall through the cracks.
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What, something fall through the cracks?! No way! I love everything about it.
Out of curiosity, do you consider yourself a super-user? There are lots of things I wish I knew how to do but no one seems to know or at least they pretend not to. For example, you know how some products generate a message at OE, for example things like "Dispense in multiples of 30" or "Send 7 day supply only for blah blah blah", do you know how to edit those message pages?
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Ohhhh man, this show.
I have an obsession with New York of that era, before the Bronx fell into ruin.
The aesthetic, the grittiness, it's just the most fascinating thing in the world to me.
The amount of work they've put into recreating Times Square from the 70s is absolutely astounding, and I can't get enough.
I love the show.
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I agree, I jumped on this 'ignore PAtoPharm' train. Best decision ever.
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How are other chains' raises this year?
CVS raises and bonuses are around April. The Bulk of your raises will come from being promoted to manager and fixing stores and asking for a raise each time. Waiting to get a raise once a year is not the way to go because at the point you are fighting in a pool of money with all Pharmacist’s in your district.
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WM still has raises but now immunization goals are now an "objective" part of the eval along with the customer service score, sales % to plan, profit % to plan, and "quality" (input accuracy). Presumably it is these five that are the "hard" metrics on the eval for this fiscal year although I haven't seen it myself.
Last year for raises it was 0% for below standard or needs improvement (common), 2% solid (common), 4% exceeds (rare), 6% role model (almost never happens), but I haven't checked lately to see if it changed
Last year for raises it was 0% for below standard or needs improvement (common), 2% solid (common), 4% exceeds (rare), 6% role model (almost never happens), but I haven't checked lately to see if it changed
At CVS you can be ME (meets expectations) or EE (exceeds expectations) and get the same raise. They overlap in raise percentages but your percent can be higher EE.
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My pharmacy manager quit but after he did he told me our DM tried to get him to lower my eval score to "solid performer" so I would only get 2% instead of 4% which I completely earned by the way. What a douche! I guess he didn't want anyone to get anything more than a 2% raise regardless of work performance. The PIC only got 2% from the DM's eval and a negative remark was him giving me a 4% raise. No wonder these old timer floaters come for a day and do nothing but the bare minimum. What's the incentive? And now I'm temporarily in charge and both pharmacist and tech hours got a big cut yet they want me to work "Rx Companion" and all these other stupid MTM platforms. I don't do any of them, there's no time!
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you want to work for a retail pharmacy that isn't insistent on squeezing the life out of every pharmacist that works there for minimum pay. what big chains don't understand is by doing that they are decreasing worker morale which leads to people half assing stuff and not giving maximum effort. I can't blame them though, there will always be people willing to go hard for crappy compensation in this saturated environment
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Unfortunately chains (if you let them) exploit those who feel compelled to work with a sense of duty toward patient care, that this isn't actually McDonald's and what you do or do not do, every missed key stroke or missed DUR affects patient health regardless of the time and resources available to you. Of course nothing really is an emergency in outpatient
Water finds its level and there's only so much time and attention you can provide
Water finds its level and there's only so much time and attention you can provide
Fear will keep the rebels in line, fear of this battlestation.
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It still amazes me how six figures is still considered crappy compensation.
There is no way a high majority would be doing this job it sounds like if pay was what it used to be.
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That's right, we're from before the explosive gains. Just like everything else, salaries are the margins. And for us who are from the generation where it wasn't all that great, it's kind of funny to see the complaints right now. But survivor's bias is intact, who actually lives to collect on a Walgreens retirement? Think about it this way, how many of your class peers still practice in Walgreens? Surely not more than 50%.
I'd like to see pharmacists actually leave when paycuts happen, but then there's going to be a fresh crop of willing and needy graduates to pick up the slack. It becomes like the nursing and PT markets where there's always a ready reserve when wages move.
Medicine faces the same problem, and so will PA and APRNs when there is enough of a supply though they are right now where we were a decade ago. And this is all before the major cuts upcoming from government. I'll be here to the end, I actually like the practice enough and I'm happy for what it gave me. But no, I don't see the majority of the posters here staying in practice. They have better things to do and are willing to work at doing something else. Unfortunately, there really isn't anything that seems realistically a growth industry out there that a generally educated person can do (there's niche fields like actuary, materials, logistics, etc. to those who really have specialized talents, but it's not as generic as health care qualifications). Entrepreneurship is basically the government's way of saying "we give up" on the institutions more than any particular economic plan, and there is no such thing as Mittelwerk firms in the US.
The rules change so significantly when you've made enough money. You really see the character of people when they don't have to do anything or care about it, and in many cases, you won't like what you see. It's the people who are willing to work after they've made their money that are interesting, those who use these jobs as a means to an end leave the system soon enough. You shouldn't be worried, it won't get significantly worse than when we entered it (low pay, overwork, bad management, precarious labor), these problems are always part of the business. And you should not be worried about the complainers, they'll figure out something for themselves soon enough, or in the cases where they don't choose, management will. The people who understand how the end works should take the rational solutions possible: to remain but in a capacity that you don't have to worry about the end (mine), to use the effective time limit to build enough assets and equity to not need the profession (@Momus and @BMBiology), or to retrain for something else that better fits your actual profile (@stoichiometrist and @Lnsean). I do have somewhat of a criticism of all three approaches, in mine that you can't escape in the end from a broken system, in the asset building where what are assets worth if they are not redeemable, and in retraining in the sense of you're putting a further time and life investment into something that locks you in further. There's no easy answers but to pick some strategy and bear some risk. And as for the sheeple who blithely go about their practices and their debts, let them have to freedom to draw their own conclusions and prepare (or not). I've got enough equity to be a vulture investor in those cases (have my eye on the lakefront property of a couple of very overleveraged physician homes on Lake Harriet). Time is on our side, and the worse it is for them, the better it is for us in retrospect and now.
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Sorry to hear that guys
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In my district, they just announced huge cut to tech hours during busies time of the year. Makes no sense at all.
Student pilot?is there a future in that? Just wondering
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A year has gone by and we are frozen again for another year.
Reasoning is lower reimbursement rates
Reasoning is lower reimbursement rates
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At least cvs, riteaid, all the grocery stores and wmt still giving $1-1.50/yr in CA.
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was this in compass?
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That adds up over the years.
If I wasn't rxm I'd be upset but I still feel I'm well compensated..... And yes I know many will hate that comment thinking I'm giving in.
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Your DM or RXM will let you know shortly.
I guess someone already started a new thread on this.
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The pharmacist "raise" is not being fired. With a glut of new pharmD's being printed that they can hire cheaply, why wouldn't they want to replace you?
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You have to realize what the most important thing is to a DM...... their bonus.
Why would they fire someone who is helping them achieve that? I've heard they will possibly go to a review based raise.
Staff and floaters should be scared ****less, if they aren't performing at the rxms level, they will get the boot.
