Walgreens POWER and Severance Package

[Got Em]

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Looks like it's coming to Texas in a few months...

I have read quite a bit of info about POWER, but I wanted to ask a few more questions for those that have been through this already.

1) When you receive your "Voluntary" severance package, how long do you have to decide?

2) If I have 4+ years at Walgreens, about how much would this be?

3) If I received the 4 year tuition reimbursement and also a sign on bonus, do I have to pay this back?

Thanks for any insight!

 

[MindOverMatter]

 

[MountainPharmD]

I am not surprised seeing how the State Board is rolling out the red carpet by creating a central fill class of pharmacy. It is hard enough to find a job around here. Should be real fun with 200 displaced Walgreens pharmacists looking for work. I guess that means more work for me. I bet we take a ton of transfers from Walgreens when this starts. The idiots are still running the ship at Wags I guess.

 

[Thoughtfulsinner]

Can't wait for it. Had some technical difficulties early on but it appears those have been straightened out.

 

[Got Em]

Can't wait for it. Had some technical difficulties early on but it appears those have been straightened out.

So you would like to be the cashier the whole day? I'm just having trouble grasping the concept. I don't mind ringing people up every now and then, but people (most of the general public) are going to think even less of pharmacists when they see them being "glorified" cashiers.

The other problem I have is with safety. How am I supposed to verify the end product when I can't even open the bag to see what's inside? Horrible times to come in my opinion.

 

[cutiger]

Mail Order is available for a reason from Walgreens. I think most customers enjoy the fact that they know the people in front of them checked and filled their medications themselves. I'm really hoping POWER doesn't come towards South Carolina.

 

[SoonerPharmD]

Looks like it's coming to Texas in a few months...

I have read quite a bit of info about POWER, but I wanted to ask a few more questions for those that have been through this already.

1) When you receive your "Voluntary" severance package, how long do you have to decide?

2) If I have 4+ years at Walgreens, about how much would this be?

3) If I received the 4 year tuition reimbursement and also a sign on bonus, do I have to pay this back?

Thanks for any insight!

How do you know POWER is coming to TX in a few months? Does your district have a central call building yet? I haven't heard anything in the DFW area about it...

 

[johnep34]

Mention of not looking inside the bag is very relevant in the UK at moment. Authorities seem to reckon that the pharmacist in charge 'Responsible Pharmacist' is legally liable for any errors handed out on his/her shift. No one has time to check the bags. One pharmacy group even uses transparent bags and final check supposed to be done before handing to pt in usual paper bag.
Errors are a criminal offence in UK at present. In a recent case, a pharmacist got three month suspended prison sentence and now cannot come to US as has criminal record.
johnep

 

[Thoughtfulsinner]

So you would like to be the cashier the whole day? I'm just having trouble grasping the concept. I don't mind ringing people up every now and then, but people (most of the general public) are going to think even less of pharmacists when they see them being "glorified" cashiers.

The other problem I have is with safety. How am I supposed to verify the end product when I can't even open the bag to see what's inside? Horrible times to come in my opinion.

So you would rather stare at the computer all day F4'ing, doing product review, and answering the phone?

With POWER, you will not have to do all that at the store level. You get to interact with the patients at the cash register/drive thru, ring them up, talk to them, consult. You will actually get to know your customers instead of standing at the computer all day with very little patient contact. Plus, you don't have to deal with F4'ing, product review, doctor calls.

So tell me why that's so bad?

 

[IrishHammer]

So you would rather stare at the computer all day F4'ing, doing product review, and answering the phone?

With POWER, you will not have to do all that at the store level. You get to interact with the patients at the cash register/drive thru, ring them up, talk to them, consult. You will actually get to know your customers instead of standing at the computer all day with very little patient contact. Plus, you don't have to deal with F4'ing, product review, doctor calls.

So tell me why that's so bad?

Because they've also said that this plan will entail a decrease in their labor force in the double digit percentage. I want to say they said 15%, somebody please correct me if that number is wrong. 15% is a lot of pharmacists when you have 7000+ stores around the country.

 

[BMBiology]

So you would rather stare at the computer all day F4'ing, doing product review, and answering the phone?

With POWER, you will not have to do all that at the store level. You get to interact with the patients at the cash register/drive thru, ring them up, talk to them, consult. You will actually get to know your customers instead of standing at the computer all day with very little patient contact. Plus, you don't have to deal with F4'ing, product review, doctor calls.

So tell me why that's so bad?

Remember forks, hwks09 works for walgreens corp. Tell me, how is the pharmacist going to interact with the patient when the lead tech has been cut and the pharmacist has to work the cash register?

 

[EddieL]

So you would rather stare at the computer all day F4'ing, doing product review, and answering the phone?

With POWER, you will not have to do all that at the store level. You get to interact with the patients at the cash register/drive thru, ring them up, talk to them, consult. You will actually get to know your customers instead of standing at the computer all day with very little patient contact. Plus, you don't have to deal with F4'ing, product review, doctor calls.

So tell me why that's so bad?

Wouldn't pharmacists be able to do these same things if Walgreens staffed their stores appropriately?

 

[genesis09]

My understanding most of the people fired are the part timers

 

[Rebel78]

Looks like it's coming to Texas in a few months...

I have read quite a bit of info about POWER, but I wanted to ask a few more questions for those that have been through this already.

1) When you receive your "Voluntary" severance package, how long do you have to decide?

2) If I have 4+ years at Walgreens, about how much would this be?

3) If I received the 4 year tuition reimbursement and also a sign on bonus, do I have to pay this back?

Thanks for any insight!

Everything will be explained at the time by corporate. Just pay attention and read ALL the information carefully to make an informed decision. Anybody that took the package isn't gonna say much since we had to sign confidentiality agreements. Any promises that are made to you personally, get it IN WRITING.

Do all of that, and you'll be fine.

 

[MountainPharmD]

So you would rather stare at the computer all day F4'ing, doing product review, and answering the phone?

With POWER, you will not have to do all that at the store level. You get to interact with the patients at the cash register/drive thru, ring them up, talk to them, consult. You will actually get to know your customers instead of standing at the computer all day with very little patient contact. Plus, you don't have to deal with F4'ing, product review, doctor calls.

So tell me why that's so bad?

I guess its a great thing if you want to be a glorified cashier. You have lots of time to talk to the customers as you are ringing up thier tampons and deoderant.

Pharmacists wouldn't have to stand behind the computer all day if the stores were staffed properly.

 

[Got Em]

How do you know POWER is coming to TX in a few months? Does your district have a central call building yet? I haven't heard anything in the DFW area about it...

Corporate is being very secretive about it, so of course nobody is going to tell you about it. I'm pretty informed when it comes to major changes at Walgreens, but I'll just keep it at that and won't discuss any further details.

Keep in mind that POWER is definitely NOT going away like some rumors have stated. A lot of improvements have been made and it well be at most Walgreens locations in a few years.

So you would rather stare at the computer all day F4'ing, doing product review, and answering the phone?

With POWER, you will not have to do all that at the store level. You get to interact with the patients at the cash register/drive thru, ring them up, talk to them, consult. You will actually get to know your customers instead of standing at the computer all day with very little patient contact. Plus, you don't have to deal with F4'ing, product review, doctor calls.

So tell me why that's so bad?

Have you ever worked in a store where you constantly have 30-50 F1s, 20-40 F4s, and 50-80 Rx's to fill at ONE TIME on a GOOD DAY? On bad days, we have 50+ F1s and 100+ to fill on the screen and we're not even a 24 hour store. There is absolutely no way that one pharmacist can counsel, be a cashier, answer questions, and do flu shots. We did over 3000+ regular flu vaccines and at one time we were doing about 70-80 per day with 2 pharmacist shifts. We also do an insane amounts of CIIs and other controls, so it would be absolutely crazy if controls were not being shipped over here.

 

[StevePerry]

Corporate is being very secretive about it, so of course nobody is going to tell you about it. I'm pretty informed when it comes to major changes at Walgreens, but I'll just keep it at that and won't discuss any further details.

Keep in mind that POWER is definitely NOT going away like some rumors have stated. A lot of improvements have been made and it well be at most Walgreens locations in a few years.



Have you ever worked in a store where you constantly have 30-50 F1s, 20-40 F4s, and 50-80 Rx's to fill at ONE TIME on a GOOD DAY? On bad days, we have 50+ F1s and 100+ to fill on the screen and we're not even a 24 hour store. There is absolutely no way that one pharmacist can counsel, be a cashier, answer questions, and do flu shots. We did over 3000+ regular flu vaccines and at one time we were doing about 70-80 per day with 2 pharmacist shifts. We also do an insane amounts of CIIs and other controls, so it would be absolutely crazy if controls were not being shipped over here.

Can you please explain what F1's and F4's are?

 

[Got Em]

Can you please explain what F1's and F4's are?

Walgreens has a box of 4 important numbers at the top of the screen...

F1 # = # of prescriptions in the queue to type
F4 # = # of prescriptions in the queue to review (verifying what techs type)
Fill # = # of rx's to fill
Rev # = # of rx's to verify (product review)

 

[Doctor M]

Corporate is being very secretive about it, so of course nobody is going to tell you about it. I'm pretty informed when it comes to major changes at Walgreens, but I'll just keep it at that and won't discuss any further details.

Keep in mind that POWER is definitely NOT going away like some rumors have stated. A lot of improvements have been made and it well be at most Walgreens locations in a few years.



Have you ever worked in a store where you constantly have 30-50 F1s, 20-40 F4s, and 50-80 Rx's to fill at ONE TIME on a GOOD DAY? On bad days, we have 50+ F1s and 100+ to fill on the screen and we're not even a 24 hour store. There is absolutely no way that one pharmacist can counsel, be a cashier, answer questions, and do flu shots. We did over 3000+ regular flu vaccines and at one time we were doing about 70-80 per day with 2 pharmacist shifts. We also do an insane amounts of CIIs and other controls, so it would be absolutely crazy if controls were not being shipped over here.

You must be headed up the Corporate ladder 🙂

 

[Got Em]

You must be headed up the Corporate ladder 🙂

No, but I do know somebody that graduated with one of the top 5 guys at WAG.