From a PIC perspective, floaters that have gotten my ire (and I have been lucky only to have one or two people I ever really disliked) are ones that are:
1. Lazy.....don't leave a mess for me to clean up the next day. If I leave a problem that needs to be resolved during the float's shift, I don't want to come back to the issue unresolved/in the same spot on the counter I left. If we are working together, show that you are trying to help carry the load. It is just as transparent when an RPh is trying to get away with doing the bare minimum as it is when you see techs doing the same.
2. Floaters that think they are the boss. I am all for a floater running the pharmacy with authority when I am off, but don't go against my SOPs when I am gone. It undermines my authority with the techs. Also, openly questioning how things are done and sharing this opinion with the techs...please don't do this. If you think there is a better way to do something, come to me personally. Most reasonable people don't mind at all if someone has a suggestion if they are respectful about it. I had one floater that did this constantly in front of the techs and I made sure they didn't regularly come back to my store.
3. Showing bad customer service and constantly having to put out fires with customers after your shift. We can't make every customer happy and complaints happen, but at least make sure if there is a complaint, there is a logical train that shows you did your best to diffuse the situation and tried to come up with possible solutions/alternatives before the customer interaction totally broke down. Nothing will annoy a PIC more than constantly having to come back the next day to clear up complaints/hear from customers about "that rude pharmacist," especially with the long term regulars. Fair or not, if I get a string of complaints about a floater, especially from my more reasonable customers, it is going to raise a red flag with me about that floater's ability to communicate effectively to my customer base. Don't try to win arguments with customers, but try your best to diffuse. If you can show that you tried and the patient was simply unreasonable/you simply couldn't give them what they wanted to avoid the complaint, I will back you up wholeheartedly.
4. Never asking for feedback and being unable to handle constructive criticism without getting overly defensive. There is nothing wrong with giving your side on feedback, but I don't want to go 10 rounds every time I suggest something for a floater to improve on for the store to run smoothly. If there is an issue I have with how a floater does something and they just keep on doing it after we talked about it, it makes me think they have a bad attitude and I will run into the same issues again and again. No one wants to work with someone that won't listen to you or respect you. I don't know you, but from your previous posts, this seems like an area you really need to work on. People won't go to bat for you if you won't listen to them and disregard their opinions. I know our online personas are typically different and exaggerated forms of how we interact in real life, but you give off a very arrogant and immature vibe on here...not a good combo in retail pharmacy.
5. ****LACKING ATTENTION TO DETAIL**** You can be the greatest person in the world and great to get along with, but if a floater is constantly making dispensing errors, insurance/reimbursement errors, hanging fridge items in bags, incorrectly counseling, etc in the pharmacy, I do not want them in my pharmacy. From the PIC perspective, we can be held responsible for your mistakes and we also don't want to deal with mistakes that hurt the store's bottom line, and in effect, how the PICs performance is viewed by corporate.
6. Not knowing company/store policies as well as the general laws and state board regulations. Pretty self explanatory, but don't make a PIC worry you aren't properly counseling, don't know company policy on fills/insurance billing/control fills/etc and in general are doing something the board may come to get the PIC with. Ultimately, any board order is going to reflect on the PIC and I don't want someone there that will endanger my license and job.
7. Don't be a jerk to the techs. Similar to what I said about customer service/general interpersonal skills.
Take what you will from another long post by me, but those are the things I can think of off the top of my head. At your new job, I recommend you lay low, be friendly, ask for feedback, and get the lay of the land to figure out what it is that is expected of you and what unique personality quirks your boss(es) and coworkers have. You can't control how other people act, but you can determine how you interact with them. I hope this job works out much better for you than the last one.
