MY LATEST RANT
I work for a big box retailer as a staff pharmacist and a couple of months ago the store got a new manager. Seemed like an ok guy not really sure why we need a store manager the sales were up last year and we did not even have one. Anyway the guy started in with pharmacy right away cutting help in the store and blaming pharmacy for using all the hours the store had… It is two seperate staffing budgets but I am sure it keeps his employees off his back. The problem though is that they are on mine. After about 2 weeks of getting asked if I was doing anything back in the pharmacy by people who couldn’t spell pharmacy if thier lives depended on it the jerk sent my tech home on a Monday morning without any notice. You may wonder why I didn’t fight with him then and there… the answer is that in this store the techs work for the store and they can’t even punch in without the manager (douchbags) permission. After being on the phone and emailing everyone that could do anything we were so burried in prescriptions that the rest of the day was chaos. The following week I discovered an error that caused harm to a patient that was made on that Monday during the chaos. The patient was very understanding and the effects were reversible but the point is that this manager caused the situation that led to this happening.
Skip ahead a couple of weeks and we have a tech on vacation so we borrow the HB manager to run our register filling 239 Rx with 1 not very capible tech and 6 hours of cashier. The HB manager comes and tells me that they are mad at her because her department looks bad and that after this week she will not be able to help us anymore (seems about right).
The next day the remaining red pen went dry so I call the office to get more (we are required to write in red) the office says don’t have any get some from out front. So I write them off and think nothing of it. Next day the office witch calls me up and starts yelling at me for taking pens from stock and asking on who’s authority… 15 minutes of yelling over a red pen what the hell? (tech still on vacation and working short)
Two days later and it starts warming up outside and I realize the AC doesn’t work so I tell the management they say it is working so I ask why has it been 80 degrees in here for the past 3 days. I get the run around because the head manager (douchbag) is not working. I get a fan to plug in but no outlet because the pharmacy is so old. Doesn’t matter anyway because the fan we borrowed from the store belonged to the office witch so she came and got it back to occilate the sweat acoss her fat ass. So first thing next morning I call douchbag and tell him about the AC letting him know that it is important.. Douchbag simply says when I have time I will call for repair. Three hours go by and I ask douchbag for the third time if he has called yet. He says no and then spends the next twenty minutes explaining to me how I need to come in on my day off and paint the pharmacy. I of course find it interesting that there is time for this but not time to worry about the storage of the drugs. ($quarter mill in value). Two more hours go buy and I ask him again and I get a very smart ass “I get it! Jesus” as a reply. That was it I riped into him and told him that I was going to throw away $250,000 in medications if he couldn’t pry himself away from the nothing he was doing and call for repair. I was so mad I almost quit. Later in the day I found another error that occured while I was arguing with this guy. I ended up with an AC unit in my counseling window which is not leagal. And I am still getting comments from the store flunkeys about having all the help and not doing anything. So I email my DM and let him know about all this and he is coming out next week to have a talk with all of us.
I need advice.. I don’t really need to work I have enough money but do I quit and let douchbag win or fight to keep a job like this one (I do like the pay hours and everything else) I don’t think they will fire douchbag and my license is in his hands. The nearest oppening is an extra 1 1/2 hours of driving every day..
May 11th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Wow, what a douchebag.. Well if I were in your shoes, I would not let him win. You said the pay was pretty good and the next store would be 1.5 extra hours of driving (not worth it). I would let the DM talk it over with him and if things don’t happen from there, I’d give the manager hell - and have a good time doing so. Good luck
May 24th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Man, I would have quit on day one. I own my own store and never could I last 20 minutes under such circumstances. Why is it that in every other profession, the professionals are in charge, but pharmacy, no. Can you imagine a paralegal or office manager treating a lawyer this way? A nurse or office staffer speaking to a doctor this way? No? So why do pharmacists allow non pharmacists to to boss them? When I started out, I worked briefly(very) for a chain and my dm came in to do a brief review. All was well he said but a clerk at the front of the store had complained abt my promptness in delivering change for the register when needed. What? A 16 yr old’s comments being used as analysis of my efforts as a pharmacist? I left the office in the middle of the meeting and told him to find someone else, I quit. Now I own 2 stores and I am the boss. Good luck with it, I hope it improves. I suppose as long as our profession allows nonpharmacists to boss us around and so forth we will always be the red headed step children in the professional world.
June 14th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Thanks to Kathy and Bulldog I appreciate the comments. It got worse before it got better. The store manager came back in the pharmacy without permission the following Monday and wanted to talk about my lack of communication skills. I simply told him that if he wanted me to say things louder I would but it is hard to talk to someone who doesn’t listen. Monday morning is busy and I was burried we average about 200 on Mondays and that day I had 8.5 hours of tech help for the whole day. So I said I can’t really discuss this right now. So he says “I think we need to take the time to discuss it now”. So I tell him again (loud) that he is not listening to me and I tell him get out!!!! He refuses so I say you need to leave me alone. He says this is a concern and it is my store and we need to talk about it. I say not right now you can’t be back here. He says yes I can this is my store. So I say the techs work for you but I don’t get out now!!! He says thats right they do work for me and this is my store and before he can finish I cut him off and I yell “you are endangering lives by distracting me from my work at this point, you need to leave!!!!!!!”. He basically says make me. So I tell him “fine I quit; now you have to leave because you can’t be back here without a pharmacist” I throw my keys on the counter and start locking up. He still would not leave so I could lock up. I should have locked the prick in the pharmacy. At this point I wanted very badly to grab him an throw him out the door. I outweigh him by 100+ lbs and I stand a foot taller than him (I think its a napoleon complex) What could I do? I can’t leave him in the pharmacy so I say fine lets talk about my communication and I watch him try to use his business school voodoo on me. It was hard to swallow. After he leaves I call my DM and let him have it. As professionals we really shouldn’t have to take this crap. I really wish I was working with you guys. I took your advice Kathy as soon as I mentioned the word “quit” the DM for pharmacy and the store were here the next day and the store manager, pharmacy manager, both DM’s and I sat down and discussed these issues. Basically an hour of them explaining to him that this is not how it works. As a result the staffing has improved and I have been given more authority as a pharmacist (I don’t have to even ask for pens anymore) The store manager is still in charge of the technicians but you would never know it. I wouldn’t say that he respects me, he doesn’t like me but at least for now he is leaving me alone.