Tuesday, December 12, 2006

An Open Letter To My Old Boss.

Hiya boss,

You may be surprised to be hearing from me. I know it's been awhile, and the last words we shared weren't exactly filled with happy thoughts, but I thought of you today and thought I'd drop you a line. You see, about an hour before closing time tonight I had to call one of your stores for a prescription transfer. Being on hold for 20 minutes before speaking to a clerk for 10 seconds who put me back on hold for 10 minutes to speak to the pharmacist really brought back the memories. I always wonder when I'm in a holdfest like this, which I am a couple times a week, what would happen if I were a customer calling to ask if it's a problem that my grandma accidentally took a couple extra doses of amitriptyline. Not that you or any of your ilk give a rat's ass about anyone's grandma. The only thing that gets your willy hard is the thought of more prescriptions flowing through your place at a lower cost to fill per unit. That's why you were so overjoyed when your chain bought out the last independent pharmacy in town and added 25% to our workload literally overnight. The day you told us we could have one extra tech to handle the 300 extra prescriptions a day your deal would mean for us was the only time I ever saw you smile. Good times. Remember the time the 18 month old girl got the nitroglycerin pills intended for an 87 year old man? Boy, I sure do. The only thing worse than making a mistake on a prescription is dealing with the fallout from a prescription mistake that you DIDN'T make. Did I ever tell you why your drawer was short that day? You see, the parent of the child who could have died wanted the money refunded that they spent for the pills that could have ended their daughter's life. Fair enough. So, I followed your company policy and paged a member of management. I always thought it was a bit odd how you had no problem leaving me alone all night in a room with a couple thousand OxyContin, but thought it necessary to have a community college dropout be the one to return fourteen dollars and ninety-nine cents, but hey, you write the paychecks. The customer whose child could have died didn't see it that way though, and was about ready to kill someone himself by the time we paged the dropout for the third time. That's when I opened the drawer, handed the man who's child could have died two twenty dollar bills and told him I was sorry at how this whole thing went down from beginning to end. That the customer saw I was breaking your pointless policy for him was probably the only thing that prevented a lawsuit. You're welcome.

I wonder if you remember our discussion afterwards of what happened. Probably not, because you really didn't even seem to hear a word I was saying at the time. I told you how that store was breaking it's employees and endangering the public. That your company was woefully negligent and it was only a matter of time before someone would hold the place to account. I asked you what your plan was to improve things. You said.....you'd give me $30,000 not to quit, thereby missing entirely the point of me threatening to leave in the first place. With that money you could have hired another full time employee, but you thought the best way to keep someone else's child, mother, or grandfather out of danger was to throw some Benjamin's into my bank account and keep everything the same. I know it's physically impossible to fuck yourself, but I don't regret telling you to do so.

I hear not much has changed for you or your company, but things are much better for me now. I have a new job in a store that does about a quarter the prescription volume of your place, a store that's considered to be a laggard in it's district. You see, my new boss, he's no different from you. The only thing keeping him from running me and the rest of the staff into the ground is the company's inability to drum up enough business to do so. Stockholders are angry, but the people who do come in the door are well taken care of, the exact opposite of the stockholder/customer relationship at your place. Funny how that works. I'll let you get back to work now. I know you have important things to do, like maybe meeting with the corporate lawyer to discuss how much is a fair price to offer the parents of a dead child.

Just make sure to get a confidentiality agreement. You don't want the stock price adversely affected.

Sincerely,

Drugmonkey

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, if I had to take a guess as to the old job I'd say CVS.

Heartless managers? Check.

Schedules that grab you by the mahoshkas and never let go? Bingo.

Understaffed, underpaid and expecting you to work in all conditions, up to including your own death? Oh yeah.

Anonymous said...

Agreed and Agreed. All the chains seem to be the same...except for the one I work for :)

Try working for a chain that the pharmacy is not the main source of business, but rather a convenience for their customers. Sure they are still out to make a buck, but they need to keep the people with the money happy, so they give you plenty of tech help, freedom to make things correct for the customer. Customer is pissed and you want to wave their $25 copay to make them feel like they won and they will come back tomorrow and buy a crap load of other drugs or merchandise, sure, just hit a couple of quick buttons on the register...done, 0 copay, sign and out the door. Or if you need to give them their money back, sure just a couple of buttons, drawer is open, refund their money. Plus I don't have to wear a tie!

I can safely say that I actually love my job and my patients. We offer great prices to our patients to help them save money and spend more in other areas of our store. Gee fill Fluoxetine 40mg for a 15.08 loss, sure I will, I still get the same paycheck and bonus, i'll give it to you for whatever corporate wants me to! (ya, we are a $4 place, so that gives you a 50/50 shot at where I work!

Anyway, I like my job and rarely have a bad day, but I am just one man. I have worked for a couple of other chains and I can say I will never work for another CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, or WalMart.

Make the change...you will love it!

Anonymous said...

Remember the time the 18 month old girl got the nitroglycerin pills intended for an 87 year old man?

love
of
god

...

/jo

DrivingMissMolly said...

Yup. I used to be a tech at Eckerd. There was a problem with an RX I typed up and I showed the pharmacist. He ignored me and filled it anyway.

The next day I get an angry call from the doctor's office that also happened to be my doctor's office. I was mortified and embarrassed, and quit shortly thereafter. I didn't want to stick around until someone died.

Most of the pharmacists were caring and hard working AND competent. They worked 12 hour shifts barely with time to pee. Eating was a luxury.

They were treated like machines. All that mattered was the almighty buck and guess what? 10 years later and there are no more Eckerds. Hah.

Lily

Anonymous said...

If I am correct, I patronize the chain you work for. I love it. I'm on regular medication, and it is awesome to be able to get my script for the best price (I pay out of pocket) without having to wait hours for it-not to mention the folks behind the counter look happy, are nice to me, and pay attention to what they are doing.

All things a certain other (eckerd's)*cough* pharmacy was totally lacking in.

Anonymous said...

I would want to write a similar letter to my DM/Supervisor, only in my case I still work for him and the chain(cvs). For some reason, there is a sudden influx of RPH,s into the Atlanta metro area,creating an excess of RPH.
This has empowered the various DM/Sup,s to be making outrageous demands on us.
Tech hrs have been cut further,and those of us that prefer working 3rd are being asked to pick up typical tech duties "to keep us busy at night".
Oh,how I wish I can get these timid colleagues of mine to stand up to these management bullies,most of whom bearly have any high diplomas.

Anonymous said...

i work in a two store two man independent operation....we were up to 6 pharmacies but have downsized to one retail & one institutional.....one guy is myself and the other my dad....yeah we get along well and i consider myself lucky to have worked w/ family for this long =20+ years. |Used to work w/ mom also but she died recently and I know it was that pharmacy that got us thru it.....we lost my brother ( a radiologist ) 4 years back. I have an older brother, also a pharmacist but he left for more high profile / grass is always greener job & i don't miss him....well that is my story in a nutshell.....know & love lots of employees, customers, prescribers, etc, etc......hate a few also.....good night

Anonymous said...

BAM! I have a lingering notion that you were/are an employee of Walgreens...

I'm a CPhT in the same boat. One of my pharmacists dispensed an enema where eardrops were due. I shit you not.

Thanks for sharing your letter, too. :-)

Anonymous said...

Well it's Monday morning, and I'm off for a 14hr shift probably averaging around 50Rx/hr.

Robin Fonner Andersen said...

Except that you work for retail and I work institutional, you could be talking about the compay I work for. To get anything "fixed", you have to write 8 pages of documentation and use the word "liability" a_lot_.
it sucks. And scream and yell like a crazy person. Than a little bit of attention gets paid just so you don't start shouting it from the rooftops...

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Well it's Monday morning, and I'm off for a 14hr shift probably averaging around 50Rx/hr.


You must be talking about the devil itself! CVS/Caremark.

I started in retail (CVS) and swore to never go back to retail or CVS. I now work for Caremark. But they've "merged" with CVS. WTF? It was bad enough as Caremark! I guess CVS will add that little burn to my already Big Brother-ific day.

I tried to help out 2 coworkers who were unlawfully terminated. Now I'm hated by many of my coworkers. I'm considered an asshole because I want everyone to be treated fairly. My mistake for thinking I worked in the US. Whoops!

Anonymous said...

Speaking of the Big Blue $4 script place...I'm an ER nurse...I got a script for Indocin. Took it to Walmart and they filled Indocin 50 as prescribed. Sig: Insert one rectally every 2 hours. Now I am not fucking stupid. Just wanted to fuck with them a little bit. Called the pharmacy and told her I had began rectal bleeding "real bad that it was on my bed when I woked up". Wanted to sound ignorant and southern. She said, you probably said that I was on my period. I have a fucking dick, I told her. Then she realized I was a man. She then said I was having stomach trouble.

No shit. I finally had to tell the woman that "I have really never stuck green pills up my ass before now". She totally freaked.

Now I did'nt do it to really fuck with the pharmacist--she is just trying to fill 100 scripts/hour. I wanted to send some message to the Big Blue. Message sent. Offered 1,000 payment month for 5 years, no admission of liability. Now...I would have taken the $$ until I found out it was going to come out of the pocket of the pharmacist. Honestly. I asked her what would happen if she quit--she had already signed a contract that she would pay the $$ if she quit or fired. I felt like shit. Finally broke down and told the truth. The tech had actually made the mistake.

I dont know the "inner workings" of pharmacies, but here, unless it is a schedule script, insulin, etc., it is not checked by the pharmacist--just signed off as checked.

Now I am a Republican--not your typical GOP'er though...go nice on me:-)

Anonymous said...

I heard a rumor that one of the big chains, who shall remain anonymous, except that it goes by 3 initials and one of them is a "C", has a foreign RPh from Singapore who went back for a visit and to recruit some local RPh's to come take the foreign pharmacy exam. All expenses paid and legal representation to speed up the H1B visa process, possibly in lieu of a sign-on bonus? What to do when the natives start getting restless? I guess import somebody else's natives.

In some countries no one except a
pharmacist can own a pharmacy.

I wonder how much longer we will
take the abuse. A much tougher than average 6 year college course, a Doctorate and still get abused?
I wonder if student loans to pay back and sign-on bonus to agree to work 3 years or pay back are forcing newbies to have to take it?
I'd sure be tempted to get hurt on the job and go out on disability or something. Life's too short even to dance with ugly women, much less than taking abuse all day.

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of Fayes.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of when I worked for Eckerds. The big question was who dies first? A patient following a missfill due to the pharmacist being overworked and understaffed? Or the pharmacist due to being overworked and understaffed?

Anonymous said...

Wow! Sounds sooo familiar. Just yesterday I had a guy at the drive-thru... yes, I know it's super annoying... ask me to get him a Diet Coke with his rx!! Are you kidding me? I don't know why I was in such a nice mood, but I obliged and went across the store to get a refrigerated drink for the man. He then said my wife needs one of these, but bigger.... he then, through the drive thru sent a feminine pad to me.... What the????? This pharmacy world is the free doctor's office!!! I am so glad you have this website... we see some of the craziest stuff!!!

Anonymous said...

OleMissDude, I have worked with nurses like you and it is scary..just reading this post gave me the chills..despite it all you dudes usually do accomplish your goal. I have to wonder, what was your ulterior motive really? I know it must have been a personal vendetta.

Anonymous said...

I did CVS for 1 year and felt the same way, I couldn't live with the idea that I was going to make a major mistake because of working conditions, it was just a question of time. I went to hospital pharmacy and have never looked back!