I have long said that in every pharmacy there is one person that holds the whole place together. I have also always said that that person is never a pharmacist. Those of you in the profession know exactly what I mean when I speak of the "keystone tech." They're the ones you scan the schedule for every week hoping to see them working the same shifts as you. They're the ones who can put fear into your very soul with the mere mention that they might use a sick day, although they never seem to. The ones that know that Blue Cross of Buttfuckistan is actually billed to Buttfuck Prescription Advantage, and that you have to use "ERW&^!!!+WAGSUX #@!" for the group number, but only on Tuesdays. Every pharmacy has a keystone tech, and they are worth their weight in gold.
Unfortunately the keystone tech always seems to be balanced out by the "other" tech. Perhaps it's pharmacy yin and yang. Or maybe it's some sort of corporate tax thing, but those of you in the profession know exactly what I mean by the "other tech" as well.
Customer: Can I use your phone?
"Other" tech: What's your last name?
The type of tech who when checking in your warehouse order will take your antibiotic ear solution and make a space for it next to the over the counter earwax removal products. The fact that space had to be made in no way deterring her in her steadfast belief that nothing used in the ear could possibly require a prescription.
Someone shoplifted one of the antibiotic solutions before I realized what she had done. She's worked here almost a year now.
It's funny stuff until I lose my license. Then I will have to kill her, which is a shame because she's really a nice person.
I hope the shoplifter at least had an ear infection.
10 comments:
Our "other" tech is still learning the alpha, to not only file the rx's in the bins but to place the drugs back in alpha order on the shelves - last week we found our missing cozaar hidden behind the hyzaar (just because the bottles look the same and this is not the first time) WHAAAAA???? i know!!!
The other tech at my pharmacy keeps putting empty bottles back on the shelf. Not only are the bottles entirely empty, they were never even marked as being open to begin with! The other tech also thinks that the names "Hall" and "Hill" are interchangeable, and frequently likes to give Hill's scripts to Hall, and vice versa.
The funny thing is, we both applied to pharmacy school for this fall, and he couldn't figure out why I got in, and he didn't!
I have been the "keystone tech." My manager cried when I gave notice....
average work week of our keystone tech: monday through friday, 10 to anywhere from 3 to close, depending on if we're super busy or not.
average work week of our "other" tech: monday, wednesday, friday, except when she can manage to get those days off as well, from 10 to as soon as she can leave, even if she's scheduled until close. one day she asked to leave even before we had opened.
Once again, DrugNazi, you nailed it. As a float, my favorite keystone techs not only rule the insurance world, but remember every transaction on their shift --so they can look at the guy yelling about his prescription not being ready and say, "Your wife picked it up yesterday."
...interesting that you put WAGSUX as part of the group number! LOL!
Our keystone tech is the love of my life. I'd leave my husband for him if he could work the same schedule as me every day of my pharmacy career. He knows everything, sees everything, and can fix anything. He rocks. Before I got my license, I was the keystone tech, so I still do a lot of holding things together, but when I see his name on the schedule, I know its going to be a good day even when the "other" tech (well, ONE of the "other" techs) is on as well. My other keystone tech went on maternity leave early...but now I'm on maternity leave, too so no harm done there!
He should get a huge raise...so should one of the newer staff who is rapidly on her way to keystone tech status.
Long live the awesome techs!!
Other tech. Oh boy. The one where you cringe and think 'this would be easier if I were working ALONE. Watching her scream at the boss when she didn't get her way about hours. Listening to her call her family on the store phone for hours at a time. And my favorite, the time I made her wait for her break for 10 minutes because it was just her, me, and eight million customers. Of course she took double the alloted time. And then, she told our pharmacist in charge that I refused her a break, that she was going to have me fired (I should be so lucky), that she had to wait for HOURS to go to the bathroom and she was PREGNANT...whiny bitch. Why do they NEVER do the right thing and just die? Oh no, THIS one is going to school to be a social worker!
Our "other" tech previously worked at a vet's office. Obviously, drugs for people and drugs for dogs are automatically going to be the same, so according to her, she already knows all there is to know.
I am lucky to have 2 techs that I can consider keystone. And only one (part time) "other"
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