Now before I tell this story I should offer a disclaimer for those who are reading this blog for the first time. I am normally a very calm and relaxed person at work. A long time ago I was taught that many things are simply not worth getting worked out about. As such, I usually digest situations and file them away as it is not worth my time or energy to get worked up about it at that time.
That being said, I feel I should probably share something I did several weeks back that, while I am not overly proud of, but felt damned good at the time.
I told a pharmacist to fuck off and then walked out on him.
Shocking, right?
Now wait, before you get your panties in a bunch, let me give you the back story behind this.
This guy came to us two years ago from some really weird pharmacy in a magical land where he did nothing but sit and check prescriptions all day. He was a really fun guy to work with though... actually one of the most hilarious pharmacists I have ever worked with.
Over the past several years though he has grown increasingly bitter. Working with him as much as I have over those years, I can surmise what the problem is... and it has nothing to do with work. In either case, he had decided to take out his frustrations on us and the customers.
It had been escalating over the few weeks prior to the incident. The shift I had worked previously was one of the most disturbing I have ever worked in my nine years in pharmacy. I was attempting to help him with an insurance problem when he turned out, looked me in my eye and started screaming at me.
Not only was he screaming at me, but he proceeded to mock me, in the middle of the pharmacy, 3 inches from my face.
Of course, in the same manner that wife beaters attempt to make up their wives, he offered to by me lunch later as an apology but I declined. I have never had someone treat me with such a high level of disrespect in work environment before.
In any case I let it slide on the notion that that was not his typical behavior and maybe his life was at an exceptionally low point.
Fast forward three weeks to our last day together.
I don't want to toot my horn to much, but you'll be hard pressed to find a better tech in the company than me. I've been here six years, I've worked in all the stores, I know every little trick there is to know. Even better is that I thrive in busy, stressful situations when a lot of people cower. I'm not trying to being conceited, I'm just stating facts.
Now he has a habit of giving the techs all of the prescriptions to process. As he said, "I went to school to be a pharmacist, not to type on a computer all day." This particular day he was giving me EVERYTHING. Out of the 160+ scripts that day, I processed all of them myself. It's not like its a ton of work, but its more annoying than anything.
Than I was blessed with listening to him bitch about what poor techs we all were. How the last time we worked together he was swamped (We did about 80 scripts that day in 9 hours with him, myself and other tech) and how he's never worked with such incompetent coworkers before.
All this while he sits on his ass, surfs on the net, flirts with the 40 year old clerk and tosses his work to me.
Nearing the end of the shift I had put the order away and was finally completely caught up. Someone had the local paper lying in the back so I picked up a section and sat in a chair for a few minutes. I hadn't taken a lunch that day and had pretty much been going nonstop since 9am.
Not even 30 seconds after sitting down I hear, "Don't you think you should be doing some work instead of sitting on your ass all day?"
I lost it.
Starting with my 'Fuck Off', I unloaded every frustration I had been letting slide from the past few months. I don't remember precisely what I all I said, I just remember his jaw hanging open as I grabbed my jacket and stormed past him out the door.
I never did see him again after that, and most likely never will.
Its sad because he genuinely is a good guy and could be a really good pharmacist if he wanted to. Hell he and I almost got together for a drink a couple times after work.
Did I react in a good way? Probably not. Although even my manager stated that in reality it was something that was going to happen at some point or another. It doesn't diminish the fact that I did feel bad after it.
I guess we all have difficult coworkers from time to time and how we react to them is a reflection of who we are as a person. But since I reacted in that manner... well what the hell does that mean?
8 comments:
So did he quit?
He quit about three weeks later citing that he had to work too hard and we didn't have a good enough set of techs for him.
Being a pharmacist means you make at least 5 times as much as your technicians, and they know it. It's always been important to me that they see me working just as hard as they are. The guy obviously had some real issues, maybe in his personal life as you say, but you can only take so much when you work closely with someone in cramped quarters the way we do. I really don't blame you.
He deserved it. I don't blame you.
I think that particular pharmacist had it coming. You just happened to be the one to deliver the message that others were wanting to deliver to him themselves. Don't worry about it. I've lost it myself at work. All it means is that you are human just like me and everyone else.
Retail pharmacy is tough. Pharmacy staffs all over the world take a lot of crap coming from the other side of the counter. The last thing you need is to get that kind of treatment from a co-worker on top of all the other crap you deal with on a typical workday.
My one suggestion is this: remember this story and how you felt when you become a pharmacist. My one piece of advice for all new pharmacists is to NEVER mistreat a technician EVER! They are back there with you helping you get all the work done and dealing with the customers and they are underpaid for all of their hard work. Remember how valuable pharmacy techinicans are to you when you become a pharmacist and never take them for granted or treat them in a manner similar to this story. Your career will be much more enjoyable if you listen to this advice.
Two pieces of trivial oddments to throw in the mix, AFTER reaffirming your belief you did the right thing in the circumstances.
1. Had you told this person off earlier (not an easy matter) it probably would've saved some of the heartache, or at least mentioned that his MO is unfair and opportunistic for only himself (at the very least maybe accidentally broken off one of the stool legs?). I work for agencies and I hear sometimes about predecessors or others that sit on a wooden stool near the front terminal all day--which I never could because I'm way too short and fat to hoist myself up there, nor can sit comfortably...
2. Think about how to discuss the concept of EVERYONE working as earlier pharmacist mentioned. Someday, you might work as a pharmacist with the devil tech that yells at you and seems to be doing nothing while you're running yourself ragged.
There are a couple of things that strike me in this post. One, I've often felt, as you wrote, that I'm a pretty good tech and know the ins and outs of the places I've worked at. I never mean to sound conceited either, but when you know your shit, you know your shit.
Two, I've come close a couple of times to doing that, but being in retail most of the time, I knew what the outcome would be if I went off on a retail pharmacist for a big chain. Tech gets written up and receives garbage shifts as a result, if not worse. So I give you credit for taking a stand, especially since some pharmacists seem to forget we're there to help them, not do all the work for them.
Thank you The Redheaded Pharmacist for your comment regarding the pharm techs. We don't get much credit.
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