I am coming near to my three month anniversary with the empire that is Walgreen's. During this time I have moved around to a couple different stores now which has helped me gather a more rounded view of their day to day operations. Recently, I have come to a singular conclusion.
Walgreen's has sucked the fun out of pharmacy.
In the past, I have worked in stores that were a blast to work in to the point that when you saw you were scheduled there, you smiled. The co-workers were great, the pharmacists were great, the patient population was great... it made for an awesome daily work experience.
With Walgreen's you still have that, yet you do not have the same experience. I'm not saying that work should always be fun, but more that you should be able to enjoy it at some point. After three months, I have yet to find a day that comes even remotely close to that.
Part of it, as I alluded to when I started working there, deals with their work flow. It's one of those ideas that looks beautiful on paper, but doesn't work as well as it should. The better stores I have worked in have just a straight pharmacy (to me, the sexiest pharmacies have a straight counter about six miles long), but the pharmacies based in the corner of a store are just terrible.
To top it off, there is virtually no patient interaction. I miss the days of an open pharmacy. When my favorite customers would come up to the counter, wave me over and ask me if "I got lucky on Saturday night." Or the customers who would randomly bring treats or show pictures of their grandson at his most recent soccer game.
When I started, the manager told me I would fit in really well because this store had a really close knit community. From what I have seen this far, it does not meet my past experience of a close knit community.
Working in a Walgreen's is very cold and methodical. Each worker is only really well versed in their specific tasks and the pharmacists, no offense to them, are very one dimensional. That, of course, is a byproduct of the Walgreen's system, but I still would put up a pharmacist from one of the indie stores I worked with up against a Walgreen's pharmacist any day.
Have I mentioned I despise their robots and the lack of record keeping/information they hold?
I'm not trying to be a negative Nancy, but I miss enjoying going to work. Moving around to different stores the last few weeks, I have learned that this is probably not going to change any time soon. How depressing of a thought is that?
No wonder so many of you are so bitter.
6 comments:
WAG is just about as big brother as they come. They track you for EVERYthing. To address your comment of "lack of interaction," you will be hard pressed to find a pharmacist who is willing to "interact" when RPh can get a ding in his/her evaluation for spending 15 minutes going over meds with an elderly woman. (I wonder if WAG will still ding me if I had charged that woman $10).
Worked briefly at WAG corporate headquarters. Boring, staid, ostrich-like are only a few of the descriptors I can think of. How fun can a place be when people a) hang around in dead-end jobs, waiting for someone to retire, in hopes of getting a promotion and b) line up at the edge of their departments and the hallway, waiting for the "leaving bell", the receptionist saying "Good evening, the time is now five o'clock. Have a pleasant night." over the PA.
Just a thought, I do not work for WAG, or are affiliated with them in any such way, but I would be careful criticizing your company and/or co-workers on a public blog. Even if you think you are anonymous I guarantee you, they have figured out who you are. My company has a policy about posting things on a blog/facebook/myspace etc and the fine print is not good for the employee!
Just watchin out for you. WAG is ruthless...
WAGs is a convenient place to take a piss from time to time.
Anon @ 4:00AM
I'm aware of that, which is why I don't delve too much into their operations (I could list specifics of what I dislike if I truly wanted). I figured I was being general enough that everything would be peachy keen.
I agree with anonymous...be most careful of critizing your employer on your blog. even the Pharmacy Chick knows better than to name names. if they find you, you are toast...and never ever access yoru blog at work...or you wont have a fourth month anniversary.
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