Current Events > Some Walgreens pharmacies planning walkout next week

(+) Yeah! (+)

Zithers posted...

also another thing, cvs is built on these dumb customer service survey metrics. a 1-5 scale and anything not a 5 is changed to a 1. so we had to beg people to vote all 5s. since your hours are determined by this. we had the #1 score in new york city and we still kept losing hours. on top of that we started closing one hour earlier too. just ridiculous. they even got rid of a pharmacy district manager and merged the position into front store/pharmacy district manager. our DM was some dude who had worked at toys r us and didnt know a single thing about how pharmacies work, leading to my manager to be the de facto pharmacy district manager, leading conference calls and stuff while juggling other duties.

of course we got all of our work done on time anyway. but we did it without two 15 minute breaks (which we never took since our boss just let us dick around on the phone during our shift if it was slow - decent tradeoff). and eventually as i said earlier, everyone just got tired of it and quit.

I can relate so much. We were a solidly run pharmacy that patients loved. We were the tops in patient satisfaction. Even in my last year there, 2021, we were the #1 pharmacy in the district at one point in April, and we were on the DM's shitlist by June. By October 2021, there was one pharmacy staff left from January 2021.

And you can hear about this exodus all across the metro area.

Agent_Stroud posted...

Sounds like corporate culture rearing its ugly head again. Thank goodness the pharmacy I typically use isnt under the Walgreens umbrella.

You mean you don't want the person responsible for making sure your prescriptions are correct to be working 12 hours shifts on half a PB&J and no bathroom break?

Yes, shop small and local. At least until the PBMs try to kill us off completely.

hockeybub89 posted...

You mean you don't want the person responsible for making sure your prescriptions are correct to be working 12 hours shifts on half a PB&J and no bathroom break?

Yes, shop small and local. At least until the PBMs try to kill us off completely.

I wouldnt expect that from my team of dishwashers that Im responsible for training and making sure they stay on top of things, so you can definitely count on me to speak up for you as well considering how messed up that is.

Hopefully the ensuing backlash from the increased public awareness will make the corporate suits who thought this was a good idea to begin with reconsider their current course of action, as this is not a good look for them no matter how they try to spin it.

Sexypwnstar posted...

So this user Revelation34 can just ignore posts and keep trolling and pushing a narrative

So are mods going to do anything about it?

Nah, his whole thing is skirting the line just close enough to post disingenuous garbage, but not close enough to get hit for anything offensive

Agent_Stroud posted...

Hopefully the ensuing backlash from the increased public awareness will make the corporate suits who thought this was a good idea to begin with reconsider their current course of action, as this is not a good look for them no matter how they try to spin it.

CVS' lame spin was to just blame it on vaccine demand and imply the problems in Kansas City are unique to the area.

Pharmacists have a legal duty to refuse prescriptions that could be fraudulent or could result in patient harm (there was a concern with one of my antidepressants interacting with my omeprazole of all things, and my pharmacist brought it to my attention first, ended up being fine, but the "hold up a minute" from pharmacists is invaluable.)

I heavily disagree with refusing birth control or abortion medications, but there are real genuine reasons to deny a script.

BroodRyu posted...

And if theres a legitimate issue with the prescription that could harm the patient?

Contact the physician.

Should pharmacists be able to refuse to fill a prescription because they are against birth control? What if they don't believe ADHD is real, so they won't refill my ADHD medication?

hockeybub89 posted...

CVS' lame spin was to just blame it on vaccine demand and imply the problems in Kansas City are unique to the area.

As I said earlier, thats absolutely messed up. My condolences for the mess youre currently going through at your job, TC.

Off the top of my head, I think the only reason why I'd refuse a new birth control prescription is if the patient has an extensive history of unprovoked blood clots.

But anyway, I stand with my retail pharmacist colleagues who are staging these walkouts. It's high time that we shed light on the harsh working enviroments of retail pharmacy team members. This has gone looooonggg before COVID happened so I don't even want to hear that as an excuse.

I've been a pharmacist for almost 10 years now and in my school days we called it CVStress for a reason.

Agent_Stroud posted...

As I said earlier, thats absolutely messed up. My condolences for the mess youre currently going through at your job, TC.

Oh, I left the mess for greener pastures. But I'm still very much invested in how things turn out

mystic_belmont posted...

Contact the physician.

Should pharmacists be able to refuse to fill a prescription because they are against birth control? What if they don't believe ADHD is real, so they won't refill my ADHD medication?

That's literally what pharmacists do all day long. Again, the ignorance is both bizarre and staggering.

BlackHorse6969 posted...

fuck pharmacists. entitled idiots.

did you try to get some meds you weren't supposed to have or something?

what is your issue with pharmacists? hmm?

FolkenRawr posted...

That's literally what pharmacists do all day long. Again, the ignorance is both bizarre and staggering.

Only weird pharmacists who have no business being one refuse to fill birth control.

Revelation34 posted...

Only weird pharmacists who have no business being one refuse to fill birth control.

Why did you ignore everything else discussed in this topic? Why are you laser focusing on just birth control when its a much broader discussion ?

I work in a doctors office and deal with medication insurance. I'm on the phone with pharmacists all day. Idk how they get anything done tbh. They're constantly dealing with insurance bureaucracy, doctors fucking up prescriptions in various ways and also dealing with the general public. Seems awful. Make these people happy, drugstores

Revelation34 posted...

Only weird pharmacists who have no business being one refuse to fill birth control.

Birth control is um... not the majority of prescriptions filled. And there still is the possibility that a birth control med could be dosed improperly or cause allergies on the patient.

But you heard "pharmacist" and "won't fill" and keep going on about pharmacists refusing birth control on religious grounds, as if that's the norm or that anyone here supports it.

Jiek_Fafn posted...

I work in a doctors office and deal with medication insurance. I'm on the phone with pharmacists all day. Idk how they get anything done tbh. They're constantly dealing with insurance bureaucracy, doctors fucking up prescriptions in various ways and also dealing with the general public. Seems awful. Make these people happy, drugstores

You know, it's possible to get things done when you FULLY STAFF YOUR PHARMACY.

Plenty of phone calls get made at my current job, and they all got made at CVS like 5-6 years ago.

When I work retail at my current job, we fill about 500-600 prescriptions per day. Throughout the day (7am-6pm), you generally see 3 pharmacists (with overlap most of the day) and 10-12 technicians.

At the end of my time at CVS, we did over 1000 prescriptions per day (8am-9am), not counting vaccines, and it was generally 1-2 pharmacists (without overlap) and 3 technicians.

BroodRyu posted...

Why did you ignore everything else discussed in this topic? Why are you laser focusing on just birth control when its a much broader discussion ?

Read the full quote chain.

Revelation34 posted...

Read the full quote chain.

There are no quote chains in 2023.

Idk anything about the industry but every time I go to Walgreens pharmacy there's like 1 person working and they look miserable (which also means it takes for damn ever to get my shit). So I don't really blame them if working conditions are actually shit.

The Walmart by contrast is always bustling and does pretty good service.

FolkenRawr posted...

That's literally what pharmacists do all day long. Again, the ignorance is both bizarre and staggering.

and if they do, and still refuse to fill the script? If there is no medical reason to refuse the script, what should happen?

mystic_belmont posted...

and if they do, and still refuse to fill the script? If there is no medical reason to refuse the script, what should happen?

Then they should get fired. Who cares? Can we stop shitting up the place with this tangent?

"Pharmacies should just shut up and dispense pills" is an incredibly ignorant that people make and harping on a theoretical that 99% of pharmacies never deal with is stupid.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/09/business/walgreens-walkouts-cvs-pharmacy/index.html

So it is happening. Scattered and small-scale as expected, but at least they did it.

Revelation34 posted...

Any pharmacist that refuses to fill a prescription deserves to be fired.

You have no clue what you're talking about, but keep on

Another thing that is making pharmacy tough right now is these drug shortages.

Stuff like generic Adderall and literal goddamn amoxicillin and penicillin go on backorder because Big Pharma is like "We're not making enough profit on these anymore to keep producing them regularly."

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/12/incoming-walgreens-ceo-doesnt-mention-pharmacy-walkouts.html

Jesus Christ, their new CEO is from Express Scripts. You can throw him right in the trash.

https://fortune.com/well/2023/10/10/cvs-pharmacist-walkout-caused-by-pandemic-burnout-covid-booster-demand-xbb15-omicron/

lmao, fuck this out of touch woman and her fucking company. But at least she's "The Most Powerful Woman in Business" lol

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/13/walgreens-pharmacy-staff-could-stage-nationwide-walkout.html

https://www.newson6.com/story/652668ff5a447c7fc2db44e0/walgreens-pharmacy-worker-speaks-on-high-demands-of-the-job-following-walkout