Thursday, January 5, 2017

Sometimes Bad Things Come to an End

Our illustrious leader is no longer with us, ladies and gentlemen. The pharmacy director for our region has moved on. Questions still remain as to why he left the company. Perhaps it was the number of complaints about him. Perhaps it was the number of pharmacists that quit. Perhaps it was a rat leaving a sinking ship. We just don't know.

But what I do know is that this guy had some weird view of what pharmacy is all about. He would routinely come into the pharmacies and move and/or remove anything that made us look like a pharmacy.

He would stand out in the aisle, staring... then move to another vantage point, stare some more, then come in and move stuff. You see, he didn't want us to LOOK like we were a pharmacy. If he could see a box of amber vials, he would move it where it couldn't be seen by a customer. If he could see a note or phone number pasted up where he could see it, he would come in, pull it down, and put it in a binder... to go with the other 150,087 binders we have in the pharmacy.

We have a long counter separating the front register area from the back where we do the filling. It is about 24 feet long and 2 feet wide. It's a great place to put filled prescriptions, papers, projects. It's a WORK counter designed for WORK.


No, we do NOT look like this...
No, having anything on that particular counter was offensive to this guy. It had to be completely clear at all times. We don't want to look like we actually do any pharmacy work in a pharmacy. Now I can understand looking like a cluttered mess. That looks bad. But a little clutter just looks like you're busy, and it gets removed by the end of the day when we get caught up.

No, keep it clear at all times, we were told. Why? Because his whim and fancy demanded it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Odd, sounds a lot like every corporate ding-a-ling I've ever had the displeasure to work for.

That garbage of showing up unannounced (usually at insanely busy times like right around 12pm or the dinner rush on a Monday after a major holiday that was covered by floaters) and then standing outside the pharmacy scrutinizing who the heck knows what. I've gotten enough of those visits to know that while they're examining my pharmacy as if they were some sort of art critic examining a masterpiece at the Met, I need to take a quick look around and start moving stuff out of the view of the general public.

All in the name of some corporate initiative to provide a 'superior customer experience' that some MBA-toting, mouth-breathing, Gordon Gekko wannabe dreamed up while sitting on the crapper after strolling into the office at 10am trying to figure out how to make their year-end bonus. Seriously, who the hell cares? So what if the pharmacy 'looks' busy? The scarier part is how burnt out the pharmacist and techs are from all the resources management has been cutting while they congratulate themselves about all the 'synergies' that they are 'leveraging.'

That thousand-yard stare? Those dead eyes that you see in the pharmacist's face when they don't know you're looking? The flinch when the 'doctor's line' rings and the inevitable scowl when its just another idiotic customer wondering if the pharmacy is open?

Sure, go ahead and move that box of vials off of the back shelf and take down the corporate-approved list of phone numbers from the corporate-approved wall of memos Mr Junior-MBA. The techs and I will just put them right back up as soon as your dumba$$ leaves the store.

tbunni said...

I had to call and speak with my pharmacy last night (I always just call the refill line 3 days ahead) due to a problem with my husband's med last month (not enough for a full rx @ our location, etc.) I waited patiently on hold, gave my husband's DOB, name & med name clearly, accepted the two-day refill time and thanked the nice lady. I think she was nearly in tears. I try to be the best customer they have ever met, and this blog certainly inspires me!