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Friday, June 13, 2008

Why am I Still Here???

After a 10 hour shift one may mistakenly believe that I am still "nice" and cuddly like a fluffy kitten. I was hopeful when a girl I didn't know came to the pharmacy. I thought I was home free, but no. She is a new intern here to train with the district trainer. Damn the luck. It gets even worse when my relief calls and says he is on his way from Miami which means I am stuck in a drowsy hell waiting and waiting and waiting. The evil b*tch-monster starts to take over, kind of like when the Hulk starts to appear...."Pharmacist smash!"

He then calls to say he got lost and may be about 10 more minutes. When he shows up all of the techs are like "Oh sh*t, not him again." I never worked with the guy but I guarantee the sh*t will hit the fan when the boss gets in at 2PM because the pharmacy will be a complete mess. Well, at least I fixed an insurance/vacation auth for a couple who live here part time and Canada part time. They had 3 take-home-a-sacks full of drugs for their 4 month journey. I guess their insurance doesn't work in Canada even though the cash price on most meds is always cheaper than here. Just ask those chartered prescription tours to Canada. It's an adventure and your pills are cheaper because Canada's government wants its people healthy. I wish mine did...damn lobbyists...damn kickbacks...but I digress...

I laugh to myself when my boss has a bad day because he reminds everyone over and over and over about "...that one time he stayed late on Christmas because the overnighter had a flat tire..." and other assorted stories like the world has in fact decided to sh*t in his Wheaties as many times as it can. It wasn't even the fact that it was Christmas that made him mad, it was because he had to stay late. I came in Wednesday night and he was sitting in the waiting room chair because he thought I was gonna be 10 minutes late but I showed up 2 minutes late. Take that. I may even throw him off and come in 4 minutes early one day. He won't know what to do with himself....whatever will he complain about...

I warned the technicians that the person covering for me this weekend got really bad reviews from another pharmacy she covered for. The techs there hated her and said she was mean. If she mouths off to my techs they will all walk out. It is the weekend and they will find other things to do. The kids I work with on the weekends are fun. They got suckered into staying until 11PM on Saturdays and Sundays but we always have a good time and I feel bad that they may have a bad couple of days but I am going to see The Cure (yes, they still tour) with McRPH and raise a little hell at the bars.

Meanwhile, back at the pill rodeo, my floater will sit and do no work...no supplies...no filling...no cleaning...no take out the trash...piss off my boss when he comes in Sunday and Monday morning.....hahaha... I will hear all the gory details Tuesday morning and laugh, laugh, laugh because if she doesn't do enough work he will make her stay a couple of hours unpaid to do the work she should have done when she was being paid to do it. The funnier thing is that he has done this to another floater before. Freaking hilarious...and they say I am the lazy one but my work seems to miraculously get done every night and I don't leave them more than a couple of rxs to fill or more than a couple totes of warehouse if at all possible. It must be the Keebler elves or the tooth fairy or something. I get no respect.

The boss also likes to remind everyone that every time they call the district supervisor about the tardiness of floaters, many of whom are notorious for showing up an hour or more late, the supervisor assures him that each and every floater is just as good as his full time staffers. That really pisses him off. It makes me laugh every time he tells a story about someone showing up an hour late, which happened to me this morning, and lets the supervisor know to no avail.

So I raise my glass to the veritable sh*tstorm that is appropriately happening after I am long gone on Friday the 13th. Salute!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

At my temp jobs, it didn't seem that I'd be responsible for all varied and sundry tasks i.e. put away stock, fill vials and find supplies to fill empty slots, take out the trash, and cleaning. I mean that sometimes those shifts are so busy after the 4-hr commute, that I haven't even had time to use the restroom until past quitting time and still checking if there are any messages still on the IVR (and dreading the 4-hr commute home to beddie-bye). However, there have been a couple times it's been slow and sheer boredom, but I usually let the techs lead the way on what needs to be done with vacuuming and finding pencils to sharpen. I figure I'm being paid the RPh bucks to keep the shop open for the day, and if there's an RPh thing to do I'll do it to the best of my ability, but if there are more pressing things to do (other than emergencies like mopping up a mess I created), I'm certainly not going to go out of my way! Like cleaning used compounding equipment stacked in the sink, unless detergent, towels, warm water are easily accessible, it'll stay there until someone else that knows about it shows up. In other words, if someone was just being lazy, I don't feel inclined to pick up after them. I'd hunt out patients in the OTC section first! I guess the story of the floater and the temp are a little different, though.

Carol said...

Your boss expects the floaters (and staff pharmacists, I assume) to take out the trash??? I float full time and would never do that. Most stores have stock-boys to do that, don't they? I can tell you, if I worked a store and the manager tried to make me stay late upaid, I'd laugh and walk out. MInd you, I am a free-lance floater and apparently a good one, according to the feedback I get from my sources....

Anonymous said...

go easy on the interns... we usually are eager to please :)

MDS said...

Carol, I *used* to work for a big chain store (only 2 weeks unemployed now). The pharmacy trash was always the responsibility of the pharmacy staff. The front store personel had not been HIPPA trained so they weren't even allowed to touch the bags until they had been taken to the back dock tied up by pharmacy staff. For us, this is usually a tech job but most of our floaters would not hesitate to help with the end of the day stuff. So I guess it is just about what is expected of each person.

The little tech that does... said...

Wow, I am expected to do the trash, restocking of vials and supplies as well as put away the order when it comes in, and it is in my job description. I hardly let the RPhs on duty do those things because I feel that they have earned a degree to be the brains of the operation. If you are busy and want to-that's one thing, but I don't feel that should be a part of the RPhs job. But hey, that's just my opinion!

Big 'N Tasty RPH said...

This is "el corpo pharmacist" who is supposed to finish any prescriptions left over from the day, fill everything pending for the next business day, and clean/restock the pharmacy for the next busy business day. Overnighters are not paid to sit on their ass all night and read magazines contrary to popular belief. We are damage control in a job situation that can go bad real quick during the day if everything is not "ready to go". I despise laziness in a healthcare professional. If you wanted to sit and be paid to read magazines all night work at a gas station or a newsstand. As for taking out the trash what is the big f**king deal? It is paper and packaging. It is not like you are working on a garbage truck. I am sure you have thrown away nastier things from your own home. When I cover at other stores I put in the same effort that I do at my own. I never have complaints and have even had other managers try to get me transferred and replace their lazy overnighters. I am going to say I am "the greatest pharmacist there ever was" but I am the pharmacist who does everything possible to keep the ship from sinking whether it is my home store or not.

Big 'N Tasty RPH said...

Wow, now that I sound like an arrogant twat, let me edit my statement. It was supposed to say:
I am NOT going to say I am "the greatest pharmacist there ever was" but I am the pharmacist who does everything possible to keep the ship from sinking whether it is my store or not.
Why don't they allow editing after a comment is posted....?

MSConsumersUnion said...

Hi there!

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-Marium from Consumer’s Union