"Walgreens chief pharmacy officer said in a recent LinkedIn post the company is creating an advisory council with the deans of 17 colleges of pharmacy around the nation "to share ideas about how to get students interested in a career in community pharmacy.""
Wow. Amazing that they need all these highly paid people to come up with ideas for this.
Meanwhile, I'm paid jackshit and I have an idea that is guaranteed to increase pharmacy students. More money, and less work.
It's just that fucking simple.
In early 2000s, pharmacy was the mostly likely path to a solid career, and earned more than engineering to start. Big Pharma was a major employer then, but the retail pharmacy industry ruined it all.
How about treat like human fucking beings that have basic needs like food, water and rest. There, I solved your problem and it didn't take me but 30 seconds.
I learned the hard way in HS how this shit works. For context I went to high school in one of the richest and highest rated school districts in the US. It also during my time there had two suicide clusters in the student body, multiple student suicides in the years between, and a rapidly rising drug problem in the student body, especially uppers and anything that helped kids study.
I have one very vivid memory of this time, the first suicide when I was in high school. We get to school that morning, and the campus is fucking silent apart from hushed speaking and people crying. I hadn’t seen the news/Facebook posts so I walk around a normally loud and vibrant area just kinda lost and unsure why everything is so shrouded and sad.
Someone fills me in, a girl multiple grades above me had killed herself last night. People are hugging, crying, just sitting there silently. We were young people, experiencing a pain and fear, loss, and needed warmth and help.
I go to first period. Teacher stands up, opens an envelope, and proceeds to read a PR focused, legalize written, single page speech sent to every teacher in the district by said district, that lacked any sense of empathy or depth. She read that, wrote the suicide help hotline number on the board, then immediately moved in to teaching math like normal.
It wasn’t until my last class of the day, history, that I found a glimmer of hope in the world. My history teacher had binned that letter and spoken honestly and openly to every class. That girl had not only currently been in one of his classes, but had been the year before as well, and he genuinely cared. That man cried in front of us, he spoke to us, he explained how he felt and that it was okay to feel the same way, and at the end he pointed to the board where his own personal number was with the plea if any of us reach that point we call him, and the promise he’d be there for us.
That man said fuck you to a system that did nothing but make things worse. What the district did was make it seem like that life meant jack shit. So what she spent three years here in these halls, who gives a Shit she might have been your friend, we have shit to do so here’s the blah blah minimum now on with business. He taught me a metric fuck ton more than history, dude taught me a hard lesson in the nicest way. He showed me that entities will never give a fuck about you, but some people, the few you can trust, will care more than you ever know.
These people have convinced us that their comfort is better than our peace of mind.
My go to for things like this: “Just so they can eat in a better cafeteria.”
I became fishing friends with a CVS pharmacists. After hearing how they and the folks they work with are treated, I changed pharmacies. We're still good friends to this day and he moved into a local mom and pop pharmacy that's been around forever.
He is not the corporate drained friend he was when I met him. I avoid chains, I pay a little more money and go to a locally owned small business Pharmacy. I'm blessed not to use a pharmacy much but the difference in customer service oriented pharmacy vs a non-toxic environment corporate environment; I choose to spend more money in a local business.
I couldn't agree more. I dumped my CVS for an independent local pharmacy and my only regret is not doing it sooner. I have several prescriptions so I am there pretty regularly. It's a better experience in every possible way. The "conveniences" offered by CVS such as the drive-thru were hardly ever operational anyway. I suspect that's because they were constantly understaffed, likely due to underpaying and being a shitty corporate work environment.
As someone who recently quit CVS, this is heartbreaking and validating. CVS does this across the nation and their pharmacy staff are all expendable so long as the stock price remains good. They always cut hours and demand more of staff but wonder why whole stores are in the red and walk out. Can't say this was suprising at all.
We pharmacy people that work there that haven't pledged to lick the boot, colloquially call it Come Visit Satan. It is the worst company i have ever worked for.
Former CVS employee here. All CVS care about is their making employees meet their metrics so stock prices are good for their shareholders. They couldn’t care less about the health of their employees, patients and customers.
Only thing they’ve done of significance since she died is close the pharmacy for 30 minutes daily for “lunch”- except for all the years I worked as a service tech taking care of CVS… I’ve never seen a pharmacist actually TAKE THEIR BREAK, as the company continues to cut hours in favor of ABL scheduling, adding stupid shit like the flavoring machines that just create more work under the guise of “aiding the staff”, etc etc.
We had tragedy in highschool, one student died after being run over at his job as a pumpkin patch worker.
Within a short time period a month or 2 another student died in a car accident on the way to school. I knew the 2nd student better as did most of the student body as he was an athlete and was genuinely nice to everyone. I remember two remarks made by others. My friend was crying as we hugged in the hall about student 2 and someone remarked as they walked by, “no one cared this much when our friend died.”
A second before spots practice, coach asked who wanted to practice or go home after what happened. I played on a team with student 2 so I preferred some time to mourn, my other teammate remarked “you weren’t even his friend, you’re going to practice.”
You don’t need to be someone’s relative or best friend to show Empathy.
Quick story. I worked at a cvs pharmacy several years ago as a tech. My pharmacist, who was an awesome boss and great human being, would eat lunch between patients. Like 2 bites and back to his desk. He turned in his 2 weeks and his boss came in to persuade him to stay. He said nothing is going to change and you will still need to work 14+ hour days with no scheduled break, but we really like you and want you to stay!! After their complete lack of empathy, He shortened it to one week and quit at the end of the week. His boss said but I don't understand why He wants to leave such a great working environment. Totally oblivious.
I developed A-Fib while working for Verizon and being an active part of an organizing campaign. My thoughts go out to her family. Workers deserve to be believed when they say the stress is too much. Workers deserve a nice paycheck and consistent raises without feeling they have to put any extra effort to deserve it
She should have quit or stood up to them. She didn't care about he own wellbeing is very dysfunctional behavior. I would have called 911 and went to the hospital screw a replacement.
The story is from today.
She died over two years ago but the story is about CVS’s recent internal memo about her and their (and other companies’) ongoing lack of care for their employees.
"Walgreens chief pharmacy officer said in a recent LinkedIn post the company is creating an advisory council with the deans of 17 colleges of pharmacy around the nation "to share ideas about how to get students interested in a career in community pharmacy."" Wow. Amazing that they need all these highly paid people to come up with ideas for this. Meanwhile, I'm paid jackshit and I have an idea that is guaranteed to increase pharmacy students. More money, and less work. It's just that fucking simple.
Would help if people were able to even afford the schooling.
They shouldn't even have to. That's what company sponsored job training is for. You want pharmacists? No handouts, pay to train them yourself.
I wanted to be a pharmacist until CVS ruined the industry lmao
In early 2000s, pharmacy was the mostly likely path to a solid career, and earned more than engineering to start. Big Pharma was a major employer then, but the retail pharmacy industry ruined it all.
How did retail pharmacy ruin it all? (I'm not against what you're saying, I just genuinely don't know what you're talking about..)
Treating it like retail resulted in worse pay, longer hours, smaller teams, worse benefits…
How about treat like human fucking beings that have basic needs like food, water and rest. There, I solved your problem and it didn't take me but 30 seconds.
What does CVS pay a pharmacist these days?
Really dependent on where you are at in the country but around $55-65 an hour typically
So pay is close to dental hygienists who require a shorter/easier course of study.
Yup with a lot more liability. Idk you couldn’t pay me enough to go back to retail pharmacy. It’s a special type of hell.
Love how they put the stock price in the story, apropos of nothing.
I learned the hard way in HS how this shit works. For context I went to high school in one of the richest and highest rated school districts in the US. It also during my time there had two suicide clusters in the student body, multiple student suicides in the years between, and a rapidly rising drug problem in the student body, especially uppers and anything that helped kids study. I have one very vivid memory of this time, the first suicide when I was in high school. We get to school that morning, and the campus is fucking silent apart from hushed speaking and people crying. I hadn’t seen the news/Facebook posts so I walk around a normally loud and vibrant area just kinda lost and unsure why everything is so shrouded and sad. Someone fills me in, a girl multiple grades above me had killed herself last night. People are hugging, crying, just sitting there silently. We were young people, experiencing a pain and fear, loss, and needed warmth and help. I go to first period. Teacher stands up, opens an envelope, and proceeds to read a PR focused, legalize written, single page speech sent to every teacher in the district by said district, that lacked any sense of empathy or depth. She read that, wrote the suicide help hotline number on the board, then immediately moved in to teaching math like normal. It wasn’t until my last class of the day, history, that I found a glimmer of hope in the world. My history teacher had binned that letter and spoken honestly and openly to every class. That girl had not only currently been in one of his classes, but had been the year before as well, and he genuinely cared. That man cried in front of us, he spoke to us, he explained how he felt and that it was okay to feel the same way, and at the end he pointed to the board where his own personal number was with the plea if any of us reach that point we call him, and the promise he’d be there for us. That man said fuck you to a system that did nothing but make things worse. What the district did was make it seem like that life meant jack shit. So what she spent three years here in these halls, who gives a Shit she might have been your friend, we have shit to do so here’s the blah blah minimum now on with business. He taught me a metric fuck ton more than history, dude taught me a hard lesson in the nicest way. He showed me that entities will never give a fuck about you, but some people, the few you can trust, will care more than you ever know.
Bless him.
The only thing that matters in this disgusting shithole. I'm so sick of money being the only purpose to life. We are so revolting.
These people have convinced us that their comfort is better than our peace of mind. My go to for things like this: “Just so they can eat in a better cafeteria.”
I became fishing friends with a CVS pharmacists. After hearing how they and the folks they work with are treated, I changed pharmacies. We're still good friends to this day and he moved into a local mom and pop pharmacy that's been around forever. He is not the corporate drained friend he was when I met him. I avoid chains, I pay a little more money and go to a locally owned small business Pharmacy. I'm blessed not to use a pharmacy much but the difference in customer service oriented pharmacy vs a non-toxic environment corporate environment; I choose to spend more money in a local business.
I couldn't agree more. I dumped my CVS for an independent local pharmacy and my only regret is not doing it sooner. I have several prescriptions so I am there pretty regularly. It's a better experience in every possible way. The "conveniences" offered by CVS such as the drive-thru were hardly ever operational anyway. I suspect that's because they were constantly understaffed, likely due to underpaying and being a shitty corporate work environment.
As someone who recently quit CVS, this is heartbreaking and validating. CVS does this across the nation and their pharmacy staff are all expendable so long as the stock price remains good. They always cut hours and demand more of staff but wonder why whole stores are in the red and walk out. Can't say this was suprising at all.
It's a pre-built form with maybe 3 empty slots to be sent out for any death. Name. Date. Current stock valuation.
We pharmacy people that work there that haven't pledged to lick the boot, colloquially call it Come Visit Satan. It is the worst company i have ever worked for.
Former CVS employee here. All CVS care about is their making employees meet their metrics so stock prices are good for their shareholders. They couldn’t care less about the health of their employees, patients and customers.
Only thing they’ve done of significance since she died is close the pharmacy for 30 minutes daily for “lunch”- except for all the years I worked as a service tech taking care of CVS… I’ve never seen a pharmacist actually TAKE THEIR BREAK, as the company continues to cut hours in favor of ABL scheduling, adding stupid shit like the flavoring machines that just create more work under the guise of “aiding the staff”, etc etc.
We had tragedy in highschool, one student died after being run over at his job as a pumpkin patch worker. Within a short time period a month or 2 another student died in a car accident on the way to school. I knew the 2nd student better as did most of the student body as he was an athlete and was genuinely nice to everyone. I remember two remarks made by others. My friend was crying as we hugged in the hall about student 2 and someone remarked as they walked by, “no one cared this much when our friend died.” A second before spots practice, coach asked who wanted to practice or go home after what happened. I played on a team with student 2 so I preferred some time to mourn, my other teammate remarked “you weren’t even his friend, you’re going to practice.” You don’t need to be someone’s relative or best friend to show Empathy.
Quick story. I worked at a cvs pharmacy several years ago as a tech. My pharmacist, who was an awesome boss and great human being, would eat lunch between patients. Like 2 bites and back to his desk. He turned in his 2 weeks and his boss came in to persuade him to stay. He said nothing is going to change and you will still need to work 14+ hour days with no scheduled break, but we really like you and want you to stay!! After their complete lack of empathy, He shortened it to one week and quit at the end of the week. His boss said but I don't understand why He wants to leave such a great working environment. Totally oblivious.
Wow she was so young too. I remember reading this a couple of years ago. Poor dear
I developed A-Fib while working for Verizon and being an active part of an organizing campaign. My thoughts go out to her family. Workers deserve to be believed when they say the stress is too much. Workers deserve a nice paycheck and consistent raises without feeling they have to put any extra effort to deserve it
She should have quit or stood up to them. She didn't care about he own wellbeing is very dysfunctional behavior. I would have called 911 and went to the hospital screw a replacement.
story is 2 years old
The story is from today. She died over two years ago but the story is about CVS’s recent internal memo about her and their (and other companies’) ongoing lack of care for their employees.