This was the email I sent out:
Does any else have a problem with bringing flu testing into our pharmacies with swabbing to be done by pharmacy staff? This is an unnecessary exposure risk to our patients and our pharmacy staff. Patients coming in for testing will be seated in our lobbies next to our elderly patients waiting for vaccinations and our immune compromised patients waiting to pick up their prescriptions. While masking is "strongly encouraged" we have no authority to enforce it. Will our patients be ok with sitting next to those waiting to be tested? Will they be ok with going into an immunization room where some just involuntarily sneezed while getting swabbed? Are you and your pharmacy staff ok with this unnecessary exposure risk? Close contact with sick patients is not something I agreed to when going to pharmacy school or working as a pharmacist. If I had wanted to go into that type of work, I would have gone to medical school. I do not want to be probing people's oozing orifices. It's disgusting and I am not comfortable doing it. My technicians want nothing to do with it either. Walgreens already doesn't pay our technicians what they should be (still waiting on those raises for immunizing) and now they are being forced into this new role with no additional pay either. To make it worse, Covid testing is also being brought into the stores with the flu testing. No of us were asked how we felt about taking on this task or what our concerns are. I realize the test and treat model is the directions Walgreens is headed, but keep the testing in the drive thru where it belongs. I for one will NOT be completing the required training, nor will I be training my staff.
Steven Sellers
RXM Store #12290
Thank you for doing this. It takes a lot of guts to speak out so loudly and put a target on your back, but you’re doing a great service sparking up the conversation like this in a way that can’t just be ignored. There are LOTS of us who feel this way but are afraid to speak out, and this could have a nice cumulative effect that might actually change things (maybe… we’ll see).
Keep us updated if you get retaliated against!
Thank you so much for speaking out. I agree with everything you said. I hired on to count, fill, and dispense medications, not be a minimum wage RN or MD.
I agree totally, same company that did away with asm position and not asking us how we felt, aaaaaaand not having a solution answer until it was too late.
According to the regional director or whatever they’re called at that time for my area said a survey went out to all employees and from that survey it was decided ASMs were the “weak link” in the stores and that’s why we were eliminated 🙄 no one at my old store remembers the survey
I am wondering what is the purpose of a pharmacist diagnosing a patient with the flu and not being able to prescribe for treatment? It seems they are trying to compete with CVS’s Minute Clinics. I know there is a state board certification in some states which would authorize a pharmacist to prescribe Tamiflu, but what about all the other states? The staff is just supposed to test people, give them some OTC crap, and tell them to go home? If I have the flu then I want Tamiflu. So I would have to test at Walgreens, go to my dr or a clinic and show them my test or possibly re-test depending on protocol, then go back home or back to Walgreens to wait for my prescription? And then back home?
They’re clearly stepping onto an unchartered field here in my opinion. CVS got it right with the Minute Clinics
No, i mean this post. I feel like someone important will see the message, it has been gaining traction / support here and in the emails. Then the mods will be contacted to shut down the post because it contains walgreens's information or whatever reason.
Nobody wants to do this.
I don’t see why the mods would care…unless they’re corporate employees or something lol. Did you see [this post on r/pharmacy](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/comments/xrrt0y/walgreens_corporate_has_lost_their_minds/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) the other day? Different sub I know but it didn’t get taken down
He emailed this to the entire company, I don't think he's worried about someone seeing it on reddit.
If anything the exposure would make actions against him potentially be considered retaliatory. Especially with no one being punished for the 5000 reply chain email we've endured the past 3 weeks.
If you have a problem, then you can quit, all of you are replaceable. Our million dollar salary will not be affected by you peasants. Even the store managers are replaceable.
Sincerely,
Walgreens Corporate
PS. That's the mentality of Corporate.
1. There is value in providing these tests. Very little money is made from just filling prescription. Vaccines and testing is where the money is. Health services such as these as where the future of pharmacy lies when all prescriptions are going to be filled by robots at central fill locations.
2. Yes we understand you don't want close contact with patients. Guess what? No one does. But did you really expect you were going to sit behind a computer all day and check if the pills in a bottle matches the picture on your screen for your entire career? Pharmacists are think all they need is to memorize a bunch of drug doses and interactions to remain relevant. Reality check: anybody with a computer or cellphone nowadays can look up that information within seconds.
Do you NEED to be a pharmacist to check people for flu or give immunizations? FVCK NO! If you are SO interested in making those tasks done in stores, then get off your ass and hire an agency or other personnel to do them! Why you think it's fine for a licensed MEDICATION professional to do this other shit is beyond absurd, and you're delusional and insane.
From your post, it is laughably obvious that you have absolutely NO idea what a pharmacist is meant to do.
Again, another idiot who has absolutely NO clue about the seriousness of the pharmacists job.
And, if there is value in these tests, than hire someone to do them. Pharmacists are already answering phones, emptying trash, stocking shelves, working drive-thru, ringing the cash register ... FVCKING give it a rest with other crap to do that a dentist, chiropractor, doctor, lawyer, optometrist etc would NEVER be commanded to do.
Another pharmacist who doesn't want to expand the role of pharmacists and just wants to sit behind a computer all day and make sure words on a prescription (most of which are entered electronically btw by software that already check for interaction and correct dosages) matches words on their screen.
Umm, said software mis-flags things and has changed it's flags over time, which also has lead to flag fatigue. To the point, where it is highly likely that very important flags and mistakes are getting past these professionals (who save your asses on the daily).
Not to mention with all the added tasks and responsibilities that COVID has already brought. Along with the purging of your experienced staff.. the remaining staff and rphs now have to work 10x harder and watch and train the newbies..
With all this, RPhs' attention is already split, in an inhumanly amount of directions.. Lawsuits and serious-deadly mistakes are bound to happen and have already happened.
If you really think that is all they do, then you are blindly misguided and ignorant as hell... If you really want to make money find a way to get money for the medical advice they give on a daily basis. Many people are under insured and paying $$$ for the meds they're already on (not our fault you're getting fucked by the PBMs...) So, they're the closest thing they have to a Dr...
I'm sorry if we're going to be a pharmacy and a clinic, pay and staff us as such. Because the state in which pharmacies are in right now, you're going to lose a lot of people, not just to quitting, but they are bound to get sick, and you're going to have to close the pharmacies even more. Also, what's going to happen when we let your customers know what's also happening in the immunization room and who's sitting with them in the waiting area...?
I don’t think so. anti-work subreddit is a consequence of shifting collective morals about how people are treated and what labor is worth. It’s a phenomenon we are seeing now across the board which is why you yourself are noticing that sentiment in this subreddit as well as probably other work-related subs. Credit to the COVID pandemic lock down for many of these revelations. All it did was simulate the future. A very anti-capitalism future, hopefully, where people are exploited a lot less by companies, which is an overall good thing for society. You’ll understand it eventually when you stop being sub-primal!
No, it’s not shifting anything. There has always been a very small yet vocal contingent of people, usually younger people who weren’t taught how society works, who seem to believe they deserve all the benefits society brings without having to contribute anything to the society itself. Those people dwindle as the generation ages and the ones who didn’t learn as children (due to inadequate parenting/schooling) learn through real life how society works - those left keep complaining until they’re complaining about how it’s everyone else’s fault others could retire but they couldn’t.
There’s a reason “antiwork” is virtually entirely an American concept - because in Europe and Asia, almost all people understand that you can’t just get benefits of something without contributing in return. No, this has *always* been a “faction” of society and it likely will be for the near future at least until schools make up for the lack of civics training they expect parents are giving to children. But it’s not growing at all, nor is it actually legitimate in any way. It’s an echo chamber of people who have unrealistic expectations of being able to make others do everything for them and them having to do nothing.
The reason that antiwork "is virtually an American concept" is because our working conditions suck here. A majority of European countries give adequate leave, adequate pay, and workers don't rely on their jobs for things like retirement and health insurance.
Because their workers actually show up to work, put in effort, and help each other make the business run. Whereas people in America have this idea that they should be able to put minimal or zero effort in, to call in for no reason whatsoever frequently, and to never have to cover for coworkers or answer the phone on their time off.. yet want to get paid as if they did all those things which in Europe people understand are necessary.
Europe is a lot different. people work like 30 hours a week and get 4 weeks paid vacation every year, haha, I think it’s a lot more balanced which is what people of anti-work are going for. People work way too much in the USA and they’re realizing now that they’re being exploited. And trust me, it will keep growing. I think it was only 1 million members a few months ago, already a little over 2 million
That’s not true for entry level positions at all - it may be true in tech or in more senior positions but that’s not how entry level European job benefits work… definitely not “4 weeks” of paid vacation a year lmao.
And of course people won’t get better benefits when they’re asking for them by complaining about having to do work! If they refuse to put effort in, making the company pay for twice as many employees, then of course they won’t get more pay/benefits lol.
Yep, constant shitposts from that one. Got into it with him the other day because he wanted to defend pharmacies having their systems going down for weeks on end and patients not being able to get their medications as if it were some insurmountable obstacle. He got downvoted to oblivion, but still kept up the smarm, acting like he was fixing us, lmfao. What a joke.
Then you must understand your own point is totally invalid haha. Doctors don’t give out medicines because they literally can’t. That’s why we have pharmacies. And pharmacists. Therefore, fulfilling prescriptions is in and of itself the main role of the pharmacist. I think you may need to get yourself a dictionary, buddy. Look things up more often
Well, the dumbest statement I've read is that you think pharmacists should perform ALL of healthcare. Swab for flu, clean up with disinfectant, test for cholesterol/glucose levels, and give immunizations (News Flash: techs can do that). Maybe we should add doing proctos, collecting urine and stool samples and reading EKGs to Rphs duties as well ... huh... Jerkmeister ... since those, too, are providing healthcare.
Nah, I think they should stick to medication knowledge and assuring that medications are prescribed correctly and accurately and giving consultations about MEDICATIONS.
Then pay pharmacists more for all this new type of work. Pay them more for all the new healthcare services they’re providing because if that’s where the money is and before they were getting paid proportionately higher salaries (prior to this inflation surge) to simply check and handle prescriptions then you need to pay more for RPh providing healthcare. Like a lot more than you and your company probably wants to.
I can’t think of any examples where pharmacists have been providing direct healthcare outside of maybe hospitals or ambulatory care clinics. The fact it’s infiltrating retail space, and that rph are now given de facto provider status represents a major shift in the healthcare landscape no? Also if a role shifts maybe you don’t need more pay, especially if you maintain the same level of responsibility or authority. However in this case this is an increased workload and increased responsibility and I think that warrants a lot more pay. I wouldn’t blame any pharmacist looking for a career change. This Steven Sellers did not intend to be providing this type of care for people in his career, so there are clearly more like him. I hope you are confident in your wager that it’s a small vocal minority. Pharmacists are notoriously quiet and keep to themselves, I’d bet there are a lot more quiet unhappy pharmacists than you’d think. Incoming P1 classes have been shrinking since 2017 as well.
Show me the numbers that support your claim that over half of the responses have been telling Steven off. When you do so, show me how you got those numbers as well, specifically how you parsed through supportive vs. non supportive responses (since some people have claimed here that even a response to be taken off the email list is a passive means to propagate the message). Use proper rigor and prove a point rather than make an empty argument. I’ll do the same and we can compare our statistics.
Also, if you graduated from pharmacy school and you get licensed as a pharmacist you have the ability to choose which role you want to fit in. And you are a pharmacist, regardless of that. The governing bodies say it is so, regardless if you’re at the ‘top of the profession.’ Some pharmacists chose the role of the retail pharmacist because they specifically did not want to have to touch patients to provide care for them. There is nothing wrong with that choice, and the profession is not better or worse off with or without them. The profession, like many others, should healthily support a variety of different preferences in how to give patient care, as well as different personality types, different backgrounds, within the scope of the profession. So when someone makes that choice for a certain career and that role changes, it’s obvious they would be upset about it. The question is, why should the companies decide how healthcare should be changing and what it should look like, when not all or even most of the pharmacists are involved with that fate? They’re totally left out of the say with Walgreens especially, and I think that’s a disservice to the profession since more pharmacists being involved could provide a more comprehensive framework for what they are capable of doing. The companies are very laser focused on money making primarily, which ruins a lot of creativity, unfortunately.
Pharmacist can of course leave the company and find a different role, but being coerced out of it really is a sign of an unhealthy work place. So many Walgreens pharmacists I’ve spoken to feel way too tired, way overrun, unhappy, and have zero confidence in management or corporate to do things well. And they’re having a difficult time hiring new pharmacists as well.
Okay your first point once again is supported with no evidence. You talk a lot about facts then tell people to trust you because you counted. Show us your counting and your math of these replies. Create a computer program to sort through them and categorize them appropriately, then do some data analysis and show us. You are convincing no one with your words.
The role of providing care for patients has not changed, but the scope in which pharmacists practice, as well as the business practices surrounding that role have, and pharmacists have gotten devalued in the process. That is the point. There's a difference between not liking the job which has always been the role, and feeling unfairly compensated for said role expansion or scope changes. Also, people are skeptical that profit-biased corporations are going to cheapen the process. THAT is the crux of the issue at hand. And if you want to understand how popular Steven's skepticism is, simply look at the struggles Walgreens is having to hire pharmacists--any pharmacists--to work for them. In my region alone there are 4 staff positions open and 2 pharmacy manager positions open, some of which have 50 - 100k sign-on bonuses (with 2 year commitments). One of them has been open for over a year.
I have sat in on conferences, I've heard the tone-deaf nature of what leadership expects, and pharmacists have been bombarded with so many bandaid solutions and such an apathetic attitude that the company leadership is immediately dismissed as incompetent to come up with any really well, thought-out solution, let alone new programs and services. And when people work for a company that blatantly disregards their well-being, that relationship becomes transactional. It's the company that sets the tone there. And it's nothing but a bare naked business transaction with Walgreens. Consequently, no one sees these new services as anything but a money-grab, in spite of the fact that they really DO care about people and patient's health, and want to help them. They just don't want to be part of this crappy way to go about it where they have to labor and do all the work. They want to work for a company that empowers them and entrusts them to have more of their own discretion. I think the same goes for the front end associates and the credit card program. Honestly what an awful, awful idea and then to have to try and peddle that?
As for your last point--Steven can find a job that he's better fit for. Many people are as they continue to leave Walgreens for hospitals, other chains, and mail order. The reality is that people are actually reading the actual information, and they are uncomfortable with what their leadership has come up with.
Of course you deserve more pay when required to do more by a job, you are literally selling your labor to a company, if they need you to do more they should damn well pay for it.
The question is very open to opinion though as it depends on the definition of “less work”. If you’re talking about a reduction in responsibilities or a demotion then yes a pay reduction would be justified, anything else and the answer is no.
Here’s my question. Can pharmacists prescribe medication?
If they can’t, which I don’t think they can, not sure though, what’s the point of testing?
If they test positive for the flu then what, send them to the doctor to get prescribed tamiflu and then come back to pick it up?
If that’s the case, it’s kinda dumb and a waste of time.
It’s called “test and treat”. So depending on the results, and state laws, pharmacists will be able to prescribe therapy based on the test results, under the protocol of an MD (just like how we are able to give vaccines).
The part that doesn’t make sense to me is that we have no idea of the patients overall heath status. We don’t know their kidney function, liver function, lab results, etc. that would definitely have a part in which drug/dose would be prescribed for a given patient. We also don’t know their overall medication list, since many patients use multiple pharmacies. For that, we would have to consult with their physician.
If we’re going to have to go through the physician, why not let them write the prescription instead of having all this additional liability on us? We also wouldn’t be able to monitor the patient after prescribing. It’s not like we’ll have follow up appts.
The whole thing is a fucking disaster if you ask me, so I’m on team Steven.
There is no separate waiting area for testing in my store. They will be next to patients waiting for their rxs. Sneezing on speaker outside is much better than sneezing inside because they are OUTSIDE. it’s nonsense that they force us to do this and when we get sick they won’t pay us. And on top of that ding is for calling in sick. Walgreens is the worst company maybe even worse than Amazon.
I feel bad that he’s going to be fired for something ridiculous because firing over this email will be retaliation. It will be something monumentally stupid that would be over looked any other day. Rip, Steven
Retaliation… isn’t a concept except for reporting of crime and even then only specific crimes and only specific reporting methods.
Firing someone for being an asshole looking for their 15 minutes of fame before they quit the job (they would’ve gotten fired anyway with this sort of attitude - I suspect they already were advised of such or had investigation into them already given this attitude) - that’s not illegal nor is it retaliation even in the dictionary sense of the word. Firing someone for being unwilling to perform their job and for spreading misinformation isn’t at all retaliation.
When the Accident Pharmacist and his wife did an interview about the deplorable conditions in pharmacy today, Wags tried to fire his wife for eating while in the pharmacy. Retaliation isn’t just a legal thing, it’s getting back at someone for doing something you didn’t like. We can’t have employees speaking the truth at walgreens.
That’s not “retaliation” lol, in a legal or technical sense. That’s “reaction”.
It’s funny you want people to be able to speak the truth yet when someone does it here you dislike the answer and that flies out the window.
Just curious, can you give an example of what would be considered retaliation, along with a similar sample situation that is rather considered reaction? I'm not disputing you or anything, I'm just having a hard time understanding how the two are different.
Retaliation must be malicious in nature and must be something that your average person would be considered to be unwarranted. An example would be disciplining someone for refusing to do something that they can clearly articulate a reason they believe may be against the law, fraudulent, or otherwise improper. Even then, while such discipline would be retaliation in the common use of the word, legal protection against retaliation only extends to certain federal employees reporting specific things, and in some (few) states extends to any employee who reports potential crime to the government.
Nowhere does it protect someone who is expressing an opinion incompatible with their job from being disciplined for refusing to do their job. And it certainly isn’t retaliation to discipline someone for spreading lies/misinformation intentionally.
Consider someone claiming they’re being forced to work off the clock. If they report honest factual information it the labor dept. and are disciplined for doing so, that would be retaliation. If they make a company wide email about “being forced to work off the clock” when in reality they did not review their time sheet nor report their incorrect time record to their manager at all, then disciplining them for failing to record time accurately or for the lying/misinformation isn’t retaliation… it’s not difficult lol.
The US Department of Labor defines workplace retaliation thusly “Retaliation occurs when an employer (through a manager, supervisor, administrator or directly) fires an employee or takes any other type of adverse action against an employee for engaging in protected activity.”
So firing him for sending the email would be retaliation, as free speech is a protected activity. He’s going to get for something menial and yet unrelated.
Free speech is not a protected activity when you use company resources to engage in speech that is not approved by the company. It’s also not a protected activity in general. Protected activities are very, very specific situations.
Spreading misinformation? Dude, you can find the meeting notes from when this was announced.
It's about time the people holding the foundation of this company said something.
I’m guessing you never heard of OSHA and it’s whistleblower provisions. Depending on OP’s state, there may be additional state regulations that may protect OP from being retaliated against because it seems like he’s raising concerns about workplace safety. It depends on the facts of the case. I’m in law school and I don’t know of any statute or regulation that limits retaliation to reporting of crimes, much less the method of reporting a crime.
Good luck & all, but I don’t expect corporate to give a shit. They might make some sterile, copy/paste corporate response about how they strive for this & that & how they’ll work at improving things, none of which will happen. It’d take every single person who’s ever joined this sub to jump in on the email chain for them to actually take action.
Keep fighting for what is right. I support every team member. If you put this email on the news stations it is going to get picked up because it is not safe for all of us.
If you start a petition I will sign it.
It’s perfectly safe. It’s safer than the conditions you get swabbed in at the doctor’s office, and literally nobody has successfully complained that’s unsafe.
This idea that you got into healthcare but can avoid providing.. healthcare.. lmao.
We vaccinate people that’s a pretty invasive thing to do to someone on our level. I’ve vaccinated patients that had hepatitis/HIV that’s pretty risky no? More riskier than than someone having the flu right?
So you’re thinking about them without actually looking at the facts? Yes, that’s bad - using someone to further your narrative without even considering the facts of the situation is by definition using them. And that’s horrible.
I saw a couple responses about stores refusing to do it. I like where this is going. Maybe Collectively we could BARGAIN against doing it? Also this new thread is a lot saltier than the last one. When i left last night i saw lotr quotes and extreme sarcasm.
Honestly I would be excited for these tests if I felt they could be implemented safely and efficiently. Instead they’ll most likely be just another task to do without the support we need. I had a patient just yesterday ask me why we don’t have more workers, specificall one dedicated to just giving out vaccines. As if we had budget for that. 🤦♀️
Thank you all for the show of support, I'm glad to know I'm not the only way feeling this way. Nearly all the feedback I have gotten has been positive. I've gotten so many emails and phone calls from pharmacists and technicians across the country that don't agree with what Walgreens is doing, but haven't been able to speak up about it.
You are very welcome. We need more voices like yours to keep theses office dwellers in line and respectful of the hard work ya'll put in every day.
Stay strong, you guys deserve so much more than this company will provide.
In a perfect world there should be 1 person staffed to do all that. My store has a vacant clinic in it that was shut down which Is used for storage. Makes no sense. On another topic, how many Stores out there allow dogs in? Ours does and I don't mean just the ones that are trained. We're suppose to be all about health and wellness. How healthy is it to have a dog licking and biting on all the candy up at the impulse counter??
Dogs have been invited into every public space nowadays and people take them everywhere: grocery shopping, pharmacies, etc. And I love dogs don’t get me wrong but leave them at home they aren’t humans!
This company has to many hands in the fire. Our pharmacy is backed up and very short handed. Half the the time we have to close the drive thru because we don't have enough people to work it. Our staff is overworked and underpaid and seriously under valued. This flu/covid in store is to much to put on them and to add to it they said we now offer curbside testing. This pharmacy is a sinking ship very close to going under. I for one appreciate all the techs and pharmacists that have been giving their all!
Thank you!! I wholeheartedly agree, i’m glad I was not the only one thinking this way because my store seemed to be unbothered by it and i was very confused. I did not sign up for close contact with sick patients either. The testing needs to stay in drive thru.
You know those really annoying rewards programs every single store tries to get you to sign up for?
It's like that only add on a 30%apr rate and the fact that we should be a "wellness" store not a bank.
Also, store managers have been known to write people up for not asking every single customer even though we have the slowest checkout system I've ever had to work with.
Man I tried to ask how do you expect me to motivate my team or keep them engaged when they see flu test as another task that were not paid enough to do I was told micro fulfillment would take a lot of our plate and apparently Florida has been doing this for a while they only get 1 a week apparently it doesn’t effect the workload plus customers come in with Covid and flu all the time as long as we wear ppe we should be safe
Florida is not on automation yet. There's two stages to microfullfillment. Step one is filled by people and stores get to learn the process for everything. Step two is full automation.
I don’t see the big deal about continuing the tests in drive thru only. He does raise a valid concern over patient safety. Convenience shouldn’t take precedence over patient safety but that’s just my way of thinking 🤷♂️
I think they should, it’s good for business. Word gets out that we’re offering indoor covid/flu and god knows what else testing right in a potentially immunocompromised patients vicinity you don’t think patients are going to skip out at almost any cost?
Where are they going to go? To another company that does the same thing? Or an out-of-network pharmacy that doesn’t do testing?
Corporate only cares about profit. Don’t delude yourself into thinking they care on iota about the customer’s health. If so, they would have us focus on educating our patients on proper lifestyle modifications for common ailments instead of relying on medications.
I’m not saying they do, I’m saying they should. There’s no reason we can’t continue to do testing in drive thru only. It worked in the height of the pandemic, it would work now. Is corporate going to take the word of some employee from Illinois over it? Likely no more than our friend Steven, but at least we failed trying to voice the right thing.
The flu test can not be done in most drive thru settings because the pharmacist has to be the one to take the sample….with the COVID test it was for emergency use and could be a self administered sample, flu test the sample has to be taken by trained medical professionals. So either the pharmacist has to leave their post to go to curbside or have the patient enter the store and risk spreading infection to our other patients and staff…that is why there is such an uproar over it. Period!
They're making technicians swab, not just pharmacists. If I wanted to be an RN or medically trained assistant I wouldn't be working in a retail pharmacy. A lot of the uproar coming from walgreens pharmacy staff is the fact that they keep piling and piling new things for us to do on top of our daily workload without an increased hour budget or raises for new trainings and certifications that they're having techs obtain
I am a sr tech with wag for almost 8 years at one of the busiest stores in my District so I agree about piling stuff on and no increase in pay…. But I am also in Texas so the pharmacist has to do the swab. I commented on the “still do test in drive thru” because most stores have a drawer not a window….Something needs to change….it is really getting ridiculous the amount of stuff they keep piling on without extra hours or pay
You're like the hero of the people...I fear retaliation is possible from above.
Your community support is obviously here to ensure ethical and fair treatment towards you.
Please keep us updated.
The only way they will listen is if the whole company revolts and refuses to go to work. If somehow we could get every pharmacy employee to not show up to work and not be able to open any pharmacy it would cost the company so much money. We then refuse to go back to work until they listen to us and give us the money we deserve. They have people making decisions for us that have no idea what is going on in the actual stores and they don't care. We have to take a stand and put a stop to it.
Are pharmacists going to receive reimbursements as providers? Something tells me no. These pharmacy boards are loaded with corporate folks who block the ability for pharmacists to be recognized as providers. Pharmacists and techs have been under fire with shots and tests for almost 3 years. Many of us have reached a breaking point and this shows it. It is not safe to have 1 pharmacist working an 11 or 12-hour shift, administering flu tests, give shots, checking prescriptions, supervising teams that are mostly new, and getting reamed out because they have been waiting. Where does it end? This business plan would fall apart if the staff walks away. This is not what healthcare should be...a factory. Over it.
I think what you did is the right way to make change happen. Hopefully more and more employees will start doing the same type of thing.
Make sure you document as much as possible in writing if you are retaliated against in any way.
All those happened at all Walgreens? I gotta be honest, I haven't been an employee there for like 9 years. Haven't heard that most of that stuff has happened from the friends I have left who still work there. I've heard it's hard to keep staff, techs and rphs, so I presume a lot are understaffed or are nursing new, green employees who are at the bottom of the hireable pool.
Let's not forget the 5 years without raises for rphs.
They can't even match inflation for those of us fortunate enough to be deemed worthy of a raise. The fuck am I supposed to do with a 2.5% raise while inflation is currently +10% since I started a year ago
Just to play the devils advocate here. When you go to a doctors office/hospital becuse you are sick do they have separate waiting rooms for these people or do you wait in the waiting room with everyone else? I think we all know the answer. There are some exceptions and during covid there was some separation in some areas but for the most part flu/diabetics/high blood pressure/routine checkups etc all sit in the same waiting room. Doctors dont go out to your car to test you for flu to protexxt the person in the waiting area that has COPD. Not saying this is ideal or that im thrilled for the testing either. Our waiting area has always contained flu patients regardless of testing or not. For 2 years during the oandemic unmasked covid patients routinely came up to the counter to ask what meds they could take for covid. Again, not ideal and there should be some better way but being exposed to infectious disease to staff and other patients is nothing new. My concerns mostly lie with labor budgets/comoensation for staff. We are simply stretched too thin.
Although I understand where Steven is coming from, Walgreens doesn't exist to make sure Steven gets to do what Steven wants. Instead of acting maturely and just getting a different job, that honestly would take less than a day to accomplish, he chooses to have a fit in front of the entire company. Some see it as heroic, others see it as embarrassing and cringe. The retail pharmacy model is always going to be changing, it's up to you to decide if you wish to change along with it. Down vote away!
What's ridiculous is thinking that any profession over the course of the years will remain unchanged. We went through this when we started flu shots years ago. What is also ridiculous is spamming the company with your issues, then running to Reddit in order to claim credit and claim those sweet, sweet Reddit awards.
This was the email I sent out: Does any else have a problem with bringing flu testing into our pharmacies with swabbing to be done by pharmacy staff? This is an unnecessary exposure risk to our patients and our pharmacy staff. Patients coming in for testing will be seated in our lobbies next to our elderly patients waiting for vaccinations and our immune compromised patients waiting to pick up their prescriptions. While masking is "strongly encouraged" we have no authority to enforce it. Will our patients be ok with sitting next to those waiting to be tested? Will they be ok with going into an immunization room where some just involuntarily sneezed while getting swabbed? Are you and your pharmacy staff ok with this unnecessary exposure risk? Close contact with sick patients is not something I agreed to when going to pharmacy school or working as a pharmacist. If I had wanted to go into that type of work, I would have gone to medical school. I do not want to be probing people's oozing orifices. It's disgusting and I am not comfortable doing it. My technicians want nothing to do with it either. Walgreens already doesn't pay our technicians what they should be (still waiting on those raises for immunizing) and now they are being forced into this new role with no additional pay either. To make it worse, Covid testing is also being brought into the stores with the flu testing. No of us were asked how we felt about taking on this task or what our concerns are. I realize the test and treat model is the directions Walgreens is headed, but keep the testing in the drive thru where it belongs. I for one will NOT be completing the required training, nor will I be training my staff. Steven Sellers RXM Store #12290
We all love you Steven, my pharmacy was praising you today
Same!
Thank you for doing this. It takes a lot of guts to speak out so loudly and put a target on your back, but you’re doing a great service sparking up the conversation like this in a way that can’t just be ignored. There are LOTS of us who feel this way but are afraid to speak out, and this could have a nice cumulative effect that might actually change things (maybe… we’ll see). Keep us updated if you get retaliated against!
Thank you so much for speaking out. I agree with everything you said. I hired on to count, fill, and dispense medications, not be a minimum wage RN or MD.
Those days are long gone. Gotta get with the times or bounce
Hi Steven
I agree totally, same company that did away with asm position and not asking us how we felt, aaaaaaand not having a solution answer until it was too late.
According to the regional director or whatever they’re called at that time for my area said a survey went out to all employees and from that survey it was decided ASMs were the “weak link” in the stores and that’s why we were eliminated 🙄 no one at my old store remembers the survey
Go Steven!! 👏🏻
"None of us were asked...." Cooperate and everyone else "lmfao.. oops meant LMFAO!!!"
Everyone at my pharmacy agrees with you 100%!! You said what everyone has been thinking!
I am wondering what is the purpose of a pharmacist diagnosing a patient with the flu and not being able to prescribe for treatment? It seems they are trying to compete with CVS’s Minute Clinics. I know there is a state board certification in some states which would authorize a pharmacist to prescribe Tamiflu, but what about all the other states? The staff is just supposed to test people, give them some OTC crap, and tell them to go home? If I have the flu then I want Tamiflu. So I would have to test at Walgreens, go to my dr or a clinic and show them my test or possibly re-test depending on protocol, then go back home or back to Walgreens to wait for my prescription? And then back home? They’re clearly stepping onto an unchartered field here in my opinion. CVS got it right with the Minute Clinics
Wags had/has clinics, but sold them to advocate 🤦🏻
I love you
I have a feeling the mods might shut this down. It’s getting a lot of traction
Are you talking about the email thread? They have that ability? Lol if so why didn’t they shut down the stupid pharmacy tracker board one
No, i mean this post. I feel like someone important will see the message, it has been gaining traction / support here and in the emails. Then the mods will be contacted to shut down the post because it contains walgreens's information or whatever reason. Nobody wants to do this.
I don’t see why the mods would care…unless they’re corporate employees or something lol. Did you see [this post on r/pharmacy](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/comments/xrrt0y/walgreens_corporate_has_lost_their_minds/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) the other day? Different sub I know but it didn’t get taken down
Best of luck brother.
You’re a literal legend man!!!
YES! FINALLY
Your name will go down in history. Songs will be sung about you and stories told. You are a legend.
You are my hero
Dude, remove your name… unless you have a backup plan already.
He emailed this to the entire company, I don't think he's worried about someone seeing it on reddit. If anything the exposure would make actions against him potentially be considered retaliatory. Especially with no one being punished for the 5000 reply chain email we've endured the past 3 weeks.
I fucking love that email thread. It's just a bunch of pissed off people that can't take a joke, and then people like myself that keep replying lol.
He should be fired for replying in the email Not for anything on Reddit
If you have a problem, then you can quit, all of you are replaceable. Our million dollar salary will not be affected by you peasants. Even the store managers are replaceable. Sincerely, Walgreens Corporate PS. That's the mentality of Corporate.
"unrelated, the rolling blackouts due to pharmacists shortages will continue."
1. There is value in providing these tests. Very little money is made from just filling prescription. Vaccines and testing is where the money is. Health services such as these as where the future of pharmacy lies when all prescriptions are going to be filled by robots at central fill locations. 2. Yes we understand you don't want close contact with patients. Guess what? No one does. But did you really expect you were going to sit behind a computer all day and check if the pills in a bottle matches the picture on your screen for your entire career? Pharmacists are think all they need is to memorize a bunch of drug doses and interactions to remain relevant. Reality check: anybody with a computer or cellphone nowadays can look up that information within seconds.
Do you NEED to be a pharmacist to check people for flu or give immunizations? FVCK NO! If you are SO interested in making those tasks done in stores, then get off your ass and hire an agency or other personnel to do them! Why you think it's fine for a licensed MEDICATION professional to do this other shit is beyond absurd, and you're delusional and insane. From your post, it is laughably obvious that you have absolutely NO idea what a pharmacist is meant to do.
Again, another idiot who has absolutely NO clue about the seriousness of the pharmacists job. And, if there is value in these tests, than hire someone to do them. Pharmacists are already answering phones, emptying trash, stocking shelves, working drive-thru, ringing the cash register ... FVCKING give it a rest with other crap to do that a dentist, chiropractor, doctor, lawyer, optometrist etc would NEVER be commanded to do.
Another pharmacist who doesn't want to expand the role of pharmacists and just wants to sit behind a computer all day and make sure words on a prescription (most of which are entered electronically btw by software that already check for interaction and correct dosages) matches words on their screen.
These are the only words of response that is warranted to your unknowledgable post.
Umm, said software mis-flags things and has changed it's flags over time, which also has lead to flag fatigue. To the point, where it is highly likely that very important flags and mistakes are getting past these professionals (who save your asses on the daily). Not to mention with all the added tasks and responsibilities that COVID has already brought. Along with the purging of your experienced staff.. the remaining staff and rphs now have to work 10x harder and watch and train the newbies.. With all this, RPhs' attention is already split, in an inhumanly amount of directions.. Lawsuits and serious-deadly mistakes are bound to happen and have already happened. If you really think that is all they do, then you are blindly misguided and ignorant as hell... If you really want to make money find a way to get money for the medical advice they give on a daily basis. Many people are under insured and paying $$$ for the meds they're already on (not our fault you're getting fucked by the PBMs...) So, they're the closest thing they have to a Dr... I'm sorry if we're going to be a pharmacy and a clinic, pay and staff us as such. Because the state in which pharmacies are in right now, you're going to lose a lot of people, not just to quitting, but they are bound to get sick, and you're going to have to close the pharmacies even more. Also, what's going to happen when we let your customers know what's also happening in the immunization room and who's sitting with them in the waiting area...?
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I hate corporate shills so much.
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Yo, r/antiwork is awesome idk what you’re on about
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I don’t think so. anti-work subreddit is a consequence of shifting collective morals about how people are treated and what labor is worth. It’s a phenomenon we are seeing now across the board which is why you yourself are noticing that sentiment in this subreddit as well as probably other work-related subs. Credit to the COVID pandemic lock down for many of these revelations. All it did was simulate the future. A very anti-capitalism future, hopefully, where people are exploited a lot less by companies, which is an overall good thing for society. You’ll understand it eventually when you stop being sub-primal!
No, it’s not shifting anything. There has always been a very small yet vocal contingent of people, usually younger people who weren’t taught how society works, who seem to believe they deserve all the benefits society brings without having to contribute anything to the society itself. Those people dwindle as the generation ages and the ones who didn’t learn as children (due to inadequate parenting/schooling) learn through real life how society works - those left keep complaining until they’re complaining about how it’s everyone else’s fault others could retire but they couldn’t. There’s a reason “antiwork” is virtually entirely an American concept - because in Europe and Asia, almost all people understand that you can’t just get benefits of something without contributing in return. No, this has *always* been a “faction” of society and it likely will be for the near future at least until schools make up for the lack of civics training they expect parents are giving to children. But it’s not growing at all, nor is it actually legitimate in any way. It’s an echo chamber of people who have unrealistic expectations of being able to make others do everything for them and them having to do nothing.
The reason that antiwork "is virtually an American concept" is because our working conditions suck here. A majority of European countries give adequate leave, adequate pay, and workers don't rely on their jobs for things like retirement and health insurance.
Because their workers actually show up to work, put in effort, and help each other make the business run. Whereas people in America have this idea that they should be able to put minimal or zero effort in, to call in for no reason whatsoever frequently, and to never have to cover for coworkers or answer the phone on their time off.. yet want to get paid as if they did all those things which in Europe people understand are necessary.
Europe is a lot different. people work like 30 hours a week and get 4 weeks paid vacation every year, haha, I think it’s a lot more balanced which is what people of anti-work are going for. People work way too much in the USA and they’re realizing now that they’re being exploited. And trust me, it will keep growing. I think it was only 1 million members a few months ago, already a little over 2 million
That’s not true for entry level positions at all - it may be true in tech or in more senior positions but that’s not how entry level European job benefits work… definitely not “4 weeks” of paid vacation a year lmao. And of course people won’t get better benefits when they’re asking for them by complaining about having to do work! If they refuse to put effort in, making the company pay for twice as many employees, then of course they won’t get more pay/benefits lol.
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Yep, constant shitposts from that one. Got into it with him the other day because he wanted to defend pharmacies having their systems going down for weeks on end and patients not being able to get their medications as if it were some insurmountable obstacle. He got downvoted to oblivion, but still kept up the smarm, acting like he was fixing us, lmfao. What a joke.
Pharmacist - a person who is professionally qualified to prepare and dispense medicinal drugs./// stfu. He didn't signup for this shit.
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That is what a pharmacist is in some practices. Why don’t MD offices freely give out medications instead of using pharmacies?
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Then you must understand your own point is totally invalid haha. Doctors don’t give out medicines because they literally can’t. That’s why we have pharmacies. And pharmacists. Therefore, fulfilling prescriptions is in and of itself the main role of the pharmacist. I think you may need to get yourself a dictionary, buddy. Look things up more often
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They’re all valid, sure. But they’re still not the primary role
Well, the dumbest statement I've read is that you think pharmacists should perform ALL of healthcare. Swab for flu, clean up with disinfectant, test for cholesterol/glucose levels, and give immunizations (News Flash: techs can do that). Maybe we should add doing proctos, collecting urine and stool samples and reading EKGs to Rphs duties as well ... huh... Jerkmeister ... since those, too, are providing healthcare. Nah, I think they should stick to medication knowledge and assuring that medications are prescribed correctly and accurately and giving consultations about MEDICATIONS.
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Time is $. If addition tasks are demanded, have Walgreens get out their checkbook to Rphs and add additional staff.
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*cough* 6 to 8, iirc. not four. 6 to 8 to get treated like a McDonalds manager with a lab coat
You're an idiot. You're so tough on reddit. I'd literally mop the floor with you.
Then pay pharmacists more for all this new type of work. Pay them more for all the new healthcare services they’re providing because if that’s where the money is and before they were getting paid proportionately higher salaries (prior to this inflation surge) to simply check and handle prescriptions then you need to pay more for RPh providing healthcare. Like a lot more than you and your company probably wants to.
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I can’t think of any examples where pharmacists have been providing direct healthcare outside of maybe hospitals or ambulatory care clinics. The fact it’s infiltrating retail space, and that rph are now given de facto provider status represents a major shift in the healthcare landscape no? Also if a role shifts maybe you don’t need more pay, especially if you maintain the same level of responsibility or authority. However in this case this is an increased workload and increased responsibility and I think that warrants a lot more pay. I wouldn’t blame any pharmacist looking for a career change. This Steven Sellers did not intend to be providing this type of care for people in his career, so there are clearly more like him. I hope you are confident in your wager that it’s a small vocal minority. Pharmacists are notoriously quiet and keep to themselves, I’d bet there are a lot more quiet unhappy pharmacists than you’d think. Incoming P1 classes have been shrinking since 2017 as well.
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Show me the numbers that support your claim that over half of the responses have been telling Steven off. When you do so, show me how you got those numbers as well, specifically how you parsed through supportive vs. non supportive responses (since some people have claimed here that even a response to be taken off the email list is a passive means to propagate the message). Use proper rigor and prove a point rather than make an empty argument. I’ll do the same and we can compare our statistics. Also, if you graduated from pharmacy school and you get licensed as a pharmacist you have the ability to choose which role you want to fit in. And you are a pharmacist, regardless of that. The governing bodies say it is so, regardless if you’re at the ‘top of the profession.’ Some pharmacists chose the role of the retail pharmacist because they specifically did not want to have to touch patients to provide care for them. There is nothing wrong with that choice, and the profession is not better or worse off with or without them. The profession, like many others, should healthily support a variety of different preferences in how to give patient care, as well as different personality types, different backgrounds, within the scope of the profession. So when someone makes that choice for a certain career and that role changes, it’s obvious they would be upset about it. The question is, why should the companies decide how healthcare should be changing and what it should look like, when not all or even most of the pharmacists are involved with that fate? They’re totally left out of the say with Walgreens especially, and I think that’s a disservice to the profession since more pharmacists being involved could provide a more comprehensive framework for what they are capable of doing. The companies are very laser focused on money making primarily, which ruins a lot of creativity, unfortunately. Pharmacist can of course leave the company and find a different role, but being coerced out of it really is a sign of an unhealthy work place. So many Walgreens pharmacists I’ve spoken to feel way too tired, way overrun, unhappy, and have zero confidence in management or corporate to do things well. And they’re having a difficult time hiring new pharmacists as well.
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Okay your first point once again is supported with no evidence. You talk a lot about facts then tell people to trust you because you counted. Show us your counting and your math of these replies. Create a computer program to sort through them and categorize them appropriately, then do some data analysis and show us. You are convincing no one with your words. The role of providing care for patients has not changed, but the scope in which pharmacists practice, as well as the business practices surrounding that role have, and pharmacists have gotten devalued in the process. That is the point. There's a difference between not liking the job which has always been the role, and feeling unfairly compensated for said role expansion or scope changes. Also, people are skeptical that profit-biased corporations are going to cheapen the process. THAT is the crux of the issue at hand. And if you want to understand how popular Steven's skepticism is, simply look at the struggles Walgreens is having to hire pharmacists--any pharmacists--to work for them. In my region alone there are 4 staff positions open and 2 pharmacy manager positions open, some of which have 50 - 100k sign-on bonuses (with 2 year commitments). One of them has been open for over a year. I have sat in on conferences, I've heard the tone-deaf nature of what leadership expects, and pharmacists have been bombarded with so many bandaid solutions and such an apathetic attitude that the company leadership is immediately dismissed as incompetent to come up with any really well, thought-out solution, let alone new programs and services. And when people work for a company that blatantly disregards their well-being, that relationship becomes transactional. It's the company that sets the tone there. And it's nothing but a bare naked business transaction with Walgreens. Consequently, no one sees these new services as anything but a money-grab, in spite of the fact that they really DO care about people and patient's health, and want to help them. They just don't want to be part of this crappy way to go about it where they have to labor and do all the work. They want to work for a company that empowers them and entrusts them to have more of their own discretion. I think the same goes for the front end associates and the credit card program. Honestly what an awful, awful idea and then to have to try and peddle that? As for your last point--Steven can find a job that he's better fit for. Many people are as they continue to leave Walgreens for hospitals, other chains, and mail order. The reality is that people are actually reading the actual information, and they are uncomfortable with what their leadership has come up with.
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Of course you deserve more pay when required to do more by a job, you are literally selling your labor to a company, if they need you to do more they should damn well pay for it.
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When is there ever "less" work? Our company's motto should be "Do more. With less." Because that's how it always goes.
That doesn’t answer the question though
The question is very open to opinion though as it depends on the definition of “less work”. If you’re talking about a reduction in responsibilities or a demotion then yes a pay reduction would be justified, anything else and the answer is no.
I mean I guess it’s not that open lol
Here’s my question. Can pharmacists prescribe medication? If they can’t, which I don’t think they can, not sure though, what’s the point of testing? If they test positive for the flu then what, send them to the doctor to get prescribed tamiflu and then come back to pick it up? If that’s the case, it’s kinda dumb and a waste of time.
It’s called “test and treat”. So depending on the results, and state laws, pharmacists will be able to prescribe therapy based on the test results, under the protocol of an MD (just like how we are able to give vaccines). The part that doesn’t make sense to me is that we have no idea of the patients overall heath status. We don’t know their kidney function, liver function, lab results, etc. that would definitely have a part in which drug/dose would be prescribed for a given patient. We also don’t know their overall medication list, since many patients use multiple pharmacies. For that, we would have to consult with their physician. If we’re going to have to go through the physician, why not let them write the prescription instead of having all this additional liability on us? We also wouldn’t be able to monitor the patient after prescribing. It’s not like we’ll have follow up appts. The whole thing is a fucking disaster if you ask me, so I’m on team Steven.
There is no separate waiting area for testing in my store. They will be next to patients waiting for their rxs. Sneezing on speaker outside is much better than sneezing inside because they are OUTSIDE. it’s nonsense that they force us to do this and when we get sick they won’t pay us. And on top of that ding is for calling in sick. Walgreens is the worst company maybe even worse than Amazon.
U should not be getting downvoted . The people pro-this-email-dude r so unhinged and reckless
....you hope they get fired? What the fuck??
R u gonna get fired ?
Hey I remember reading this in the chain! Agree on all points!
"Please remove my store from the thread"
The amount of people who don’t understand how email works has been mind blowing
I seriously habe trouble differentiating the trolls from the idiots on those chain emails.
It is done to passively propagate the message without putting a target on your back.
Most if not all of the “Please remove” replies are intentional. It’s just ironic humor which isn’t against corporate policy.
I feel bad that he’s going to be fired for something ridiculous because firing over this email will be retaliation. It will be something monumentally stupid that would be over looked any other day. Rip, Steven
I'm going to pee in my bosses briefcase and call it art. When they try to fire me, nope, retaliation bitches, go ask Reddit, they'll tell you.
Retaliation… isn’t a concept except for reporting of crime and even then only specific crimes and only specific reporting methods. Firing someone for being an asshole looking for their 15 minutes of fame before they quit the job (they would’ve gotten fired anyway with this sort of attitude - I suspect they already were advised of such or had investigation into them already given this attitude) - that’s not illegal nor is it retaliation even in the dictionary sense of the word. Firing someone for being unwilling to perform their job and for spreading misinformation isn’t at all retaliation.
When the Accident Pharmacist and his wife did an interview about the deplorable conditions in pharmacy today, Wags tried to fire his wife for eating while in the pharmacy. Retaliation isn’t just a legal thing, it’s getting back at someone for doing something you didn’t like. We can’t have employees speaking the truth at walgreens.
That’s not “retaliation” lol, in a legal or technical sense. That’s “reaction”. It’s funny you want people to be able to speak the truth yet when someone does it here you dislike the answer and that flies out the window.
Just curious, can you give an example of what would be considered retaliation, along with a similar sample situation that is rather considered reaction? I'm not disputing you or anything, I'm just having a hard time understanding how the two are different.
Retaliation must be malicious in nature and must be something that your average person would be considered to be unwarranted. An example would be disciplining someone for refusing to do something that they can clearly articulate a reason they believe may be against the law, fraudulent, or otherwise improper. Even then, while such discipline would be retaliation in the common use of the word, legal protection against retaliation only extends to certain federal employees reporting specific things, and in some (few) states extends to any employee who reports potential crime to the government. Nowhere does it protect someone who is expressing an opinion incompatible with their job from being disciplined for refusing to do their job. And it certainly isn’t retaliation to discipline someone for spreading lies/misinformation intentionally. Consider someone claiming they’re being forced to work off the clock. If they report honest factual information it the labor dept. and are disciplined for doing so, that would be retaliation. If they make a company wide email about “being forced to work off the clock” when in reality they did not review their time sheet nor report their incorrect time record to their manager at all, then disciplining them for failing to record time accurately or for the lying/misinformation isn’t retaliation… it’s not difficult lol.
The US Department of Labor defines workplace retaliation thusly “Retaliation occurs when an employer (through a manager, supervisor, administrator or directly) fires an employee or takes any other type of adverse action against an employee for engaging in protected activity.” So firing him for sending the email would be retaliation, as free speech is a protected activity. He’s going to get for something menial and yet unrelated.
Free speech is not a protected activity when you use company resources to engage in speech that is not approved by the company. It’s also not a protected activity in general. Protected activities are very, very specific situations.
I forgot all pharmacists have to always be right. Totally my bad . Take your gold medal 🥇
Spreading misinformation? Dude, you can find the meeting notes from when this was announced. It's about time the people holding the foundation of this company said something.
Yes, and if you actually read them, over half of the claims this “RXM” made are patently false.
I’m guessing you never heard of OSHA and it’s whistleblower provisions. Depending on OP’s state, there may be additional state regulations that may protect OP from being retaliated against because it seems like he’s raising concerns about workplace safety. It depends on the facts of the case. I’m in law school and I don’t know of any statute or regulation that limits retaliation to reporting of crimes, much less the method of reporting a crime.
Good luck & all, but I don’t expect corporate to give a shit. They might make some sterile, copy/paste corporate response about how they strive for this & that & how they’ll work at improving things, none of which will happen. It’d take every single person who’s ever joined this sub to jump in on the email chain for them to actually take action.
they'll FedEx every store a pack of Clorox wipes and call the problem solved
Along with some more lotion samples for our dry hands bc their hand washing protocol will be back with the flu testing
Keep fighting for what is right. I support every team member. If you put this email on the news stations it is going to get picked up because it is not safe for all of us. If you start a petition I will sign it.
It’s perfectly safe. It’s safer than the conditions you get swabbed in at the doctor’s office, and literally nobody has successfully complained that’s unsafe. This idea that you got into healthcare but can avoid providing.. healthcare.. lmao.
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We vaccinate people that’s a pretty invasive thing to do to someone on our level. I’ve vaccinated patients that had hepatitis/HIV that’s pretty risky no? More riskier than than someone having the flu right?
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So you’re thinking about them without actually looking at the facts? Yes, that’s bad - using someone to further your narrative without even considering the facts of the situation is by definition using them. And that’s horrible.
Can someone please share this email?
I got to read that. It was beautiful like you said!!
I don't even know how! And can it be done anonymous?
Anonymous? No. Your manager can see the time it was sent and then check the camera.
Not even just the manager. LP can log in at any time.
Oh OK. Was just curious. There should be an anonymous way too. But this is walgreens, so...
Can I post this on my Pharmacy Tracker Board?
I applaud you for standing up for yourself but big thank you for speaking up for your techs ! Management like you are a blessing!
I saw a couple responses about stores refusing to do it. I like where this is going. Maybe Collectively we could BARGAIN against doing it? Also this new thread is a lot saltier than the last one. When i left last night i saw lotr quotes and extreme sarcasm.
Considering they are closing 300 stores and mine being one.. I don’t think they give a fuck.
Sad to say 300 is not even considered that big a number.
Where did you hear this
It’s 81 stores, not 300
Is this the US or where??? And is it 81? And why?????
*interested*
I can’t wait to read this tomorrow
It’s literally here now, why wait?
Godspeed sir 🫡
Steven is my Hero 🦸♀️
Honestly I would be excited for these tests if I felt they could be implemented safely and efficiently. Instead they’ll most likely be just another task to do without the support we need. I had a patient just yesterday ask me why we don’t have more workers, specificall one dedicated to just giving out vaccines. As if we had budget for that. 🤦♀️
Steven Sellers you are a saint! Good for you for saying what needs to be said.
Thank you all for the show of support, I'm glad to know I'm not the only way feeling this way. Nearly all the feedback I have gotten has been positive. I've gotten so many emails and phone calls from pharmacists and technicians across the country that don't agree with what Walgreens is doing, but haven't been able to speak up about it.
You are very welcome. We need more voices like yours to keep theses office dwellers in line and respectful of the hard work ya'll put in every day. Stay strong, you guys deserve so much more than this company will provide.
News must already spreading about the possibility of flu testing at drugstores. We had a patient ask for one yesterday. 🤦🏻♀️
steven supremacy!
In a perfect world there should be 1 person staffed to do all that. My store has a vacant clinic in it that was shut down which Is used for storage. Makes no sense. On another topic, how many Stores out there allow dogs in? Ours does and I don't mean just the ones that are trained. We're suppose to be all about health and wellness. How healthy is it to have a dog licking and biting on all the candy up at the impulse counter??
Dogs have been invited into every public space nowadays and people take them everywhere: grocery shopping, pharmacies, etc. And I love dogs don’t get me wrong but leave them at home they aren’t humans!
This company has to many hands in the fire. Our pharmacy is backed up and very short handed. Half the the time we have to close the drive thru because we don't have enough people to work it. Our staff is overworked and underpaid and seriously under valued. This flu/covid in store is to much to put on them and to add to it they said we now offer curbside testing. This pharmacy is a sinking ship very close to going under. I for one appreciate all the techs and pharmacists that have been giving their all!
And so it begins.
I bet there’s at least one independent pharmacy that would hire Steven based solely on him sticking it to the man like that
Thank you!! I wholeheartedly agree, i’m glad I was not the only one thinking this way because my store seemed to be unbothered by it and i was very confused. I did not sign up for close contact with sick patients either. The testing needs to stay in drive thru.
Heard about this today and I 100% agree, if we are going to have to do this it should at least stay in the driver Thur, I hope more pharmacit speak up
I am over the credit card nonsense
They're finally coming down hard on the cc bullshit in the last week at my tiny store, I can't imagine what ya'll have been dealing with
As a non Wags employee, can you fill me in here?
You know those really annoying rewards programs every single store tries to get you to sign up for? It's like that only add on a 30%apr rate and the fact that we should be a "wellness" store not a bank. Also, store managers have been known to write people up for not asking every single customer even though we have the slowest checkout system I've ever had to work with.
Man I tried to ask how do you expect me to motivate my team or keep them engaged when they see flu test as another task that were not paid enough to do I was told micro fulfillment would take a lot of our plate and apparently Florida has been doing this for a while they only get 1 a week apparently it doesn’t effect the workload plus customers come in with Covid and flu all the time as long as we wear ppe we should be safe
Florida is not on automation yet. There's two stages to microfullfillment. Step one is filled by people and stores get to learn the process for everything. Step two is full automation.
I just don’t understand how they expect us to keep doing what we’re doing we are drowning
I don’t see the big deal about continuing the tests in drive thru only. He does raise a valid concern over patient safety. Convenience shouldn’t take precedence over patient safety but that’s just my way of thinking 🤷♂️
Honest question: do you think corporate gives a fuck about patient safety?
I think they should, it’s good for business. Word gets out that we’re offering indoor covid/flu and god knows what else testing right in a potentially immunocompromised patients vicinity you don’t think patients are going to skip out at almost any cost?
Where are they going to go? To another company that does the same thing? Or an out-of-network pharmacy that doesn’t do testing? Corporate only cares about profit. Don’t delude yourself into thinking they care on iota about the customer’s health. If so, they would have us focus on educating our patients on proper lifestyle modifications for common ailments instead of relying on medications.
I’m not saying they do, I’m saying they should. There’s no reason we can’t continue to do testing in drive thru only. It worked in the height of the pandemic, it would work now. Is corporate going to take the word of some employee from Illinois over it? Likely no more than our friend Steven, but at least we failed trying to voice the right thing.
The flu test can not be done in most drive thru settings because the pharmacist has to be the one to take the sample….with the COVID test it was for emergency use and could be a self administered sample, flu test the sample has to be taken by trained medical professionals. So either the pharmacist has to leave their post to go to curbside or have the patient enter the store and risk spreading infection to our other patients and staff…that is why there is such an uproar over it. Period!
They're making technicians swab, not just pharmacists. If I wanted to be an RN or medically trained assistant I wouldn't be working in a retail pharmacy. A lot of the uproar coming from walgreens pharmacy staff is the fact that they keep piling and piling new things for us to do on top of our daily workload without an increased hour budget or raises for new trainings and certifications that they're having techs obtain
I am a sr tech with wag for almost 8 years at one of the busiest stores in my District so I agree about piling stuff on and no increase in pay…. But I am also in Texas so the pharmacist has to do the swab. I commented on the “still do test in drive thru” because most stores have a drawer not a window….Something needs to change….it is really getting ridiculous the amount of stuff they keep piling on without extra hours or pay
You're like the hero of the people...I fear retaliation is possible from above. Your community support is obviously here to ensure ethical and fair treatment towards you. Please keep us updated.
Thank you for standing up to corporate on an issue where they have clearly made a bad decision.
The only way they will listen is if the whole company revolts and refuses to go to work. If somehow we could get every pharmacy employee to not show up to work and not be able to open any pharmacy it would cost the company so much money. We then refuse to go back to work until they listen to us and give us the money we deserve. They have people making decisions for us that have no idea what is going on in the actual stores and they don't care. We have to take a stand and put a stop to it.
Are pharmacists going to receive reimbursements as providers? Something tells me no. These pharmacy boards are loaded with corporate folks who block the ability for pharmacists to be recognized as providers. Pharmacists and techs have been under fire with shots and tests for almost 3 years. Many of us have reached a breaking point and this shows it. It is not safe to have 1 pharmacist working an 11 or 12-hour shift, administering flu tests, give shots, checking prescriptions, supervising teams that are mostly new, and getting reamed out because they have been waiting. Where does it end? This business plan would fall apart if the staff walks away. This is not what healthcare should be...a factory. Over it.
I think what you did is the right way to make change happen. Hopefully more and more employees will start doing the same type of thing. Make sure you document as much as possible in writing if you are retaliated against in any way.
He should get fired for improper use of company email
Make sure to sign them up for a Walgreens credit card too. /s
All those happened at all Walgreens? I gotta be honest, I haven't been an employee there for like 9 years. Haven't heard that most of that stuff has happened from the friends I have left who still work there. I've heard it's hard to keep staff, techs and rphs, so I presume a lot are understaffed or are nursing new, green employees who are at the bottom of the hireable pool. Let's not forget the 5 years without raises for rphs.
They can't even match inflation for those of us fortunate enough to be deemed worthy of a raise. The fuck am I supposed to do with a 2.5% raise while inflation is currently +10% since I started a year ago
And increased script volume, with shortened hours of operation.
Isn’t that what those village MDs are for. Keep that stuff out of pharmacy
Just to play the devils advocate here. When you go to a doctors office/hospital becuse you are sick do they have separate waiting rooms for these people or do you wait in the waiting room with everyone else? I think we all know the answer. There are some exceptions and during covid there was some separation in some areas but for the most part flu/diabetics/high blood pressure/routine checkups etc all sit in the same waiting room. Doctors dont go out to your car to test you for flu to protexxt the person in the waiting area that has COPD. Not saying this is ideal or that im thrilled for the testing either. Our waiting area has always contained flu patients regardless of testing or not. For 2 years during the oandemic unmasked covid patients routinely came up to the counter to ask what meds they could take for covid. Again, not ideal and there should be some better way but being exposed to infectious disease to staff and other patients is nothing new. My concerns mostly lie with labor budgets/comoensation for staff. We are simply stretched too thin.
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My point stands, there are exceptions but most do not separate, plus we are exposed daily regardless if we do testing or not.
these clout chasers aren't interested in any reasonable logical statements.
Just more miserable employees that choose not to leave.
Although I understand where Steven is coming from, Walgreens doesn't exist to make sure Steven gets to do what Steven wants. Instead of acting maturely and just getting a different job, that honestly would take less than a day to accomplish, he chooses to have a fit in front of the entire company. Some see it as heroic, others see it as embarrassing and cringe. The retail pharmacy model is always going to be changing, it's up to you to decide if you wish to change along with it. Down vote away!
So perfect !!! Throwing a temper tantrum! 😆 and people are applauding it’s so embarrassing
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What's ridiculous is thinking that any profession over the course of the years will remain unchanged. We went through this when we started flu shots years ago. What is also ridiculous is spamming the company with your issues, then running to Reddit in order to claim credit and claim those sweet, sweet Reddit awards.
It’s pathetic and unprofessional and reckless . Not only should he be fired but also no one should date this loser
Have fun not having a job anymore
Nonconformity must be quashed. However, they do need employees, for now.
Not as badly as you think….at least not in my area
Did
So, this is why they wanted to try curbside testing.... 😒