‘Ello, ‘ello all! Gather ’round, for it’s story time! Not only is the purpose of this blog to inform you about the goings on in the gaming and pharmacy world, but it also serves a window into the daily life of a tech who may, or may not, be about to snap! While I seem like a pretty open and honest communicator here, it doesn’t really come across that way when I’m at work. During my little online hiatus, my co-workers and I had a meeting, two meetings actually, with our managers about communication and working together in the pharmacy. Ever since I started working here this past February, I have been feeling disconnected from and, quite frankly, dissatisfied with my co-workers and some aspects of how the pharmacy operates.

I’ve been a technician for the same company for ten years now (TEN YEARS!) so I know a little bit about how the duties of the techs are performed. The team that I work with are all in their early 20s and have been techs for an average of 2 years. They all chit-chat with each other and are generally friendly, too friendly for my taste. Because of this over-friendliness with one another, workstations were not being manned, prescriptions weren’t getting typed, phones would not be answered, and patients would get helped as soon as possible. The age gap between my co-workers and I also played into the breakdown of communication we suffered. I honestly have never cared about hearing people’s drama or their stories told for the sake of being told, and unfortunately, when you’re young, you got a lot of drama.

I genuinely don’t like talking to people, even when I’m upset, or should I say “especially.” So instead of saying, I would just take care of the duties that needed to get done, like typing, answering the phone, and selling rxs through the drive-thru and front register.  All of this components brewed together and apparently, I am scary or intimidating, so peeps didn’t talk to me and I didn’t talk to them.

Now we’re back to that meeting I mentioned earlier. We’ve got a manager back there telling us there’s a lot of tension and that we need to all come together because that’s the only way we’re going to fix our problems and better serve our patients. There were five of us in there, not counting our manager, and we were asked what was one thing we needed to see changed in the pharmacy. The first girl said, “The queue.” For those that don’t know, the queue is the list of all the rxs that are to be filled that day and even the next two days. They are arranged by the time promised to be ready and the computer will automatically print our leaflets about one hour prior to that promised time in order that we can fill the rxs. We can of course go and print these leaflets off manually if we want to fill things sooner. In response to her statement, I asked, “What about the queue?” to which she said, “We need to empty it in the morning.” “No, that is not what we should do. You dump the queue, and that just puts us behind even more. Unless you’re paying attention, you’ll have tomorrow and the next day’s scripts being filled before scripts that come in later in the day, and if you have a weak pharmacist who can’t keep up with verifying rxs, you’ll be even more behind. Don’t dump the whole queue! Just release a few at a time.”

I’m not gonna lie, my face was pretty red after saying all of that. I just can’t get over how these girls think it’s okay to be behind. I think it’s because our managers come back and help us put up our truck and fill all of the rxs that were out-of-stock or partialled the day before. Two or three managers will come back and spend upwards of two hours back in the pharmacy because they won’t leave until all of the scripts are filled, and the girls will continue to release rxs from the queue, so the managers stay back there and that is wrong! Those managers have shit to do and are there to help, not to do our job. It angers me so! Where did the girls learn this behavior? It is mind-boggling and stresses me out, but it does bring me to what I thought could be improved.

“We have got to learn workflow. I don’t think anyone here knows their primary and secondary duties for the stations they’re in, and that’s a huge problem. If you’re not doing your duties, that means someone else has to do it, which takes them away from what they should actually be doing. This imbalance is not good for us or the patients.” Our manager then asked one of the girls if they even know what their duty is when they’re in the fill station. She said her job is to fill, and the manager, who was a tech once, asked, “What else?” My co-worker didn’t know. With that, my manager said I was responsible for educating everyone as to what their duties are. A real struggle for me who doesn’t like to talk, but it’s necessary, so I said I will. The other girls mentioned a few things that didn’t bother me so much; like be more kind and welcoming to each other and the patients. So when all was said and done, I left the meeting feeling better than I did because it was the only setting where I felt that I could say what was wrong and bothering me without my coworkers thinking I was insulting them. Apparently, at one point, I had hurt someone’s feelings because I exclaimed loudly that something I saw was wrong and we needed to stop doing it (I didn’t know who it was, which is why I expressed my dissatisfaction out loud).

All-in-all, it was a good meeting. I’m trying to be kinder and less bitchy, and my co-workers are slowly shouldering more of the weight of our duties. It’s only been about two weeks, so there’s still a lot of growth for all of us, but I think we’ll get there in time. Well, I think I’ve taken up enough of your time while I spill my guts out on this page. I hope you enjoyed and are encouraged that even if you’re difficult to work with, progress can still be made. And with that, I’m out!

Merry Christmas, Y’all!!