Pros
Working in the pharmacy can be a fun experience, you work closely with a diversity of people which makes for good conversations while working. The amount of information available to you through the pharmacy in regards to healthcare is immense and always increasing making the field more interesting as the days go by. The pay scale is fair and better than most companies as pharmacy technicians go. You generally start out $1 an hour higher than a starting sales cashier, then when you obtain you technician certification you are granted a $1 raise. Then later down the road when you have obtained enough know how of the pharmacy operations you can become a Senior tech and get another $1 raise as well as an hourly bonus based on your monthly average for prescriptions sold. Another bonus is that the company will sponsor their technicians for the certification, they use to pay for up to 4 attempts but have decreased this to 1 attempt.
Cons
Abuse is the pivotal function of the pharmacy department, patients are allowed to say whatever derogatory and bigotry remarks they feel like to the pharmacy employees. This practice is well instilled into the general public that with a few slanderous remarks and swears they can not only break down a technicians will to work but get what they want. What is worse is by the company model, one is expected to do whatever it takes to make sure the customer leaves happy, making no distinction between a customer ( some one purchasing goods from the store) and a patient ( some one coming to the pharmacy for medications). This is to say that on top of being verbally berated by a patient and the patient being asked to leave the store, they then go and complain to a manager. The manager will then come back to the pharmacy berate the employee for not being more sympathetic to the patient who just slandered them and demand the employee apologize for their actions. The manager will then do as the company dictates make sure they leave happy, even it that means giving the patient the $700 narcotic pain medication that was not covered by their insurance because they picked it up 6 days prior at a CVS. KPI’s were at first just a training tool to see how well new employees were developing, They are no used in a fascist fashion to scrutinize every faction of the work day. From a computer at the district/corporate office big brother can see how many rx’s you entered, reviewed, filled, sold, how many typos you’ve had, the pharmacies inventory standing, how many promotional items you’ve sold. When these KPI’s look bad the goon squad from the district/corporate office come storming down like the Third Reich with budget cuts and write ups. Management both pharmacy and store not only allow but promote verbal abuse from customers/patients by continuing to assist the offenders. The reward for good honest hard work is only scrutiny and higher expectations with out and verbal praise for a job well done. As for annual raises you almost have to fight to your last breath to ensure a decent raise is given to you.