Christmas and all that Jazz

Well, the holidays are upon us and I get get a 4 day weekend!  I know I will be bored out of my mind and ready to go back to work by Wednesday.  Not really certain why we are closed on Monday, but I guess since the doctors offices are closed we are too.

We already received a few crazy calls about people wanting their Narcs but insurance not covering them until monday....well tuesday now.  People get so nutty.  I guess I dont know since I dont have any addiction issues.

I have really been trying hard with my two female coworkers that I have been having trouble with.  Things have thawed slightly.  All I can do it try, try try.  It is hard. 

On a personal note, my husband has slipped a disc in his back and has been off of work for the last two weeks and basically bedridden (rolls eyes).  He is getting better but has been such a cry baby. He is driving me crazy!  His business (he is a co-owner) will be closed all next week....3 weeks under my feet....I might strangle him....

Anywho, Happy Holidays everyone!!

First rule of Pharmacy

The First rule of Pharmacy the hippie Pharmacist-in-Charge at my very first pharmacy job taught me was: there is no crying in Pharmacy! 

You have to develope a tough skin when dealing with the public in a customer service/retail position.  Not only that, often times they are sick, hurt, tired, or dealing with sick/hurt or tired children.  Tempers flair all the time and often times you may not be the cause of their ire but you may get the back end of it.


This was probably the best piece of advice I received for working in this field.

An update

So my manager had a talk with one of my coworkers about her inaproprate behavior and she said ok and she was sorry.  Within the hour she became hostile towards me.  He witnessed this and asked me about it later.  I wasn't even going to bring it up because I am use to her attitude at this point.  He was pretty dumb founded that she would blatantly disregard his authority.  We are owned by a non-pharmacist, so he is trying to find a way to resolve the conflict.  Both the owner and the manager are laid back, passive people so this has been a challenge.  I don't even think my manager has been able to talk to the owner about the issues yet. 

It is frustrating to me because these two other techs are idiots.  I am not even being a petty jerk when I say this.  These are two 30-something small town women who still have high school mentalities.  They think they are big fish.  The thing about big fish in a small pond is when you take that same fish and put them in a big pond and they don't look quite so big anymore.  Thats my view.  I grew up in a huge city.  My views and experiences are vast in comparison.  I am good at what I do.  I am efficient and well trained.  I am educated.  I come to work, do my job and go home.  Where ever I am needed, I will pitch in. 

Subsequently, my store owner has taken note of my hard work and dedication.  She has tasked me with other projects and jobs.  And there is an undercurrent of jealously.  I can certainly understand that.  I am not rubbing anything in any ones faces or trying to make anyone feel bad.  I often work one-on-one with her on projects not necessarily related to the pharmacy.  What am I supposed to do?  She signs my check! 

Jealousy is a green eyed monster.  It turns perfectly normal people into horriable humans who bully, gossip and hate for no reason.

Crummy

Things have gotten really crummy at work, I cant even discuss it with out breaking out in tear of frustration.  But I am still reading my favorite blogs and hopefully things look up soon.

DOom

Dreaded Staff meeting in the morning...have not had one in over a year in a half, since my last pharmacy manager got fired for numerous infractions, including but not limited to writing himself checks, bringing/selling us expensive short date stock, ect.  I am semi terrified about tomorrow morning.

Customers

We have quite the assortment of customers.  They range from the super sweet lady who sends us gift baskets every few months to the gentleman to from time to time demands us to delete all his information from our computers because he is going to walmart.  (He always comes crawling back.)

First let me tell you about our pharmacy.  We have charge accounts.  I know, blew my mind at first too.  Mainly started opening them for people in our Long term care facilities then extended the benefit to other customers.  It is a pain in the ass.  We also have delivery.  Free delivery.  This is for shut ins and those with out cars but it too have become abused.  We also have DRIVE THRU!

So, the majority of the town knows about our delivery and if they are too lazy to move they call to have it delivered.  And they also know we have charged accounts.  We no longer open new accounts but people still ask.  When they cannot come up with their $3 medicaid copay, they wanna charge it til their check comes.  How does that work?  In the real world we have to figure out how to make our money last.

We also have some really old people who still DRIVE.  B is 95!  She is getting more and more confused.  And she has almost ran me off the road twice.  She also thinks her family members are stealing her drugs when she misplaces them.  It is sad to see.

Then Mr. and Mrs. W come through the drive through backwards.  They are going to cause a major accident one day.  The pharmacy manager needs to grow some balls and tell them to stop.  They will cut infront of 5 cars going the wrong way!  Then backout.

And what is it about aging that kills the sense of smell?  Some of our old people come in so ripe they we have to spray air freshner after they have left!

Then we the the needy customers who have to talk to the pharmacist everytime!  Or those who ask what they need filled everytime.  You take the pills, how do you not know?

We bubble pack a few of our community customers medications.  S loves getting shiney new bubble packs full of meds, so much so that she will reorder then as soon as she can and throw out the remainder just to get the full cards. 

Pharmacy is funny.  So many characters pass through our doors...

Suggestions

I know I dont really have any followers, but if anyone stumbles by I want to know if anyone has any suggestions for dealing with difficult and jerky coworkers.  IT has gotten to the point where no one talks to each other and no one wants to ask for anyones help.  I am not at fault here and I am tired of trying and getting treated like crap.  Besides going to my boss, what else can I do to make this better??

Facebook for dummies

We are having some fantastic luck promoting our pharmacy on facebook using contests.  I am really enjoying brainstorming ideas and my store owner thinking that I am a genius no matter what I come up with.  But obviously by ideas are genius. 

Facebook is an amazing marketing/networking place for small businesses.  Since I took over our page, we have gotten so much more traffic and likes.  My boss says you cant buy that kind of store visablity.  We have stopped our news print ads completely because they dont even compete in getting our name out there.  Our name and our brand is spashed across the walls of everyone in our community. 

Internet

Pharmacy and internet go hand and hand.  So Friday night and no internet makes for a long, long evening.  All rxs have to be submitted via dial-up.  (DIAL-UP, really????)  No credit cards.  Our registers couldnt talk to our pharmacy software...it was a nightmare.  Not to even mention being short staffed.... ugh.  TGIF.  Glad I dont work tomorrow.

Blah

Working with shitty people everyday just takes it out of my emotionally.

Love Old Things

I love vintage pharmacy stuff.  Here are a few of my finds:

Midol:  For Headache, Toothach and Neuralgia!  LOL

Prohibition whiskey Scripts

Bayer Heroin?

 Morphine Monoject

Asthma Cigarettes, because that sounds about right...

Pharmacy appropriate behavior

Ok: Waiting for someting to print, then setting it a side if it is not for you.
Not OK: Snatching something out of a coworkers hands.

So a fellow bitch tech was printing some rx's from our queue to fill this morning and then pulling them off the printer to count (no biggie, I didn't want to fill them) but I did print something and when I went to reach for it she grabbed it out of my hand.  After which, she had to eat crow and had it back to me.  By then I was furious.  I couldn't even trust myself to speak so I grabbed my item and walked away before it got ugly.

I know its going to come to a head soon, and she isn't going to like the outcome.

New Blog

Hey, Everyone.  Smartie Tech here.  My first blog, first post ever.  I decided to start this blog because I read many medical and pharmacy blogs.  I really enjoy the insight and the stories and being able to relate from a personal and professional prospective.

A little back ground on me:  I am a 8+ year pharmacy tech veteran.  I love everything about my job. (Except maybe the people but I am sure we will get to that more later.)  I love the science and continued advancement of pharmacy.  I love and hunger for the knowledge that this field offers.  I love being a part of a team of people that make peoples lives better everyday.  I feel like I have a very dynamic and important role in many peoples lives in the community.

Why, you ask, am I just a tech when I so clearly love and respect this profession?  It is simple and complicated at the same time.  I have a brain tumor.  (Stable.)  That is the simple.  The complicated is several years ago I had a stroke (in my pharmacy) that massively changed and altered my life.  At the time, because I was thinking with a damaged brain I thought I was fine and went back to work immediately.  I literally left the hospital and went to the pharmacy.  Looking back, now I can see how bad it was and how far I have come.  It scares me how much one day, one momet can radically alter the course of my life.  Even now, years later, when I am have a particularly bad migraine...I fear another stroke.  So, moral of the story:  I am scared.  I am scared to ruin my 4.0 college GPA.  I am scared to fail at something I was so perfect for before.  But mostly I am scared of the failure.

So for now, I will stay in my comfort zone and not continue my goal of becoming a pharmacist. 

Now, A little about my job and my pharmacy.

I am a nationally certified pharmacy technician.  I know, that doesnt count for much.  I dont get any added bonuses or respect.  It was a professional accomplishment I got after my stroke for myself.  I work in a independant community pharmacy.  We are staffed by 1 full time and 2 part time pharmacists.  There are 3 of us techs total and we dont get along.  It is not always a plesant work environment.  1 tech mostly counts all day.  1 girl does DME billing and nothing counts.  I am in charge of our LTC (long term care) facilities, outdates, recalls, social media, clozapine registry..basically anything important. 

My pet peeves are:  lazy chatty coworkers, medicaid abusing lazy people and narcotic abusers.  As well as about a billion other thing!