Walgreens POWER (Tampa, Orlando, Clearwater: store, budget, severance)

[Texasdrugman]

Originally Posted by oldrph

The Chicago area can't be too far behind you guys; DTR is beginning to move computers around in the pharmacies. And yet, no pharmacy manager or supervisor has any details. When will we be told of our options regarding our future? Keeping employees in the dark and worrying about our future certainly does not pass the "Four-Way Test". Did Charlie Goodall, Walgreens top tech guy, leave the company? I am glad that this forum exists, as it is our only link to the outside world.

Dont you guys in Illinois have a union, bcuz I heard that all pharmacy supervisors must be licensed in Illinois just in case there is a strike, is that
correct, if so what are your union reps saying about the loss of pharmacist jobs due to Power

[Texasdrugman]

When I got to work yesterday, my rxm said that he was told in a rxm meeting that Power is on hold for DFW... due to cost overruns, Power not being as effiecient as thought, and not saving money like they thought, and losing a lot of customers due to the call center, customers do not like talking to these call centers, I guess they under estimated the non personal aspect of the call center... So they are trying to regroup, I think they are just putting things on hold for the remaining of this quarter, to stop the expense bleeding, to make the quarter look better for the shareholders....

[floridapharmer]

You don't re-interview if you decide to take severance package. As a rx mgr you dont get offered the severance package! wag rxm in florida

[pharmassist]

i HAVE BEEN A PHARMACY MANAGER FOR AS MANY YEARS AS I REMEMBER HOW TO COUNT. EVERYBODY HAS BEEN WHINING ABOUT PRESCRIPTIONS BEING ENTERED FOR THE WRONG PATIENT. YEAH-THIS IS REALLY BAD IF IT MAKES IT TO COUNSELING, BECAUSE IT WILL MAKE US LOOK STUPID. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT WHO SCANS THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE?? US-THAT'S WHO. IF THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM-THEN IT IT IS A HUGE TRAINING PROBLEM. THE PHARMACIST WILL GREET AND SCAN(SO BE MORE CAREFUL!) AND YOU NEED TO GET ON THE BUTT OF ANYONE ELSE WHO MIGHT GREET AND SCAN. MAKE A BIG DEAL ABOUT QUALITY IN YOUR OWN STORE, NOT ONLY IN THE CPO, WHETHER ANOTHER RPH CHECKS IT OR NOT, YOU CAN INFLUENCE THE OUTCOME WHILE YOU'RE ON DUTY! AND NO-I'M NOT A COMPANY PLANT!

[pharmassist]

WHEN YOU SELL RX'S -THE MORE STUFF YOU REVIEW WITH PATIENTS THE BETTER. aLREADY GOT 1 RX FILLED FOR MORPHINE IR INSTEAD OF ER THAT WAS VERIFED BY A REMOTE RPH.

[justarph]

we had 3 rx's typed under the wrong name...it was a mistake by our tech in scanning, but it went thru all the remote people without being caught !

[ksdimarco]

I am not going to badmouth the company, it is a great company but lately they have stomped on the morale of the workforce.

My wife and I both were WAG employees for years. Personally I started from the bottom, went to RX school and became an RPh. I see some benefits of the POWER program, but overall it is garbage. OLDRPH-- We are licensed both here in FL and in IL. This company has us training to become DMs as pharmacists, but that all ended when they depleted the management staff. At one point I loved this company and dreamed of working my way up. That died nearly overnight. As of date, my wife and I both left to become RXMs for the $4 bandit. I couldnt refuse when my salary + bonus was 40k more per year than WAG, without the BS. It is amazing without POWER, Flu shots, Drive Thrus and best of all, I have staff. I am on the FL Gulf coast, so many people took severance OR left that they cant staff the stores here. The scheduler begs for us to work OT, when its no longer worth it without true B rate. Last time I checked, for one 2 week pay period there were 175+ RPh shifts that needed to be covered in the market (5 districts). What does that tell you?

Im sure you guys all have a great idea from readiing all these posts, but I will give you pertinent info on my particlular situation. My old WAG non-24 hr store was 475+ during the winter, and about 375+ summer (Florida) 7 day average. My hours went from 359, to 225 total hours including RPhs. They told me my volume was too high to have 9-9 hours, so I was 8-10. That means 100 of my 225 hours were RPh, 125 went to techs. So I had 3 full time techs to staff the store for 7 days per week. Yes, impossible, esp with a drive thru and doing flu shots like hell in an elderly area. The CPO is ****, it got to the point where I started making a log of all the mistakes and pushbacks before I would record the internal events bc there were so many errors occuring. I had more STARS events on a weekly basis than I did over the previous year. You are supposed to run the front, but personally I elected to work the filling station. This eliminated the double checking process that would slow up the assembly line. So virtually you will have absolutely no more RPH duties anymore. The RxS would come in and try to tell me where to stand in "workflow", but I told them until they gave me a reasonable payroll then I was going to do things my way. Ultimately I ran a store at 28% RX GP. The next time they called they were kissing my ass bc I had such a good store. Anyways we both left on good terms, however they aren't dumb. They know this program is ruining the business and soon will be the death of WAG if they stay on this track.

My wife has been out for 4 months, I have been out for 2 weeks. Today we received about 6 phone calls from some of our old techs, they were all laid off. I guess thier "list" of employees to terminate came down today. At this point they have not let any RPhs go bc they dont have enough. Hope this gives you another realisitic point of view. Best of luck, if you have any questions please feel free. My advice, if you have any opportunity elsewhere, run fast.

[MountainPharmD]

Is the program on hold, canceled or what?

[former walgreens tech]

Today at the district office in tampa over 200 techs and rph's were let go..and given the new servance package...it was crazy kindda like a funeral..everyone crying and it still seems sureal!!!

[former walgreens tech]

ohh yeah forgot my store is doing 525+ daily and 325+ on sat and sundays and they cut us back too 80 hrs rph daily 40 for overnites and 80 tech hours a week?? today they let 2 techs go at my store and 5 down the street plus 2 rph's ...crazy jus doesnt seem real?? I have been with these guys for 3+ yrs and left PUBLIX too come here...