Money, money, money. Profit, profit, profit… Keep chanting these words because it is the daily mantra while working at the pharmacy.

Making more and more money is what a for-profit-company aims for. Pharmacists are now a dime a dozen and can be fired at at any time, replaced by a younger pharmacist that will work extra hours without paid, without complaining, so grateful to get a job that helps to pay off the huge student loan. 

We have a primary computer at the pharmacy that automatically shuts down after a few minutes without printing activity and we have to turn the power off or pull the plug to get it restarted numerous times in a 12-hour shift, also helping us to get some exercises lifting that heavy computer out and put it back in after restarting it. Thanks to the company who refuses to give us a new printer, we have to work with that piece of trash for more than 3 years. The support tech comes many times but cannot do anything to fix the printer to make our life easier.

Ordering supplies is another nightmare. Cannot order too many toners for the pharmacy printers, cannot ask for more cases of legal paper… With more vaccinations processed, more prescriptions processed, the printer runs out of ink faster. The manager and  assistant manager of the store were transferred to another store, the new manager and assistant manager are on duty but their information still lingers at their former home stores. Nobody in the store knows or has access to order supplies. Is it adding stress and pressure to a pharmacist ? Yes, definitely yes.

Just simple things like inadequate supplies can become a straw that contribute to negatively impact a pharmacist, mentally, physically, psychologically. Let alone the inadequate help at the pharmacy. Do not even mention the damage inflicted on the pharmacist’s kidneys due to lack of bathroom breaks. Cannot even eat anything out of a bland diet if having some time to ingest some nutritional thing to keep us alive and functional. 

Corporate greed will never leads to improved pharmacy working conditions. The lack of pharmacy inspectors from VA Board of Pharmacy means that any suggestions/ laws passed by the Board to make pharmacy working conditions safer and better will not be reinforced. Paying a fine to the Board is just a tiny sum of money for corporates in comparison to the money saved by imposing a low pharmacy budget with limited help and demanding higher and higher prescription count and prescription sale with just one pharmacist working daily at the pharmacy in most pharmacies. 

Too coward to put my real name for fear of retaliation/ retribution. 
Admire the CVS pharmacists and Walgreens pharmacists walk out to demand better pharmacy working conditions.