Over the last couple of years.. I have projected that one of three things would happen in the not so distant future…
1. that our pay/salary would end up in the $35 -45/hr range based on current purchasing power.. either thru
a. salaries being frozen and letting the cost of living diminish the buying power of our income/salary
b. DM walking into a store and telling the RPH that there is a RPH that is willing work for xx,xxx.xx less/yr and you are given the option to keep your job at the lower rate
c. The surplus of jobs will become so acute in some markets that candidates for a job will be narrowed down and then the candidates will be given the opportunity to BID on the job. The person offering to take the job for the lowest wage package will get the job ..
Here is what the rumors on the street are pointing to as a version of what I have been talking about.
Rumors are that one of the BIG BOYS .. is hiring on new RPH’s at $42.50 and reducing “older” RPH’ s to 30 hrs/wk… and then starting to issue write ups and warnings.. sometimes without the RPH even knowing that they are two strikes down… and then there is the “third strike” and the “legacy RPH”.. finds themselves out on the street.. and the company having documentations.. that denies the RPH unemployment.
One RPH recently related a statement from a young RPH that.. the older RPH’s need to step aside for the younger RPH’s.. they have had their career…
Filed under: General Problems
We have had a 35 hr work week since the beginning of the year. This has the effect of dropping our hourly rate by $10/hr. Just this week, the pharmacy DM had a talk with us about “meeting expectations”. (Read metrics). The chain of stressful events begins at drop off where the tech must take in new rxs, call mds who have not responded to emails or faxes, call patients about expired insurances, monitor e-scripts, answer the phone, and help at the register when needed. If his/her queue “goes red”, that affects production, and then of course, verification. Folks at those stations must also monitor the queues, answer the phones and run to the register. By the time a filled rx reaches final verification, it barely gets a glance because the clock is ticking. After all, it is only about customer service. Whoever says that the race to fill rxs is not detrimental to patient safety should have their pants on fire.