This is going to be a long post.. you might want to get a snack and drink before you start reading 🙂
My friend Jim Plagakis http://www.jimplagakis.com
has labeled two of the top national chains as “BIG EVIL” and “BIG STUPID”… well it would appear that the third Musketeer has step up to the plate.. to be at the level of the other two.
I first posted earlier today about this https://www.pharmaciststeve.com/?p=3501
but did not have the RPH’s permission to go into details…. which I do now… This email came to me via www.thepharmacyalliance.com
This is what started out as the more and more typical… 50+ Senior RPH.. getting toss out the door.. for nebulous reasons… then -IMO – the reasons behind the dismissal gets really strange and pathetic path.
Here are some quotes from the email:
March 18 was a Monday. Thursday I received a call from testing lab that said I had a positive drug screen
for propoxyphene. As you know , propoxyphene has been off the market since 2010, and I did not take it
I have never had a positive drug screen, so I paid for a test on my own and it came back clean.
I worked Thursday and Friday, was off the weekend, and reported for work on Monday. I saw another pharmacistthere and 2 expensive cars and a suit, so I surmised the worst
I was made to sign a last chance agreement and then call testing lab to set up an SAP with Representative in city, who said she wanted to say it was crap, but had to fill out the paperwork.. I have not
heard from Walgreens since. I did not even know if I was going to get paid until Sedgewick Disability called and told me I was approved thru May 20.
I did consult a lawyer and he just got back to me today, stating that after doing the research, there was nothing he could do to help me with my situation.
I am attending 2 counseling sessions 2 hours each with CSC and 1 with AA once a week. I have a psychological test tomorrow with Dr in the city
I had to pay $875 for the counseling out of my pocket.
I have a feeling they did not like the fact that I voiced my opinion about the shabby treatment of pharmacists and patients. I find it ironic that one of the technicians is an alcoholic and drug abuser (which I presented in writing to my supervisor and nothing was ever done….I have the copy of the letter) I also had this same tech come to my house on 3 occasions drunk and stumbling.
I have witnesses to all 3 events. The next to the last time she asked me and my partner to go to bed with her. We drove her home (my partner followed in our car) and she
kept asking me to kiss her and go to bed with her “just one time”. I finally got her out of the car and we escaped. Nothing was done to her, even though I told my supervisor about it on several occasions
I was sexually harassed by an employee at my own home and brought it to the attention of my supervisor, but nothing was done to her. She has been on the verge of being fired several times for attendance
and selling the wrong package to the wrong patient, but she always slides by. She also came thru drive thru drunk and called me on the phone at work numerous times, drunk and slurring. Again, I told
my boss, but she is still there and actually had a random urine test the same day I did and I have no idea how she passed it. Oh, and her name is the same as mine , so I keep wondering if our samples got switched along the way.
This is from a second email ~ 12 hrs later… after I had responded to the first one…
By chance, I am 52 years old and a female and have been with the company 14 years with no write ups, good evaluations,excellent attendance and very careful to follow law and take care of my patients as best I can. I am starting to believe they really are railroading us out.
It is probably a good thing I am in group counseling, even though it is for a positive drug screen I will deny to my grave,
My counselors are helping me to make the difficult but necessary decision to change careers. I have some money saved back, I have my kids through college. I would rather quit on my own terms than have my character further maligned by this company and its minions. I have put in too many good years to go out like that. They say when you don’t like the person you are when you are with somebody, it’s time to leave. Well, Walgreens and I will be getting a divorce very soon!
I joke that I have made sure my life insurance is up to date, and I have a note in my personal papers that states that if they find me with a pair of cement shoes in the Chicago River, Walgreens is to blame. I’m beginning to think I’m not that far off!!
Well now it has been ~ 24 hrs since the first email sent .. all her information has been forwarded to the attorney group http://bernabeipllc.com/ Hopefully, she will have a phone interview with someone from the firm before the end of the week.. if not sooner…I have talked to the appropriate people at the state level and provided her with the email of the only non-corporate employee on the state BOP.
I am not expert, but – IMO – the first misstep by this RPH, was not including HR & legal in the complaint concerning the tech.. Also in this particular state, techs are to be certified and it is my understanding is that all a RPH has to do is issue a complaint to the BOP and they will make the tech come to the BOP meeting and/or get an evaluation. I am told that ~ 50% of the techs that get a request from the BOP… don’t show up… and their tech certificate is automatically revoked and they cannot work as a tech in the state again.. For all I know, the various state BOP’s may share a database of these techs…
It is also very telling, that the company put all their actions on the results of one positive test… on an employee that has never had a positive test before and followed up with a clean test shortly there after.. Besides – Darvon – has been off the market for 3 yrs and who in their right mind- and had any knowledge of drugs, would abuse that “crappy drug”.
This RPH also sent emails to a very long list of entities that could/should have investigative reporters… the only one to reply .. was one from of the largest newspaper and here is the response:
This is an intriguing note. Thanks so much for reaching out to me. Can you take me through the ways in which the false advertising, poor working conditions and incestuous ties between the industry and various state boards is harming consumers? The more specifics the better.
Today, I replied to this particular reporter with MORE SPECIFICS… to point.. there has not been any reply.
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I checked my stock portfolio and found that 3+ yrs ago .. I bought some WAG stock.. and it is up – including dividends some 50%… but .. IMO… WAGS over the past few months has taken a “dark turn”.. and they are not alone… but I don’t own stock in the other chains that have went over to the “dark side”.. so today .. I put a limiting stop loss sell order on my WAG holdings…
Here is a definition of this type of stock transaction:
Trailing Stops (Sell) – Trailing stop sell orders are used for long stock positions to maximize and protect profit in rising markets and limit losses in falling markets. With this order, you do not enter a specific activation price, but rather, you create a moving activation price by setting a stop parameter. The stop parameter can be entered as a point value or percentage below the current bid. If you use points, the trail amount must be a minimum of $.01 and no greater than the current bid. If you use a percentage, the trail amount must be a whole number between 1 and 99. If the bid moves up, the activation price increases to “trail” the new value. If the bid drops, the activation price does not change. When the bid drops to an amount equal to or less than the previously recalculated activation price, the order is activated and becomes a market order.
My holdings are so small that just selling them would not make much of a statement.. and if the market keeps rising and drags WAGS along with it.. I’m in for the ride… but.. if some of this “new direction” of WAGS gets reflected in the stock price.. I am out of there. I am not making a stock recommendation for anyone else to follow… just what I am doing..
After all, I move all of our prescriptions from WAGS a couple of months ago.. that will amount to some 20 K/yr for the both of us.. and they did not even care enough to call me and ask why?
Sooner or later all of these chains that have moved over to the “dark side” will see that treating your employees and customers poorly.. will sooner or later show up in your bottom line.
I know that if I was back being a independent Pharmacist/owner again.. I would be rubbing my hands together and cheering these chains to “go for it”.. because they would be coming to me.. in groves…
Filed under: General Problems
I’m prejudiced… My friend from college, My best friend (Holly). She died of cancer when we were only 34 years old. It was the most horrific death you can imagine. She fought it, with surgery, chemo and radiation. She owned her company- Health insurance -not renewed which was canceled. Her parents owed $100,000’s and died in poverty.
so Steve, should cancer wipe out a family? If someone hadn’t decided a course of action. Leaving a daughter.
Is this what you think should happen?
Steve, remember all of us older pharmacists who were fired for taking too long a bathroom break, for not filling out an on-line report when we were off for the weekend. For those of us us fired for loaning $1.75 worth of tamper-proof albuterol nebules, only to be re-paid 48 hours later. We were fired for gross-negligence of duties, and theft. If there is a place in Hell- I would hope that these executives are there.
Since I don’t believe in Hell, Nor do I believe in prayer, we’re all -already in God’s grace. It doesn’t matter.
About Obamacare…you continually diss it. You’re mis-informed, I’m not going to say ignorant. Have you tried to buy healthcare? Or have you always been covered by some employer?
After being fired- I applied to Anthem- the biggest Heath Care company. They rejected my family.
Obama Care (2014) has ended this discrimination. My husband has high cholesterol -189, & I have food allergies. We were turned down for all of this. All I was applying for was an $11,000.00 deductible policy. I am so pissed.
I was willing to pay $700 a month for this crappy policy. $11.000 deductible?
But they turned us down. So Steve- what are we to do? How can you possibly diss the reforms? I know if I waited until 2014, I wouldn’t have to fight the battles that I have had to fight. YES healthcare will cost more, but you will be covering so many more people (like me.)
Everyone should have healthcare. People without healthcare cost $ We require people who drive a car to have insurance. Why is it so different?
Steve, some of us can’t buy a policy. No matter what $ They just don’t want to insure us. They know that based on their charts…Healthcare isn’t subject to the whim of fancy. Health care is a Right, for all of us, the elderly and the unfortunate.
@Anotherone… I “dis” Obamacare..because – IMO – the reality of care or availability of care will be no where near what is being promised or perceived as being promised. I believe that starting in Jan 2014.. there will be a growing discontent with gap between what was promised and what is being provided.
The only people that will be “happy” with the system is those that needs little/no service or products. Much like the HMO’s that were around in the 70’s and 80’s. Personally, Since 1976 until last June.. I was on a corporate insurance policy for 8 months.. the rest of the time.. I had individual/private health insurance. I don’t have a problem with a catastrophic national health system using the existing Medicare/Medicaid system and paid for with a Federal Sales tax.. The Medicare system has a low single digit cost overhead for administration .. so Obamacare is creating an entirely different system and hiring hundreds of IRS staff to administer this new tax.. and the rules are so complex for the employers.. that – most likely – will result in a lot employees being changed over to part-time to exempt the company from providing Obamacare.
I hope that I am wrong, and will be glad to admit it when I am proved wrong.. however, historically when you give the government a dollar.. you are lucky to get $ 0.50 back in service/product… the rest is “consumed” by the bureaucracy that is put in place to provide it.
I agree that our current health insurance system “sucks”… but – IMO – Obamacare will “suck” just as much.. or more …but in a different way… just how that will evolve,.. has yet to be determined.