MY LIFE - MAY

Saturday, May 6, 2000

Another dud of a day at work today. I just don't understand how things have gotten so bad in a relatively short amount of time. It doesn't seem that long ago that working on a Saturday was more fulfilling. Now it seems like I'm wasting half the day doing absolutely nothing at all. We just aren't doing the volume we used to do. It isn't just on Saturday anymore either. No, Mondays aren't the same anymore and the week in general is on the decline.

So what's going on? Well, it isn't a lack of prescriptions. Numbers nationwide show that the number of prescriptions being written is steadily increasing and pharmacies are busier than ever in general. The problem lies in the pharmacies themselves. No longer is there just one or two pharmacies per city. Now there are five or six pharmacies in small cities such as Brunswick and Strongsville. Five to six pharmacies for 30,000 to 40,000 people. Numbers for our store have dropped from 1,500 scripts a week to just barely over 1,000.

This coincides with the move of Finast/Tops to a new shopping plaza, the opening of a Giant Eagle, and Target adding in a pharmacy. Mix that in with a terrible location (where the old Finast used to be) and you have a significant drop in numbers. Things aren't going to get any better for the store anytime either. It seems that the company doesn't seem to care enough about certain stores to do anything to help them out. We're a small, old Revco store that doesn't have a whole lot of room, yet we're expected to maintain the same standards as higher volume stores. It isn't right, nor is it fair.

All that in consideration, plus a few other perks, I've decided to leave the store I work at. Within the next couple of weeks I hope to transfer out to Berea (store #3035) and assume the position of lead technician in the pharmacy. This is a strictly pharmacy position so there won't be any of the front store horse shit that I've been putting up with since going up in the pharmacy almost two years ago.

No more closing down the store, no more planograms, no more worrying about how the store looks, and no more dealing with front store crew members who don't have a clue as to what they're doing.

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I stopped by Berea today to inform Steve of my decision and he seemed more than pleased to hear that I'm willing to transfer. He gave me more details about the move and what I might expect from the place, as well as some of the extra perks that I'd get for transferring. He hinted at a decent raise (which will remain undisclosed) and said that I was definitely a candidate for lead tech, which I'm not sure I want so badly, but is a flattering remark nevertheless.

Of course I'm concerned about how Tom and Lenny will handle the news. For once I think Tom will have the cooler head. I'm sure he'd be more upset if Debbie was leaving instead of me, however, that's not the case. I'm not sure how he'll actually react, but I'm hoping he sees it the way I see it, that I'm trying to give myself a better opportunity and further myself along.

Lenny's the one I'm concerned about. I'm sure he won't take kindly to me leaving, especially since he probably thought that I'd be at the store forever. He'd have to fill a pretty decent void since I close down the store two to three nights a week. He and Mike will have to work out a closing schedule and it probably isn't going to be pretty. Couple that with Jeff leaving when summer comes and there's a pretty big void.

Which makes his ignoring applications seem so ludicrous. He just doesn't seem to realize that he's going to have to hire people in to work the schedule out and he doesn't seem to comprehend that there are probably at least five or six good applicants in the pile. He just won't look at them. Instead, he kind of tells them that hours are tight and that he's not sure if he could work out any hours for them.

Good one. Tell a potential hire that hours are short. Because I don't think they're as short as Lenny implicates them to be. He's so concerned about his payroll (rightly so, I may add) that he's afraid to hire anyone on at all. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me since we need the help. I wish he'd just explain to the District Manager the situation. We would get a lot more done with a little more help.

But then again, what the hell do I know? I'm just a pharmacy tech who acts as a shift supervisor. I guess I shouldn't care anymore either. This store won't be my concern for much longer.