Just read the letter that I sent to all the Walgreens stores in the Fort Wayne District and you will see how unfair Walgreens is and how poorly it treats its employees. Here it is:
Hello Pharmacists!
Due to ignorance in the managerial department of Walgreens (i.E. DM, store manager, new Loss Prevention guy), there are now 53 hours average a week of shifts that you will need to cover. Where did all those shifts come from? They came from my base 40 hours a week at 5115 and then the 13 to 14 hours a week I have worked on my days off and doubles for the company for nearly the past three years. However, due to the Myles Brand operations ran by your upper management, I will no longer be with Walgreens. I was ousted like Bobby Knight, without having thrown a chair or choked a player. I was let go due to "Gross Mis-Conduct related to violations of the Walgreens Corporation policies related to Customer Service." This is to warn you that if you get any complaints by customers that you cannot satisfy because the drug is not manufactured and your store does not carry it, yet you offer the patient alternatives (i.E. Call the doctor for something that is available in Fort Wayne) then you will terminated. Unfortunately, your store management (which at 5115 has never spent more than 2 minutes in the pharmacy... And that was just to do a return, which by the way I believe that store managers were required by Walgreens to spend a certain amount of HOURS in the pharmacy on a weekly basis&our manager spends all of his time in the office anyway so I'm surprised he knew where the pharmacy was... I guess he may have seen it on his trips to the bathroom). This is also to inform you that even if you have nearly eleven years with the company, your DM and other people do NOT care whatsoever. They will throw you out in a heartbeat and will do it as mean as possible.
I believe all of you need to be aware of how Mr. Ciecior and Aaron White (he's your Loss Prevention guy in case you haven't met him yet... And he has law enforcement background only... And very little about the retail industry) went about getting rid of a pharmacist with 11 years of service with the company, who had used only two sick days in his entire career. I had to meet them at he district office yesterday morning at 8:30am. The first thing Mr. Ciecior said was "you had another complaint on March 7, so tell me about it." I informed him of what occurred, told him to call my technician who heard the entire conversation, and that he would find I did nothing wrong. Unfortunately, Mr. Ciecior as well as the store manager and I suppose Aaron White, believe the customer side and not the employee side of the story. It is really sad that they put the customer first and the employee second. Particularly a drugged up customer looking for Hycodan tablets for her roommate who asked if anyone in Indy had it! Mr. Ciecior did not want to talk about that, so he moved on to the next topic, which involved him handing me a sheet of paper saying that I was being terminated due to violations of the customer service policy. I guess trying to help someone find a medication that only one Walgreens in the Fort Wayne district had on the shelf is a violation of customer service. Go figure. I recently had a complaint because I told a customer a few minutes before 6pm on a Saturday at Decatur that "its a good thing you showed up now because we will be closing in about 30 seconds, " so don't tell people what time you close either. Thanks to working at the 24 hour Dupont store, at least I couldn't get any complaints for that. Anyways, Aaron White then tells Mr. Ciecior to give me the other sheet. This is the alternative form that I can sign that states my resignation, of course they can't just type that on there.in order to cover themselves, they add an extra sentence stating it "was the result of Gross Mis-Conduct related to violations of the Walgreens Corporation policies related to Customer Service." I told them I did not agree with it and that after 11 years of service I am surprised how they appreciate none of it. I then tell them that I find it odd that they want to fire me for getting a customer complaint, yet they allow our overnight pharmacist to come in to work "out of it" to the point that last week she could not answer the phone and the technician had to tell the patients to call St. And Coliseum. Mr. Ciecior said this meeting is only about you. I also told him that the good things go unappreciated. Heck, I delivered an 80 year old lady's Mephyton (Vitamin K) to her house a couple months ago when I got work at 10pm because she did't want her husband to be driving on the snow and ice. Does you management care about that? NO!!! They only care if you get a complaint. I tell them that I want to contact employee relations about it before signing anything, yet Aaron White (using his old police tactics) says "you're no longer an employee of this company so you need to leave right now." I asked Mr. Ciecior for the phone number to them and he gave it to me so I said I'll just call them right now on my cell phone. Aaron White, continued to say "you need to leave the building." I said, "All I'm asking is to call Employee Relations before I sign it and then you can have it or I can bring back or drop it off to Mr. Kirk." Here's how unprofessional they really are o top off their acting like complete jerks, Aaron White then tells the secretary and Mr. Ciecior "Will you call the Fort Wayne Police Department and tell them that we have a trespasser." I didn't even get loud with them. Heck, I was actually calm during this. They were just being unreasonable. After exiting and standing in the lobby, Aaron White (the man who never smiles) then finally gives in and says I can sign it and turn it into Mr. Kirk.By the way, Aaron White obviously knows little about benefits, because he said you get the same regardless of which form I sign. This is NOT true. Please inform him that if you want paid for your vacation days, you must sign the one that says resignation, not termination. I guess since we were on a quick need for a loss prevention guy due to our previous one having to resign in a hurry, the district took the first applicant available.
Due to poor communication within Walgreens, my pharmacy manager was kept in the dark for all of this. Nothing new though, because there are many secrets kept within Walgreens chain of command. If you happen to go on Walgreens.com, you will find that the staff pharmacist is under the pharmacy manager. However, when it comes to discussing customer complaints that is only done by the store manager never your pharmacy manager. When I inquired with the HR department in October regarding who my boss was, they could NOT tell me a simple answer. No one knew if it was my pharmacy manager, pharmacy supervisor, or store manager. I guess Employee Relations is my boss, because it was their decision to let me go, according to Mr. Ciecior at least. However, you will not find your store manager, DM, RXS, or LP person sticking up for you when it comes to disciplinary action. Must be some incentives for the number of writeups they do. This is to inform all of you that if you get singled out with the company, it is just a matter of time before they will work harder at getting rid of you than keeping you. An old saying of "TRUST NO ONE, " should be the motto as a Walgreens employee. Sure, the label on the bottle says "The Pharmacy America Trusts" but you will not find anything printed anywhere in the store that says "The Employer America Trusts" and for good reason. You will find the "7 Service Basics", but you will not find the "7 Employer Basics" on how they should treat their employees. Sure, they will sell you on all the financial benefits, but not how they appreciate employees. Win a new car? That's only if you happen to be working the day the secret shopper shows up. Maybe other districts actually do appreciate their employees, but not this one. I spent eight years in the Indy district and they would not have taken a complaint and blown it out of proportion like the Fort Wayne District. I believe that some people in the Fort Wayne district are on power trips and you know who they are. If you come into work incoherent and talk with your eyes closed to the pharmacist leaving their shift, it's OK. If you need to lie on the floor and talk on the phone overnight, that's ok too. Just don't get any customer complaints. The irony is that Walgreens failed to service thousands and thousands of GM employees throughout the country by not getting a contract negotiated, yet they did not fire themselves for the complaints associated with that. Guess they weren't a staff pharmacist. I also find it odd that for a understaffed district, that they would want to let an employee go that works 53 hours a week for them and is willing to drive all over northeastern Indiana. Sorry, but they didn't care about screwing the rest of you who are going to have to pick up those shifts. I am sure they are deeply sorry that you will not be able to spend that time with you family because now they are desperate for you help. What you should really do is let those shifts remain open as a protest against the unfair way that Walgreens wanted get those shifts at 5115 open. Better yet, I propose a day in which everyone calls off and then Walgreens local management might actually appreciate its pharmacists. They obviously do not now.
I did contact corporate yesterday, including the secretary of Mr. Jeff Rein (CEO), and discussed my displeasures with them as well as with Ken Weigand, Senior VP of Human Resources. I hope Walgreens takes a look at how its Disctrict Managers handle its employees and makes some changes, as well as training former law enforcement officers who come to the retail world. For nearly 11 years I have been brainwashed that Walgreens is the best company in the world. I will now have the opportunity to compare and see if that is truly the case.
Finally, I must say thanks to my fellow staff and technicians, and Yuyama for the good times we shared. I hope this opens your eyes to how you may eventually be treated by management. Just don't say I didn't warn you. I apologize to the upper management, to which I'm sure this will offend because they are flawless and the gods of Walgreens. Once again, thanks to the people I have worked with here in Fort Fun and I will miss you (but not all of you).
Good Luck,
Ryan
Ryan pharmacist
Fort Wayne, Indiana
U.S.A.
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