Angry

Heads up, language isn’t child appropriate in this one. As if the universe didn’t want me to remember that I have decent customers (after my recent post about the taco lady), I got an awful one today. The whole day was busy. I walked in and it was pretty non-stop customers for 3 hours. I keep the line moving, I multi-task to get other things done in between customers, it’s a pretty normal day really. At one point the pharmacist is talking to my patient so I answer the call that’s been holding for 11 minutes. 

The pharmacist finishes talking to my patient and the call isn’t finished. I tell her that I need to put her on hold and I’ll be right back. I finish the first transaction and then pick up the held call. The next car pulls up and I tell the new patient that I’ll be with them shortly. The man starts cursing pretty much from the start. On and on about how he’s been waiting 35 minutes to get a fucking prescription (he hadn’t) and how we all need to get our heads out of our asses. 

I’m still on the phone with a patient at this point, so I do my best to tune him out. "You gonna sit there on the phone instead of doing your fucking job? This place is full of retards." The drive thru window is open at this point, customers at the counter and my very tall male coworker can hear him quite plainly. "You think I’m gonna wait on your ass all damn day? No fucking way." He hits the buzzer that rings loudly through the whole pharmacy.

The filling station tech answers and tells him, politely, that we’ll be with him shortly. "I’ve fucking heard that before." I finish my call and move the two steps over to the window. I put on a smile, "How can I help you?"

He shoves his insurance card at me. I wanted to be snide and answer with something like, "Did you want me to update your insurance on your profile?" But I didn’t. Sure he didn’t tell me he was picking up but I was pretty sure. So I use the card to get his last name and look it up. His script is ready, and during this whole minute of me looking for his prescription the attitude continues. "You all need to learn to do your fucking jobs." etc etc etc. 

My male coworker is with a patient but he keeps looking over. I can tell he’s not happy about how the man I’m helping is treating me. But I don’t say a word about his bad behavior. I just keep meeting his eyes and smiling at him. I ring his prescription out and staple on the receipt and hand him his insurance card back. He rips it from my hand. I hand his debit card back, he does the same. I don’t stop smiling. I hand him his prescription and he rips it from my hand and throws it on his passenger seat. I keep smiling, and then I say the only thing I’ve said since he pulled up (aside from the price of his transaction).

"Have a nice day sir."

I didn’t expect him to suddenly become decent, but his response just really made the whole thing great.

"Fuck you, Bitch." And then he drove off.

"Oh hell no." The guy I work with, the one I’m sad is leaving, comes over. The customer is gone, but he (T) is pissed. Apparently this customer was arguing with one of our pharmacists earlier this week while I was sick. So we printed out his information and our pharmacy manager or store manager will be calling to let him know that we’d be happy to transfer his prescriptions to another pharmacy, either in or out of our network, but that he is no longer welcome at our store.

I’m not as mad about his behavior as I should be. He said some downright nasty things to and about me. But I didn’t do anything wrong, his prescription was ready and had no insurance problems that needed fixing, and his wait was long because we’re busy and short staffed because corporate keeps cutting our hours. If each car gets only 5 minutes and you’re the 4th car in line, then 15 minutes is what you should expect.

Some cars take less time. If everything goes right I can have cars moving much faster than 5 minutes each. But what happens when you have 8 to pick up? Or you have multiple people you want to pick up for? Or I go to confirm your address and it’s wrong, or your insurance didn’t bill correctly, or your prescription can’t be found because it was misfiled or put back and needs redone? What if you want to drop off 4 scripts and want prices, which requires that I scan and bill your prescription while you sit there and block my line? What happens when I have to look for a script because you’re sure the doctor called one in or escripted it and I don’t see it in my system yet? The number of things that can go wrong in that moment you pull up to my window is pretty long.

And I do my best to keep the line moving if it’s a problem that will take longer than 5 minutes to fix. I ask people to spin around the building, or come inside, or I ask them to give me their information so that I can work on solving the problem when we slow down and call them when I have more information. This requires me to follow through with promises made to patients and to manage time well. 

I do all of this with a smile, an apology for your wait while I dealt with the cars in front of you, and hope that your needs will be shorter than the car ahead of you. 

We sell almost 700 prescriptions every day. We’re the busiest of our chain in my town, and we’re down to three techs at night. That’s not even one per station. And the number of cross trained people from the floor is so small that we don’t always even have backup for lunch breaks. 

On top of this, not only have they cut our total number of available hours but they started doing things like enforcing lunch breaks. It used to be that if you worked a 7 hour shift you were able to take an unpaid 30 minute lunch break. Now if you work a 5 hour shift they are planning to require us to take that 30 minute lunch. But they don’t have people to cover our lunches. When we’re so busy that sometimes you work for hours on end with no chance to go pee let alone to go take lunch. 

We’re overworked and underpaid. If I take a lunch it’s because I”m working the midnight and that 30 minute lunch lets me stay until 12:30 without putting us over and getting the store in trouble. On top of this I have to deal with billing hundreds of different insurance and coupon cards, I’m expected to remember common generic and brand name conversions, how to figure out day supply based on directions for doctors who do it wrong more often than you’d guess, and remember laws and store policies regarding dispensing of medication and proper documentation and privacy laws etc etc etc.

When things go wrong, I call your doctor or the hospital or your insurance. I put a great deal of personal effort into resolving your issues. I don’t expect a thanks, though hearing it is always nice, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that I get a little respect and understanding. Yes you waited for 15 minuets because each car ahead of you took 5 minutes. But I’ll give you the same level of customer care as well. 

So, having gotten up on my soapbox, you’d think I’d be pissed about being called a bitch. But Im not. It actually made me laugh. I still feel like crap and I’m hacking up a lung and all I

could do was laugh. 

And for the record, not everyone in my drive thru waits 15 minutes. That’s pretty rare. Because, and I’m not trying to brag here, I’m good at what I do. I know those generic conversions or how to find them. I can get you prices if you have 3 or less prescriptions (if not, you’ll have to check back with us before you come back) and type my waiters and answer the phone and fix your insurance and ring out other people while I call another store to see what’s in stock etc etc etc. 

I multitask well and I take pride in doing my job well. I keep notes and follow through, and my hard work has gained me a number of loyal customers. A set of which came through two cars after the man who called me a bitch. They had 13 prescriptions between the two of them. One that needed rebilled, one with a brand new coupon to cobill, one with a note the pharmacist needed to check and three that needed additional labels printed per the customers preference. They weren’t all in the same place, and one wasn’t finished.

And I still managed to get them out in 5 minutes. And they told me that they were so glad to see me when they pulled up and how they hoped I’d never transfer to another store because they think I’m one of the best techs at my store. 

I’m not trying to be all "i’m so awesome." I’m just trying to provide perspective. To myself if nothing else. 

So fuck you too, sir, your opinion is worthless because you don’t know me or my skills or capabilities. And I’ll keep on smiling and doing my job. A job that 90% of the rest of our customers are glad that I’m there to do. Because I care that you feel like crap and just want to get your medicine and go home. 

Because I do too. And the sooner I help you get out the door, the closer I am to getting out the door too.
 

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