What it is

My relationship with my computer ain’t what it used to be. Working again (albeit part-time) has been stressful and draining, more so than I anticipated. For some strange reason I thought that getting the CPhT certification was going to prepare me for this position more than it did.

My new employer needs an e-name. Let’s call them The Pharmacy. Not particularly clever, I know. Like I said, I’m fairly drained at the moment. The Pharmacy has a computerized training program that all techs must complete following a certain schedule after hire. As near as I can tell, this schedule is the same for part-timers and full-timers. This training program was developed assuming that the new hiree was going to be shadowed by a training technician, and that the first week or so of work was going to be devoted to nothing but training, including some in-store experience shadowing and getting initial hands-on experience.

The study materials I’ve managed to get through to date included covering all the possible variations of pharmacist: technician rations. There was a cute little interactive program that let you plug in the number of pharmacists and the number of techs that would then show you the workstations assigned. I plugged in the maximum number of pharmacists working at one time (2) and the maximum number of techs working at one time (1) and found out that this was not an existing programmed situation. I pointed it out to the pharmacist on duty at the time I was working through that module, and he laughed, shook his head, and told me not to take the stuff too seriously.

Management cost cut-backs have removed the trainer that was supposed to go from store-to-store training the new hires. Cut-backs have also cut the pharmacy down to no more than one technician on at a time. I am supposed to be working the training modules when we have “down time”, but it simply isn’t possible. The section of modules I’m working right now are on-line videos with no pause button; if I’m interrupted I must start from the beginning again.

The pharmacist in charge has told me to simply flip through the stuff as fast as possible and then close it out to get credit for it. That worked in the beginning, but everything now has automated quizzes that I must pass before I am allowed to advance. The information I’m supposed to be learning now is specific to The Pharmacy I’m working at; nothing I learned in the certification courses will help me through this stuff.

The result of all this is that the pharmacists I answer to are now arguing with the store management about my ability to get the modules done. Store management will get black marks against them if the computer system doesn’t show that I have completed the course work on schedule. The pharmacy can’t function if I’m not available to assist. I get to stand in the pharmacy and listen to them arguing about what gets priority. I am pleasing nobody at the moment, and come home feeling like crap most days.

Both pharmacy and store management have reassured me that the situation isn’t my fault and not to worry about it, but I’ve been in the business world long enough to know exactly how much credibility to assign to statements like that. Eventually someone will be held accountable, and even if it isn’t me, whoever takes the flack isn’t going to feel particularly forgiving.

All this for a position that doesn’t even cover my cats’ medical bills.