Why? A little story from today's pill counting action will explain why.
The Drugmonkey was about half an hour behind getting people's crap out the door. The "high priority" stuff sat unmoved for longer than that, waiting for me to complete the "super high priority", "ultra high priority" and "extreme high priority" tasks that were in front of it. The phone was lit up like fucking Christmas. We were using the exact number of labor hours our corporate overlords had budgeted to take care of our customers. Just another day. Eventually I got around to answering one of the calls on the fucking Christmas phone and hear:
"Hello......this is J from Non-Corporate pharmacy in the next town over.....calling for a prescription transfer"
The voice was sweet and pleasant. It was the first time all day I had not heard hostility in a voice and it made me immediately hate her.
Our computer was on the verge of crashing and while I was waiting for it to show some sign of life I asked her how things were going. It would be better than silence I thought. I was wrong.
"Oh the funniest thing happened today. One of my regular customers sent over some flowers."
Some days, anytime I have an interaction with a customer that doesn't involve the f-word, I consider it a success.
What was slowing down my computer was the arrival of a batch of messages from corporate headquarters. They set our labor budget week by week, and next week we would have fewer hours to run the store. Another piece of me died while the friendly neighborhood pharmacist on the phone waited patiently for me to get my shit together. Bitch.
Listen up independent drugstores. I am a mean, vicious, petty man. That is why I hate you. If I have to be miserable under the yoke of corporate capitalism, then everyone has to be miserable. Got that? Damn you for being human, for treating customers as humans. You can compound your "bioidentical" bullshit estrogen to try and stay afloat all you want, but you are doomed in this era of cutting our way to every last possible dollar of profit. People must be treated like cattle, do you understand? Cattle!! One need only look to the airline industry or call your insurance company help desk to see the glorious future the free market will bring us. Now that the administration of President dipshit has joined Corporate America in the assault against you, your day of reckoning can only approach all the sooner. He will crush you just as efficiently as he crushed the insurgents who opposed him in Iraq. Yessir, once George the lessor declares something a priority, you can be sure that it will get done, welfare of the people be dammed. One need only look to the newly privatized social security system to see my point.
Wait. Awww crap.
Any of you guys hiring?
