Eliminate the Wellness Ambassador Position
Pros
At least at my location, the camaraderie was amazing; there was a real sense of unity and common purpose back in the pharmacy. There are so many opportunities to help people, and go above and beyond your job duties. Resolving billing issues can occasionally be exquisitely satisfying, and there is a real sense of satisfaction when you can make sure a patient receives the medication that they need, and that they do not have a gap in their therapy.
Cons
The work oscillates between high stress and miserable boredom. Corporate management continues to eliminate tech hours, so that the pharmacy is perpetually ill prepared for peak traffic. Immunization goals are pulled out of thin air and enforced solely with a stick. The Wellness Ambassador position itself is unnecessary and bizarre. Most of the time you work as a pharmacy technician, except when you need to walk around the store, working as an immunization salesperson. You can help customers find the items they are looking for, but you cannot recommend anything, so you pester the pharmacist to come out on the floor to consult with customers and also hawk immunizations. Oh, but it just so happens that when you have the most customers who need help with OTC recommendations, the pharmacist is frantically trying to manage prescription workflow while 4 people are waiting for narcotics. It feels like you are spending more of your job managing customer disappointment than exceeding customer expectations. Did you ever want to call dozens of customers to ask them if they have gotten their flu shot, only to be told that they have already received it from their doctor, and then call those same customers a month later to inquire about tetanus? Steve Jobs rolls over in his grave every time a Rite Aid Wellness Ambassador unlocks the IPad they carry with them and wastes the time of yet another customer as specialized apps crash or slowly load. But most of all, and this applies to the pharmacy tech positions as well, the hours are absurd. With fewer and fewer hours allotted, shifts would range from 1-10 one day to 8-4 the next. You will never get used to schedules so erratic, so random. Thank goodness Rite Aid offers free blood pressure and weight checks, because as an employee you will need them. But once you leave this job, you will discover something wonderful. Rite Aid is an anomaly, not the norm, and life will get better.
