pharmacy technician

certified pharmacy technician

technician

pharmacist

staff pharmacist

PharMerica

Though my hourly rate was lowered after I accepted the contract, I took the job expecting the promised 3 month stint. 
I was hired on the 'efile' team, exporting, converting and emailing information on various pharmacies.  

I soon realized that the management had not prepared for a new group member. The lack of planning was evident from the first day.That day, rather than starting training for the efile job,  I was seated at the desk of a woman who worked in another group - and watched her do data entry for the entire day. 

On my second day, I was introduced to the lead of the efile team and, having no pc or system access, I spent all of the second day observing her work while she quickly went over the team's processes, speeding along with few verbal notes here and there in a charming, foreign accent. 

Late on the third day (a Friday), I was moved into a cube with a new pc and was mailed a logon and password. After trying to set up my pc to mirror others (which I had to do by looking over their machines), I started to try to copy the process that I had observed while sitting with the lead the preceeding day.  Each process I tried repeatedly failed and, I would find on the fourth day, damaged existing files. 

No one could figure the problem out for most of that third day though my lead tried repeatedly to make fixes.  Failing, she fetched the supervisor who came over and finally realized that the new pc was configured with Windows 7 - whereas their home-grown Excel macros had been written in and for Windows XP and would never work on the pc I had been given!  The new plan now was to move me to another cube with a pc configured with the old Windows.

The move took place on the forth day, (the following Monday). I began working on the daily reports, and as each process died while processing the previously damaged files, the supervisor was called back. She then figured out and demonstrated a variety of fixes - apparently teaching me to work on these when they came up later. This was another maddeningly time-consuming interruption which meant that afterwards I had to go back to the start using instructions I'd written myself so that I could actually learn the job..

On the fifth day, I finished a complete process (with notes on the failure of damaged files). When I rushed out so as not to be dinged for being a minute late or early. my two colleagues smiled and said 'see you tomorrow'.  That was the end of the fifth day.

That night, I got a message from the contracting company saying that PharMerica had ended my contract and didn't want me to come in 'tomorrow'.  She had no details.

It goes without saying that having a 3 month contract ended in 5 days was a shock, but I when I started to recap my insane experience, I also remembered that the company had turned me down after an interview in the Fall of 2012. In the midst of  their self-made chaos and lack of management skills, had they actually forgotten who I was?  Maybe.

Beware. If you don't mind being warned the first day that if you punch in when arriving, leaving and in and out for lunch and are a minute early or late, you will get 'points' after punching in your time incorrectly. Too many points, and you're fired. 

If you are hired for a computer-based job and don't mind waiting days for your equipment, this may be for you. But, if you have ever worked in a professional environment before, think twice before accepting any offer. I have worked in IT for over 20 years and have never had a work experience that even comes close to the locked down, factory-like rules, coupled by a lack of professionalism that is really breathtaking.  

Fill blister packs of medications, occasionally dispense/measure liquids. Take phone calls/orders from nurses at facilities. Tote/ship out drugs for a 1st shift run and 2nd shift run. Huge amount of techs in the AM, skeleton crew on in the PM. 

The AM shift techs are mostly older women who have been there longer than the Pharmacist Supervisor has, so they walk all over him and bully the younger/new employees if they don't bend over backwards for them. Will always take walks out to break room to chitchat, but if someone they don't like or works pm shift goes to get water, they make such a stink about it that management bans people from getting water in the break room. 

Work often piles up filling the rack until the PM shift crew starts coming in, at which point it magically goes gets done in no time. 

Pharmacy Students get special treatment of getting paid more than techs, to do absolutely nothing but play on their phone all night.

Supervisors in for techs and IV team are bullies. Act nice when they need a favor, but if you say you can't they guilt trip you, or give you an attitude. They say you have a set schedule but then at random they will schedule you on your day off without asking. 

Techs in this location have a small "turf" war going on, that is nearly impossible to not get dragged into. Lots of lies told to supervisors who blindly follow their favorites but ignore the others.

When OT is available it only goes to two technicians that are friends with the Supervisor, so instead of everyone who wants some OT getting some, two techs who work half of the shift and play on the phone the rest get 20+hours of OT that week.

IV department is a joke. There are 3 techs. There's only one IV team member who actually helps in the regular pharmacy when there's no work to do over there. the others sit at the desk on their phone snapchatting.

There is no room for advancement unless someone passes away or retires, and then management just takes the next tech who's worked there the longest, even if they clearly don't have the ability to do their new job correctly.

Lead Tech in the building does nothing but freak out over things that don't matter. Screaming about stats not being done 2 seconds after they come out, while there isn't even a driver to take them. 

Supervisors and lead tech love to place blame on others. They will spend 15 minutes going through any method possible to place the blame on someone for the smallest most insignificant error, such as not marking an open bottle or back-ordering something that wasn't on the shelf, but they had hidden elsewhere.

The Pharmacist Staff is mostly great with a few exceptions. All of them are professional and treat employees with more respect than the Tech Supervisors or Lead tech do. 

Upper management will ignore any issues you bring to them about something being wrong that needs to be addressed. Such as a co-worker stating they'd love to come shoot the place up some day and watch everyone hide for cover, or how they imagine snapping coworker's necks in their mind. 

The person who wrote the last review for this location was either one of the tech supervisors, or one of their favorites who get catered to. 

Insurance is terrible, the company doesn't help with anything.

A typical day at work involves quite a few meetings where the productive people will get as far as they can with a project or task while the rest will complain about being overworked and rarely offer anything useful until the "11th hour". The company will do its best to extract every ounce of productivity out of its employees who will be paid below or far below industry average for the kind of work they do. Many have adapted to this reality by becoming less productive to offset the lack of compensation. 

What I've learned is the company does not like to hire new employees until it's burned out the ones they already have. The company does not often give raises. When they do, if you have “exceeded expectations” in your annual review, you can expect a modestly insulting 2-3% increase to your salary. They do not even pretend that this will keep pace with inflation so realistically, your salary will shed purchasing power every year even as you become more productive. The company offers very slightly above the bare minimum in health insurance plans and does not offer any 401K match. They do have a Fidelity plan, but their contributions are infrequently a few hundred dollars a year and they offer no employee contribution match. 

Management has endured quite a bit of turnover.  Often, management takes a long time to make routine decisions and frequently require being reminded multiple times that they're the ones who've initiated these projects and need to approve the expenditures and/or plans. Awaiting approvals is the longest delay of any project. Some of the lower-level managers are outstanding. They are truly what keeps the place functional.

The culture is very laid back. This is good as people feel free to communicate and get things done but it sometimes masks a lack of accountability. Much of this is due to burnout by otherwise hardworking, loyal employees who have been here for years and are watching less experienced new hires come in at higher wages than they currently earn. A new Help Desk associate will start at a higher wage than one who has been here for years. 

The hardest part of the job is "Corporate" wastes time with ridiculous initiatives like: constructing a workout facility in the Corporate HQ which hardly gets used or offering employees a chance to have charitable donations matched to whichever charity the Corporation deems worthy. They have capital for charity and unwanted "perks" but not for merit pay, bonuses or Cost of Living Adjustments, while its employees are enduring staggering inflation increases. Personally, I'm not sure why the company thinks anyone should assign a value to "serving the community" or "leaving a Legacy". Nobody comes to work to "build a better community." Serving at a soup kitchen or teaching kids to read does that, and you can volunteer. We work  to sell our skills and productivity for the money we need to provide for our families.

The most enjoyable part of the job is feeling relatively confident that so long as people age, there will be a somewhat subsidized market for our products and services, thus our industry will be insulated from most typical economic downturns.

PharMerica is the first pharmacy that I have worked at. The things that I learned in this business, is what the medicine is used for. I have also learned about the laws working with patients and their medications. One thing I was taught was making some compounds, example would Dukes Magic mouthwash. I have also learned how to do orders and to do refills in order entry. The typical day at PharMerica is you come in a put up the returns. This also depends if you did not come in early. If you came in early you would as do the returns as make sure what came back in the totes. To see if anything came back that should not of. Then you would do for will follows. Which is what we owe the patient if we did not have enough to send the night before. Next, you would put up the drug order after the supervisor puts it out. The main thing is after you finish those tasks you have make sure the morning route is out. We have a route that leaves at noon everyday. After all this is don, then you start the rest of the days work. This depends on which station you are assign too. There is many different stations and also you might have to do more then one of them. Many of my days I work at the card station and as well as do the miscellaneous station or all of them.  This station contains creams, eye drops and other non-tablet formats. We will still keep getting orders until seven at night. When the last label has been print and has been filled. The order entry tech will come out and look into the system to make sure that we did not forget any patients medication. After all the tasks are completed, after the pharmacists has check all the medication, we will go close all the totes and we put a Manifest into each tote. The Manifest is to make sure the drugs that where check and put into the tote is in there. It is also for the nurses at the homes to make the medication did come in the tote. The coworkers I work with are some of the best people I have every worked with. The business is so small that the workers are like family. The hardest part of the job is not knowing when you will get off. That is because of the orders coming in. This is hard for people who do have children and families. Also the hardest part of the job is that when the lose business they have to let people go. They have different group home, nursing homes, rehabs and so forth. If the facilities decide to leave that is lost of business. This means layoff will start.  The most enjoyable part of my job is the people I work with. I love coming in and seeing everyone I work with. Everyday everyone has some story to tell or just a smile on there face. I enjoy going to lunch and we all go to lunch together. The other thing I really enjoy is that no matter how busy you are or if you get behind someone will step in and help. We all work as a team. Also that not just one thing is someones job. Everyone does everything. If it needs to be done, it gets done. Not many people can say they enjoy their job but I can say I enjoy it very much.

I thoroughly enjoyed my Job at Pharmerica. I never found myself looking at the clock waiting to be off. I always felt needed; whether it was by Pharmacy Director, fellow employees In the pharmacy or even corporately. I could see the difference I made there daily and what big of an impact. I Wished for more hours so I could do more. It was very rewarding even though the pay was not competitive for the amount and workload I handled. I handled very small situations and very large ones too. In the end It balanced out with a steady flow of constant go throughout the day with very little down time. I enjoyed that thoroughly as I am a focused and goal oriented person that likes to meet deadlines. I hated to have to say good bye to Pharmerica and all my coworkers. This was a job I truly whole heartedly loved and put my all into as usual. I knew for months that the Pharmacy was downsizing. Which meant there were going to be others laid-off and possibly my part time job going back to the Director. At the point I had to through in the towel our pharmacy had survived with a interim Director, who was only there a few times, for months we went without a Permanent Director. I continued to carry the team, and do work of others throughout the change. I was working overtime. Working at home without pay to make up for time I could not stay any later working in my office. I was not granted full time benefits by corporate, but insisted they needed me 40 hours a week. Also, they Insisted I refer myself as part-time when indeed it was not. I had no problem working the extra hours. I actually liked it. What I disagree with is that they were not fair, and just did not care at all. Did not care for any of the employees situations they were now in, due to the lack of hiring a replacement Director or Stepping up. After months of this I felt that the Pharmacy was somewhat stable. I had to move to a Job where I was not going to be used; and not be made to fell disposable with no appreciation by corporate. It was a radical change, and I could tell that many employees were feeling this way at the time. This was very hard to watch from my office as I tried to do all I could do. We were a strong group of employees to be able to produce the same amount of results as we did with a full time director. Everyone stepped up and did what they could. I have never worked with such a great group of people who all truly cared about their job, and enjoyed what they were doing. It was a positive place to work, with a very diverse group of people. I planned on staying with the company the rest of my career. Pharmerica lost a very valuable asset, by abusing the situation and those stuck in it.

There are some great, intelligent people working here. The issue is that management is lost and some have been working here so long that even though they should have been fired for lack of performance, the management above them won’t let them go. This also applies to non-management staff, and if you are loud and liked by people you can freely make many big mistakes and ignore work responsibilities without anyone noticing. 

In the last year I’ve seen over a dozen people either quit or be laid off due to the lack of direction and proper management. I am fairly certain that all of the technicians (those of us who are left) are actively seeking other 
employment so this number will continue to rise. Since so many technicians have left, we are being forced to work in other departments (as well as our own) and take on roles that do not exist in our job descriptions. 

We have also lost an enormous amount of LTC business since I was first hired (more than five years but less than ten years ago in the spirit of anonymity) and have not gained new clientele to replace this, hence lay offs. 

We are being kept afloat by a few “projects” (for lack of a better term), the most significant of which is somehow both micromanaged and undervalued, to the point of which the direct manager of the program (who is neither classified as a manager in title nor [I’m assuming] pay) is ready to leave. After losing so much LTC business, if we lose this I can honestly say I don’t know if I’d have a job anymore. The current way of coping with loss of employees seems to be attempting to stretch the remaining employees very thin to cover the gaps, but that cannot work in every situation and the loss of trust and personal relationships with clients would likely damage the program beyond repair. 

Another “project” is very different from anything else in the pharmacy and literally no one else could even begin to do their jobs without good training. Luckily they seem to be fairly competent with a decent supervisor who does more than take up space and their workflow is efficient and managed well. 

A very annoying and ongoing issue is the lack of good IT support. We constantly have new updates implemented that decrease the quality of whichever program they were meant for and our work is greatly affected because of this. Calling the help desk is a waste of time and they know even less than we do about current problems. 

I am very frustrated with this company and the way priorities are laid out, to say the least.

Pharmerica decided to open a long term care pharmacy in Cincinnati OH in November 2020. They have opened several pharmacies throughout the country for several years. You would think with doing that in the past, they would have known what growing pains to expect with opening a new facility. WRONG!! I really couldn't tell if it was the head of the facility or the corporate office in Louisville KY that was the problem, but this place was a mess. There was a delay in every aspect of the company from training (which as mediocre at best) to ordering inventory and setting the facility up for operation. I will not go into much detail, but let's just say that I strongly feel that all the employees there (from technician to pharmacist) were mislead into thinking that procedures/set up were going to be one way when they were the complete opposite or not as management said. The boss said in one of the few meetings we had " Each pharmacy in Pharmerica runs differently and does things their own way". A major problem was the weak training and MAJOR ISSUES with management withholding information that was needed for daily operations to function. They went from servicing one nursing home (60 beds) to between 10-20 homes (2000 beds) in less than a week and being totally unprepared in being severely understaffed, not enough equipment to handle the work load, low inventory, and disorganization in the work flow process. I really felt things were just dropped on us at the last minute. And the software they use to process the prescriptions is Frameworks, which is a joke. Also the computers in general were always having problems/running slow to the point of holding up production.
Many people had quit within a week of this happening.
You are expected to stay until the jobs are complete (but many of us did not!), which in some instances wasn't until 4 AM then you were expected to show up for your next shift which sometimes started at 9 AM...5 hours between shifts. All the pharmacist working that late shift WERE REQUIRED to stay.

I won't go on, but beware of the sign on bonuses they are offering. As of this review NO ONE who is still there has gotten their bonus, and they all started with the company in October 2020 and it is now almost March 2021.
ONE nice thing I will say is that ALL my coworkers I worked with were amazing people and the Director was a great guy as well and I would work with them all again under different circumstances. 

I am submitting this review based on my experience working at PharMerica as an IV Pharmacy Technician.

Training for my role was limited and not very structured. In some cases, newer employees were placed in situations where they had to help train other new hires due to a lack of consistent staffing/ others simply didn’t want to train which included  coverage across all areas, including packaging and filling.

Workload and staffing levels were also a concern. With a small IV team, scheduling felt very tight and there was limited ability to maintain a work-life balance. Employees were often expected to adjust their schedules around others, while personal schedule needs were not always accommodated.

There was also limited support for career growth or moving into other roles outside of the organization, which made it difficult for employees interested in advancing or changing career paths.

Employee safety and workplace concerns were present during my time there. The pharmacy experienced repeated threats over an extended period, and employees did not feel there was always a clear or consistent emergency response plan in place.

In addition, concerns raised about workplace issues such as conflict or management practices did not always feel addressed in a constructive way, and employees sometimes felt unsupported when bringing up concerns.

Overall morale was low, and many employees expressed feeling overwhelmed or considering leaving. There was also a perception of favoritism, with long-term employees often receiving different treatment than newer staff.

While the job can provide pharmacy experience, the overall work environment may not be suitable for those looking for strong structure, support, and flexibility.

This place is going downhill fast. Currently all departments are severely understaffed. All employees are expected to come in early, stay late, come in on off days, not take breaks, and do the job of 4 people. Currently not able to provide accurate, timely medication for residents at facilities serviced. The problems of yesterday become today's problems, today's become tomorrows, and eventually snowball to where only problems are bwing resolved. Deliveries are delayed or don't get sent, and when they do, they go to the wrong facilities.
Overall, since taking over in December 2015, the policies, management, and culture of this company is driving employees away as fast as they can run, and no one is being hired to replace them. This causes the employees that are left behind to pick up the slack, which makes them more likely to quit too.
I'm glad I left when I could and feel sorry for anyone that is still there. I really feel sorry for the residents that have the unfortunately situation of depending on this company for medication and being dependant on the nursing staff at the facilities for care. 
All decisions made at this company are to protect profit, not to take care of the customer. They make it so that they keep the money rolling in, and don't care about the employees at the bottom doing the work or the patients at the end not being taken care of. Patients are not real people, they are dollar signs.
My advice to management would be, get off your pocketbook and hire adequate staff, take care of the employees doing the work, and be more active in improving the company culture so that employees don't look like they are court ordered to appear each and every day.
This company had a 1Q profit of 3.5 million, and they can't pay employees a few more bucks an hour to be hired, stay, or work even harder. Bottom line, you will not matter as an employee.

I enjoyed working here because the job itself was not difficult, and you mainly interact with your coworkers rather than customers. You get to know different personalities—some act like bosses, some are kind, and some can be a bit lazy—but overall, everyone gets along and works well together. One advantage is that you already know who you’ll be working with every day, unlike in retail where you constantly deal with different people.

However, my main concern is the scheduling. The work hours are often extended beyond the standard 8-hour shift, especially during closing. Even if your shift is supposed to end, you are required to stay until all tasks are completed. As a full-time employee, there is also no fixed day off, which can be very exhausting. It would be better if employees had the option to choose or have a consistent day off.

I understood this setup when the workplace was understaffed, but even when staffing improved, the situation remained the same. Eventually, shifts were extended to 10 hours (8:00 AM–6:30 PM), but employees still had to stay beyond that time if work was unfinished. This setup can be very tiring, especially for full-time workers, and it ultimately led me to feel that the job was no longer a good fit for me.

I hope management can improve the scheduling system, as this type of setup may lead to high employee turnover. There are PRN staff who could help with closing duties, which could ease the workload. It is also important to consider that employees start work early in the morning and have families and responsibilities to attend to after work. Other departments seem to have fixed 10-hour shifts, but packers are expected to stay until all tasks are completed, making it more challenging for them.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Pharmacy technician 5 salaries reported	$17.05 per hour
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Technician 9 salaries reported	$20.67 per hour
Pharmacist 2 salaries reported	$50.00 per hour
Staff pharmacist 1 salary reported	$65.00 per hour

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