pharmacy technician

shift leader

store manager

staff pharmacist

customer service representative

Walgreens Boots Alliance


You will never have enough budget hours to accomplish everything asked of you. Walgreens will ask for 110% and 70 - 80% is possibly achievable. Your 30 minute lunch break will be more like 15-20 after getting to it 
Work/Life Balance—You will miss many social and family functions because you will be working a minimum of 45 hours a week, usually including 8-9 hour shifts every other Saturday and Sunday. 
Your experience will vary, depending greatly on who your store and district managers are. Some stores/districts are great (or at least good), many are toxic. Neither your store manager nor district manager will be a pharmacist. Your store manager will often have no pharmacy experience yet be responsible for helping/leading/managing your performance on his/her first day. Some DMs are supportive and encouraging. Some will have a superiority complex, “always be right” (incapable of admitting any wrong or even considering others’ ideas/opinions/feedback), and provide no encouragement (kudos, ‘atta boys, good job) while dispensing near-constant admonishment regarding your “opportunities” (i.e. meeting metric goals that are ever-changing—“It’s hard to hit a moving target” and impossible with managers like this.)
There are very few older, super-experienced technicians because 1) Walgreens works you like a DOG and 2) once a technician becomes proficient and confident they jump ship for a better-paying position in an incredibly better atmosphere at an independent or hospital pharmacy.
There are no older, super-experienced pharmacists because 1) Walgreens works you like a DOG, and 2) management drives them out or terminates them in order to hire lower-paid pharmacists or get rid of passionate pharmacists who have the nerve to speak up. 
[2 stars instead of 1 because helping patients and developing relationships with patients and peers is fulfilling, and I loved my technicians like family. Watching their careers and lives take off was kind of magical.]
Tips—document everything and get as much in writing (email/text) as possible Your managers are creeping on you, watching the cameras all the time. Your managers are keeping notes/“documenting” conversations and interactions in the computer, even if they don’t tell you anything, even if it never happened, because it makes them look good to their manager, the DM. This is not part of your official record, can say anything (factual, opinionated, unsubstantiated—anything), and it will heavily bias all leadership and your annual review. Ask your manager to see it. The good ones will show you without hesitation. Don’t hesitate to contact HR—earlier the better, just know everything said will be shared and assume there will be passive aggressive retaliation if not outright. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
I loved my job at Walgreens but the issues were more with internal staff.  They got jealous over silly stuff. I had an instance where a resource said I thought I was better then them because I was happy and had good posture. The manager held a meeting with all of us. The resources didn’t have a reason to say that; they said, that’s just how they felt.  The one issue I had was the hostile environment that one employee created and nothing was done about it even after it got reported.  In my career, I learned that everything is not for everybody and you will have ups and down. I would say keep your head up and ignore trouble markers. Management is there to get the job done but a trouble maker can make you look like a complainer. Just ignore them so you can do your job. Each manager has different styles. I think most are good and fair. But I did not have any issues with management per se related to doing my job. I just had people who seemed to worry about my role instead of focusing on their own role. I would do it again because I loved working with the people. I am sure it’s changed a lot since I been there.  If I was looking for a job I would recommend them or  reconsider going back. I have nothing bad to say about the company and it retail store. The best part of working there was management and the customers depended on me for help and I enjoyed helping them and exceeding goals. It’s just what I do. If you want a good company I would say give it a try. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
For me there was no stress. It was mostly fun and figuring out when to take a break was the most stressful because I wanted to make sure my Customers were treated well.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Friendly 90 percent of the time. It appear everyone was afraid when the big boss came in.  

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It stated off setting up and getting ready for the customers to come in.  I loved decorating with themes and balloon.

In the beginning this was a great place to work...many years before Boots. Now it's like the corporate office has lost touch from top to bottom on what is going on in the store.  Day to day drives managers into a stress level that is literally affecting their health. No matter how hard or smart you work, it's never enough and it only matters in the moment. Often, accomplishments are forgotten within moments of them being recognized. It's not about "Is it right to all concerned" anymore, but "Is it right for those at corporate to look good and put a feather in their cap" A concience is a good thing to have but not at Walgreens. All to often Staff/Management/Pharmacy could die today, and tomorrow they'll move on like they never existed. They don't want your true feelings because if you voice you opinion on anyt survey their goal is to find out who's opinion it was so they can out them and find out why they were disgruntled, and basically black ball them if they can. Employee relations often is on the side of DM's and DPR's, who have each other on speed dial to immediately know how they can cover each other. Previous experiences on here have mentioned how they are threatened on a daily basis over KPI's and Metrkics....it's True. Each passing day see's it get worse. Whether it's surveys or pushing credit card enrollments that have a 26.9% interest rate. What's your action plan? Are you holding staff accountable or else? That's the daily life. Anyone who will say different, ask any employee or manager, or assistant manager. Walgreens Boots Alliance does not care about it's employees at any level. Will it pay the bills? Yes, but at the price of your soul and sanity.  The long tenured managers have to watch their step every day due to the new managers that get started at significantly less, replacing them at a moments notice.

If your going to start a career, best advice I can give you is don't start at Walgreens. It stopped being the "Pharmacy America Can Trust" many years ago. 

A typical day involves the daily duties such as bringing items from the warehouse to the store floor, cashiering, merchandising, and keeping the story tidy. I believe this job helped me learn better time management, resource manangement, and how to more effentially communicate as a team. The management has been very iffy, where some days they may love you and reward you for your extra effort while other days you will be ridiculed for doing task exactly how you were explained to do them. The manager has full authority over the store and exercises it poorly. The culture here was not a very good one, our shift leads encouraged us to skip steps to finish task quicker, issues are overlooked for as long as they can be, and alot of the fault or blame is quickly thrown on one person so the other employees look better. The hardest part of the job has just been the mental loops that retail can throw you through, dealing with short staff and trying to sastify customer demands at the same time, trying to make sure your other coworkers are doing what they are supposed to be doing so you can work on your task (even when your not a manager, becuase if you don't the task list will pile up and eventually fall on you), and balancing a good dynamic with other coworkers who may not share the same skills or work ethic. The most enjoyable part of the job is definietly the simplicty of it. The days where most of the task for the week have been completed, or you just got done with a big project the day before, the daily duties are all you are responsible for. As long as the store is clean and presentable to customers, your daily activites are very slow paced and you can take your time more

I'm grateful to have worked alongside good managers and mostly great people. There's always a few bad eggs and I think they shouldn't have been kept on, but I don't hold that against a short-staffed management. 

I was keen to work in the medical field and felt this was a good opportunity to do so. I was on-boarded into the pharmacy within a reasonable amount of time. I got solid training and guidance. 

The workload is a lot, but adjusting to that isn't bad. It's stressful, but for the most part that's okay. 

The pay was unfortunately downright bad considering the sheer volume of work. The salary difference was insane. Techs would make a little over 20,000 a year, but the Pharmcists would be 100,000. I respect the education and effort put into earning that, but without techs doing the heavy lifting (orders, drive-thru, inventory, vaccinations, etc.), the pharmacy wouldn't be about to function. People deserve to be paid more than 30,000 under the national average. Ultimately, that's why I left.

The last thing I want to mention is the sheer amount of "programs" that had to be explained to customers who despise this garbage. Nobody wants to be called and bothered about this program or that program. Keep it simple. Don't try to make elderly folks try to understand convoluted discount programs, or med-syncing, or credit cards, or monthly plans or none of that. Leave people alone. Deliver simple, efficient, reliable, and clean service. Want people to choose Walgreens over CVS? Improve the technology, upgrade pay, improve med workflow, cut the fat off processes that could be simplified, and don't call patients too much (they almost always disliked that). 

I was quite surprised when I actually interviewed for the beauty advisor position that I would be working in an aisle at Target. I found this to be a challenge and what a challenge it was. You not only have to deal with rude Target employees that make minimum wage, and are reluctant to help or do product research so you have product to sell, because of the daily, weekly and monthly goals you have to make, you do not get much support from the management of Boots either. Many times I brought issues to my superiors, but I was left to fend for myself most of the time. I had to get and pay for my own supplies like a table to do weekly events, tape, scissors, white out, or yes even my own client book was supplied by me. Christmas was a joke, you can go to the Dollar store for bags and tissue paper, I think not. I spent over $40.00 of my own money making a basket for the Susan Komen event I did in October, did I get any compensation of course not it was expected. They are just like every other cosmetic company and I have worked for a few just with a different cover. I am really not bitter more relieved that I am no longer employed at this company. I made a boo-boo I clocked out from my cell-phone, but I could never get to a Target phone without either an evil eye or feeling of dispar from the employees. Oh yes, if you go to another store because they say you may have to do this beware they do not pay milage, but make other promises that they do not keep. Like I was promised a commission from I store that I traveled almost an hour to get too. So if you think the grass is greener on the other side....please think again.

Some stores are really nice to work in, some aren’t so nice. The quality of the store depends on the personal attributes manager, which then influences the attitudes of the team. I’ve noticed that where the manager is of reasonable character and judgement, this reflects highly on the team, and even if the store is tatty and old, it will be a nice environment to work in.
Speaking of which, it also depends on the aesthetics of the store. Most Boots stores are falling into disrepair and are in dire need of a re-fit. The only stores which have had recent investment are those in retail parks where there’s high footfall and high sales. All other stores are early 00’s on the shop floor, but behind the scenes in the staffing areas they’re more much more dated. Some of the colleague canteens look like a depressing dining room of a 1980’s care home. Some aren’t fussed but I’m personally affected by aesthetics of where I work. 
I came to Boots from one of their larger competitors, and while similarities exist, it’s not sufficient to simply drop a pharmacist into a new environment without basic training, but unfortunately I was given no training - I was simply asked to read SOPs. However generally, if you’re store based, you’ll be buddied up with someone to learn how Boots do everything.
Boots have a rewards platform where you can opt for things like life insurance, health insurance, dental insurance. On first thought these seem valuable but actually, they aren’t subsidised and don’t really offer discount from market rates.

Walgreens is not the store it used to be. Walgreen company heads care nothing for the work/life balance of its employees. allotted hours were constantly being cut off of the main store amount.  This made it extremely difficult to have enough people within the store to help during busy times, which was 6 out of 7 days.

When I started out there was 1 main store manager, 2 assistant store managers, 4 or 5 rotating shift leads, 2 additional department heads (Cosmetics & Photo) then a bunch of cashiers and floor CSR's. Plus, another whole overnight 10pm to 7am crew to work throughout the night. That is just the main floor, not the pharmacy which had its own staffing. When I left, the assistant store managers were gone, there was only 3 shift leads, no department heads, maybe 3 to 5 Cashier/CSR's all of which were rotating shifts to cover the store.  If there was no cashier, the shift lead had to take that position instead of being on the floor to help there. The over-night shift was completely taken away.  Yet all the same amount of restocking, customer service, photo orders and now drive-up orders (where we did the customer shopping) needed to be done. And that is all on top of the fact that if the pharmacy needed help, because their staff was cut in half, we had to send people there to help as a main priority.

It was a good job with steady pay, a wonderful team and a happy place to work and corporate turned it into a work-horse type of job with staff just praying for the day to end.

Upper management makes the most money, receives the best raises/bonuses just to run the company into the ground. Alot of company failures are blamed on store level employees that are over worked and under paid. Their expectations are unrealistic and difficult at times but they still have a “get it done” attitude. The employees who go above and beyond and treat the job as if it’s all they have gets all the recognition. Coming in earlier, staying later, coming in on your day off, having your schedule changed at the last minute, being an over achiever, having a positive attitude under stressful or unfair circumstances seems to be the way to get ahead in this company. It’s difficult to be honest and admit that policies, decision making, scheduling etc works against the business or employees because they’re only interested in a “yes”’man. This company is cheap with rewards, either that or it is a waiting process to receive it.  Most companies will give you vacation, sick and personal days but here it’s only “pto” which you have to accumulate weekly based on the hours you work and your accrual rate. So if you call out sick  or have an appointment or emergency there goes some of your vacation time. They care more about the business than their employees and it shows. They want more than they’re willing to give in general.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Long founded company serving the community since 1902.



What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Not having a schedule until a week sometimes even a day in advance. No work Life balance. It confuses me that when people have the same availability over time or each semester or whatever, that they can't figure out how to accommodate employees needs amd company needs. It's crazy and a waste of time to switch the schedule every week or two. If you need time off or a schedule change then request it, if they even see it, and we could all have a bit of a schedule change
 This is obviously something my boss , the general manager, can't seem to realize that he's making his own life at work and the store staying open difficult due to scheduling. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Fairly toxic. They have high turnover. Either your a lifer at Walgreens Boots Alliance or they don't care. As long as there are two people to run the whole store they stay open. I believe a large corporation can afford to give employees more hours or hire more employees, especially when they're signs at all the stores how desperate they are for help in both the store and the pharmacy.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Open mid shift or close. Inventory and cashiering and photo and passport photos etc.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Pharmacy technician 10 salaries reported	$12.33 per hour
Shift leader 10 salaries reported	$14.44 per hour
Store manager 1 salary reported	$20.50 per hour
Staff pharmacist 8 salaries reported	$49.50 per hour
Customer service representative 7 salaries reported	$9.36 per hour

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