Some Truths about Omnicare

Hey Everyone,

It's been an interesting start to a hellish 10-day stretch at work. First, however, some information to set up what I've been going through.

Omnicare has been a difficult place for me to work from day 1. A lot of the other techs are younger, and it feels like a demented version of high school with all the cliques and stuff. The thing is, Padua wasn't really like that. Yes, people did tend to hang around with other like-minded people, but moving between groups and having lots of friends was encouraged, and that's exactly how I was during my HS days. I'm naturally friendly and outgoing, so most of the people at Omnicare were friendly back, but you never really know who your friends are in a place like that. Not only that, but I have repeatedly butted heads with my boss, Colleen Long, over a variety of things, mostly because I (misguidedly perhaps) believed she was out to get me or was trying to make my life more difficult. To complicate matters further, my best bud at Omnicare, the Spruce, is practically a member of the Long family (seems like everyone at Omnicare is), meaning I often had to tread lightly in my struggles with Colleen.

I would say I had set myself firmly up in the anti-Colleen camp of the pharmacy, being an excellent technician but sort of "fighting the man" and trying to get things changed to make things more logical. The pharmacy is set up in two groups: people that like Colleen, and people that like Mike King, her counterpart and my other boss. I was entrenched as one of the latter. A few things had been bothering me, however. Number one, when 6:30 crept up every night, the supposed "dismissal" time for the shift before me, I noticed certain people getting lazier and lazier, just standing around chatting, holding up counter space. Invariably, a tote full of meds that need to be filled would arrive, and someone would rush up and grab it, which is fine because there wasn't much to do. However, the problems started to arise when the ASAP orders started to print out of the computer. Despite the fact that those orders were going on the normal run, Sarah (the girl in charge after Mike/Colleen leave @ 4:30, and the #1 Mike King fan in the world) started ORDERING people not to fill them and to "leave those orders for the night crew." That infuriates me, because instead of standing around doing NOTHING, people could help to fill stuff, and many tried, only to be reprimanded and told to return the tote of drugs to the shelf. This was being done while all the while she was being nice to my face and much of it was blamed on Colleen. To my own fault, I believed her, because I was looking for any reason to be upset with Colleen and Sarah was supposed to be my friend.

Well, the last straw came on Monday, my off day this week. The Spruce was working alone at night, as our other partner, Dave McKeal, is on vacation this week and I work Saturday, meaning my day off had to come sometime during the week. Monday is generally a very busy day, second only to Friday in business, so this was going to be a difficult shift for our intrepid Pine Tree. At approximately 6:35, while everyone was standing around waiting for more orders to come out, a tote of ASAP orders was placed on the shelf, with the firm instruction "Don't fill this, these are ASAPs." The Spruce was upset by this, but being the passive, quiet guy that he is, just continued on with his business. That would not have flown had I been in his position, alone on a Monday night, watching everyone else stand around doing nothing.

When I found out about this bullying of my friend, I was LIVID. Sarah had made some other throw-away comment to me about doing something else when I was working in one of the aisles, once again, people standing around but nothing is said, and in fact, someone else came over and replaced me from the pharmacy to do the exact same thing. Needless to say I was already upset, but hearing the Spruce tell me about how bad his night is and thinking about how they could have alleviated a little of his burden just set me off. The night pharmacist, Rick, has said many times that he wishes to have no ASAP orders before 6:30 because of the continuing problem with "your stuff, our stuff." I had been holding him back from enacting that because I was trying to be nice and I want everyone to get along, and at heart I want everyone to like me. Being nice has gotten me nowhere at Omnicare but I keep on trying anyways. Well, I stormed into where Rick was working and told him "I WANT NO MORE ASAPS BEFORE 6:30, THIS PLACE IS RIDICULOUS AND I'M TIRED OF IT." I didn't care who saw, but I did catch a glimpse of Cheyenne and Stepfanie on the other side of the room. A week ago, I would have cared, but fuck it. I can't just let people treat my friends and coworkers with disrespect.

Colleen has been off for 4 days now, sick with some sort of stomach ailment. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait for her to come back. At least she can bring some order to the pharmacy and maybe end the crazy power trips that are going on. Today promises to be more interesting, as Rick has said he will go talk to the man in charge of our building, Don Gale, in order to get these and many other night shift grievences fixed. I myself will be dealing with Sarah and Colleen trying to get a solution worked out. I'm sure things will be uncomfortable at work today, but I'm willing to pay the price to stick up for a friend and what I know is right. After this is over, I'm promising myself that I will take a step back and breathe. Maybe take it easy for a while and just try and avoid drama. I've got a lot on my plate besides this, so I need to keep that in mind.

Wish me luck.