Pros
Competitive pay with other chain pharmacies; 8 hour work day with 2 hour overlap between pharmacists on weekdays; superior computer system/programs by industry standards (examples: several safety measures built into system to help reduce errors at various steps, workload balancing so slower stores can help review Rx data input at busier stores, only company with centralized patient profiles allowing painless transfers anytime day or night between Walgreens stores, DEA approved escribing software for schedule 2 medications); Decent Benefits: 401 K with 2% match, profit-sharing, health insurance, company paid life and disability insurance, 6 paid holidays, paid sick and vacation days; Ability to bank unused vacation and sick days up to 30 days; Requirement for technicians to become certified as well as store management; efficient company-mandated "workflow"; free continuing education; Opportunities for overtime; Opportunities (albeit required, but Walgreens foots the bill for training) to provide additional patient care services including health testing (Blood Glucose, Lipid panels, HgA1C, BMI, etc), various immunizations, and Medication Therapy Management; Reimbursement for mileage greater than 50 miles if required to work at a distant store within the district; 15% discount on merchandise.
Cons
Must work at least 3 months before qualified for any benefits including sick days and health insurance; health insurance is very expensive and limited to 2 plan options; Must work holidays and every other weekend; Walgreens does not close for lunch so many pharmacist are unable to take a real 30 minute lunch and definitely no 15 minute breaks; Going to the restroom for 5 minutes without getting paged back to the pharmacy by a technician with an impatient customer is nearly impossible; Floaters are required to work overnight shifts if nobody volunteers; Shifts alternate between 8-4:30 pm and 1:30-10pm which is tough on a family with kids and ay care and/or elder care issues; Large district so significant commutes requiring licensure in GA and TN; 10 vacation days beginning after 1 full year of continuous full-time employment; Often difficult to find/keep good technicians and nearly impossible to fire unreliable, unprofessional, lazy technicians AND pharmacists; Hours are continuously being cut thus lowering morale, but responsibilities and stress continue to increase such that patient care and wait time suffers; Regardless of prescription wait time goals of <14 minutes, pharmacist still have to fit in time consuming MTM, health testing, patient adherence calls, immunizations with no appt necessary, consultations, etc; Lost contract with Express Scripts for a long time; Lost contract with Tricare indefinitely; Bonus structure unfair as of 2013: it's based on pharmacy sales and performance benchmarks for PICs, but staff/floating pharmacists bonus based on unrealistic, irrelavant, unachievable subjective measures from yearly evaluations with a cap of $4000 if you are superior to your peers. It requires an average evaluation of superior in all categories (average score of 5 on a scale of 5). The company gives an in depth explanation as to what constitutes a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 for each benchmark graded, and it is entirely unrealistic to truthfully earn a 5 in all categories based on their strict criteria. Superior truly means superior by their definitions. Meeting company expectations (average score of 3) for each category requires a competent, caring, hard-working pharmacist, but pays the staff/floater pharmacist $0 regardless of profitts and store performance. A PIC with a lower average score assigned by a regional supervisor is still eligible for a bonus based on profitts and other business-related markers. Walgreens Corporate should just have stated that they are eliminated bonuses for non-pharmacy managers due to a slow economy rather than create impossible standards;