GoPro or Go Home

I believe a new method of rating pharmacy staff is overdue. Where unions make it impossible to get rid of crappy personnel and the chains' frequent managerial turnovers make consistent appraisals unlikely, it's time to take matters into our own hands.

You've likely heard my rants about the need for retesting. I'm in favour of anyone over 65 years old having to retake their driver's test. Look, it makes sense. We could get uber to sponsor it so they could have a legion of retired drivers out there looking for people to drive around. Makes sense.

Back to pharmacy land. I believe we need to retest our techs. My design for this is simple. I will pull one hundred drugs from the shelves and dump them into one giant tote. Each technician, and pharmacist, will be awarded points for accuracy and speed. If you cannot alphabetise, you are a danger. We rely on medications being put away correctly. At the end of the tests, the staff person with the lowest score is voted off the island, or relegated to cashier only.

I hear you. You're absolutely right. Maybe we should make this our first interview task. For companies that like to hold group interviews, this would be a wise way to separate the chaff. "Sorry. Your scores on the Shelf Stuffer Relay were rather dismal. You've been sacked."

Another way to work this in to standard protocol would be to have all staff wear GoPro cameras. This way, when that one technician, and you know who she is, says "wasn't me" when you know damn well it was, you can go to the video that shows her own hand placing the Mirtazapine 7.5mg behind the Meloxicam 7.5 mg bottle because they both have green labels, and fire her.

(This would not be phunny if not for the phollowing: On many days, I will help put away the order. Just for phun, on slower days, I will leave a few items in the totes that I know certain techs will carelessly shelve. For whatever reason, these seasoned vets will prove me right and put each one in the wrong spot. Maybe it's because they look like another product. Maybe they like to put Rectal Rockets in Gen Pop as opposed to the correct location of Rectal/Vag. Either way it just proves that the reckless disregard for such a seemingly mundane task reflects on their approach to the rest of their jobs.)