Budget

CP: I had an epiphany the other day. 

ME and MICE ELF: We did?

CP: I did. 

ME: What was it about? 

CP: My budgets. 

MICE ELF: Must have been a boring day. 

CP: Let me ask you a question. If you wanted a new car, but you only budgeted $300/month for a loan payment, would you look at vehicles that cost more or less than you could afford? 

ME and MICE ELF: <scream> LESS! 

CP: Good. Now, let us suppose that you were a businessperson. You would assign a budget to the expected work, right? 

ME: Uh-huh. 

CP: And you would expect them to keep at or below the budgeted amounts, yes? 

MICE ELF: <nods> uh-huh. 

CP: For argument's sake, you wouldn't decide to purchase a Bentley, and expect to pay $300/month, would you?

ME and MICE ELF: Huh-uh. 

CP: You would try to make your purchase fit the budget and not the other way round?

ME: and MICE ELF: Indubitably. 

CP: Good. Instead of trying to make the work fit the budget, perhaps we should make the budget fit the work?

ME and MICE ELF: <golf clap> Bravo!

ME: Your point? 

MICE ELF: Yeah. Are we getting a Bentley or not? 

CP: The point, my dear phriends, is that if business demands require more help, perhaps we should meet the demands and expand our budget rather than just accepting what is handed to us. Meeting the new demands with proper, flexible budgeting will enable us to offset the initial costs. 

ME: That's not how budgets work. They are rigid. Some computer in a room somewhere churned out what you will do and it knows better than you do what will happen and what is happening based on what has happened and other important superfluous data your puny, little pharmacist brain can't comprehend. 

MICE ELF: Puny pharmacist brain no match for computer that write budget!

CP: When you look up from your computer and see your 4 technicians busy and no one is answering the phone or entering or counting prescriptions, perhaps you are understaffed. 

To wit: 1 tech at drop-off (2 patients in line)

1 tech at pickup (4 patients in line)

1 tech at each of the 2 drive-thru lanes (4 total cars)

RPh checking prescriptions and preparing shots

(7 pharmacy phone lines lit up and ringing)

That means that 17 patients are in need of help yet we only have 5 employees to help them. (And the RPh is helping the people waiting for shots and is about to vacate the pharmacy.)

ME and MICE ELF: Well some of those people would have to wait in line anyway. 

CP: All waiting for prescriptions that are not getting typed or counted. How long until the bottom falls out of that model? 

ME: I'm going to work at Chik-Fil-A. 

MICE ELF: I'm going to Five Guys Burgers. 

CP: They do know how to staff for busy times. And now I'm hungry.