Working at Caremark — Reviews by Employees

This company is hopelessly flawed in philosophy, leadership, judgment, honesty and integrity. It's like a train wreck where there is some railroad official standing in front of a yellow caution tape wearing a gas mask waving people away saying "Nothing to see here, all is well, move along.". Control of Pharmacare, which was the CVS mail order business was handed over to Caremark and has been summarily dismantled probably due to the fact that the systems they used were superior in operation and economically more efficient, and I'm sure that it was making someone some where in the company look bad. So the solution was to get rid of the good example. Oddly enough CVS Caremark is still touting the JD Powers Award that the now defunct systems in large part won for the Pharmacare portion of the business. There's that integrity thing again. Employees that would have lost their jobs in the fulfillment facilities that weren't completely closed were assigned to administrative jobs, most with out being given a choice. Now they are being weeded out with outrageous quotas, little training and no support. In fact one of the reasons I'm posting here is that I heard that a manager of one of the administrative departments actually handed one of the employees the phone number of another local company that was hiring. Granted this employee is on what the company calls "final counseling" but everybody in the department is on final counseling. These managers and everyone above them are soulless. I don't know how they can sleep at night and I wonder what their families would think of them if they knew how they treated people.
I rated this company pretty low. Everybody here gets paid between 20 and 30 percent lower than the average for the market in our area. Even if the HR department (which could be replaced by hanging a bulletin board) claims other wise. The IT department probably gets the shaft the worse. Respect is not a word they understand here. I know of one manager who has the most unflattering nicknames for just about everyone. The company treats people like cattle. They advertise that they have all these standard benefits sick time and FMLA but what they don't tell you is that if you use your sick time, even with a doctors excuse, they will hold it against you at your raise review. If you use your FMLA they take your vacation time off of you. Sure you get paid for your vacation time but would you have taken the job if they explained these things up front? The benefits have taken a nose dive, probably as a way for Tom Ryan to make up for not making the company the 100 billion he was bragging that it would make back in July of '09. They are removing emergency room copay's and putting the bill toward your deductible. They might as well call it the "We hate employees with kids" option. Job security, if you've read everything up to this point you know that there is none. Work/Life Balance? Here's the balance, they want you to live your work and nothing else if they could force it upon you they would require you to dream sweet dreams about CVS Caremark as well. Career advancement? Doesn't exist here. They won't even cancel a contractor to keep a full time employee. Co-workers for the most part are competent but considering what they pay, you are not going to get the cream of the crop. In fact most of the better people don't stay long and maybe that's because this company has the reputation of being the employer of last resort in this area. The work environment is hostile. Like above with the "Final Counseling" they come to these people with a smile and promising all the help they need to meet quota but 2 minutes later it back to "work harder, work faster or you're fired". Ok maybe it's more like "You need to work faster and keep your errors at zero or we'll have to let you go" it's still a euphemism like the company mission values of Integrity and a couple of other words that are so meaningless around there I can't even remember what they are.
Bottom line? If you find yourself having to go to this employer of last resort, go armed for bear. Ask all the unaskable questions. Don't let the smile on the HR rep or the managers face mislead you into thinking these are nice people who want to help you. They aren't and they don't, they want to use you and give you nothing for it. If they make you an offer, you should laugh at them and ask how they expect to get anybody to work for them when they are paying 30 percent below market average. Especially for a company that made nearly 100 Billion last year. Their job titles are meaningless too. Go to their website and look up the job postings. Senior Annalist, Technical Adviser in the real world these would be System Administrator or Programmer they are so far out of touch with reality they actually think that by changing the title from something that is industry standard that they can pay a lower price for the same talent.
Ok I'm done, thanks for listening.

There are two entities within Caremark, corporate and IT. As a IT manager, I speak on behalf of at least 20 managers I have regular contact with. Caremark used to care about it's employees a decade ago. If times were tough and the company made little money, they used to dig deeper in their pockets to make sure we get a bonus as appreciation for our hard work. I do not know what has changed, but I do know that morale and satisfaction are in the basement. Our work has tripled in the last two years. Our bonuses have gone down about 60%. I have never seen such a sophisticated level of micromanagement. We have to submit multiple reviews of our staff every quarter. We also have to submit a quarterly update of everything that has been going on in the data center. There are new strict rules implemented constantly. Rules arise after one or a few individuals have been caught doing something they should not, so the rest of us get punished. Every day we are reminded that we cannot be trusted to run a data center. We are expected to work more than 8hrs every day and come in on the weekends if needed. Of course, as salaried employees, we do not get additional compensation for overtime. We are now used to seeing emails stating the company is breaking records. The email thanks us for toughing it out through the stressful and very busy quarter and for helping gross more money than ever before. It is usually followed by a thank you email, which is insulting. We have been voted as one of the top 100 companies to work for. Ask the folks in the data center, you will get a different answer. At the moment, turnover is low as we are in the midst of a global economic crisis. The 20 managers I mentioned are ready to leave as soon as our economy improves and companies start hiring again. How many other managers I have no contact with are thinking the same? Enjoying it while it lasts CVS, you're on a path of self-destruction if no action is taken. In the meantime, do not worry, we are loyal to our clients and will never let them know what we go through daily.

Concerned employees across the network.

When you work for Caremark it is like you become their slave. You get in trouble for taking time off. You lose credit and they steal your PTO away. The management sucks because they don't give a damn about their employees, you see the management walking around doing nothing at all. This place is the worst company you could ever work for and you know what, it has been worse since CVS took them over. I have never seen a company where you have to have PTO in order to take time off.

Caremark you suck

This company tried to mandate overtime. They provide you with benefits of sick days and vacation days but punish you when you use the. Corrective action. How is that legal?

I have been with caremark for over 2 years it feels like a million years. Noone in managemant knows your name you may get a HI if your lucky. Days off---- do not take them unless you want to be written up. The company changes there procedures every 5 minutes they tell us to inform the customer one thing and then 5 minutes later we are to tell them differently no wonder the members are fit to be tied before they get a hold of customer service reps, i do not know about anyone else but i am tired of lying to members and not being able to give them any gaurantees. I have never worked for a company that cannot even give there employees any straight answers let alone members. Last year they informed us that we where merging with caremark Yeah Right it was a take overwe do everything there way. Also another issue that really makes me mad is the way that the company treats there employees i am tired of busting my butt getting yelled by members (but for good reason) and then having to get told that i need to take more calls and and my aftercall is to long and for get having to use the restroom when you got to work sick and go into personal time because they send out the search party for you then they wonder why we call off, The bottom line is if you do not want to be treated like a child then DO NOT work for caremark.

PAY----- HORRIBLE
RESPECT------ THERE IS NONE
BENEFITS------ THEY CHANGE OUR BENEFITS ALL THE TIME
JOB SECURITY------ WATCH WHAT YOU SAY IT CAN GET BLOWN OUT OF CONTEXT
WORK LIFE BALANCE------ YOU HAVE NO LIFE THATS THE CAREMARK WAY
CAREER POTENTIAL ------- GOOD LUCK
LOCATION ---------- 45 MINUTES AWAY USED TO BE 5 MINUTES
CO-WORKER COMPETENCE --------- OK I GUESS THEY ONLY DO WHAT IS ASKED OF THEM
WORK ENVIROMENT------------ FREEZING

HAVE A GREAT DAY

When we were hired we were not told about shift bids, they only do them when they are getting ready to reduce the workforce and make us work harder. Most of the employees that they want to get rid of are put on a shift that they can not work. And do not be sick, take a holiday day or vacation because if you get shift differential you will not receive it even if this is the shift you work all the time. You will also receive a mark against you if you take a sick, holiday, or vacation day if you call off and it was not scheduled how are you supposed to know when you get sick. The reason our supervisor told us is because it is not fair to the other employees because you only work that shift for 6 months that is bull. We had a new company come in to see if they wanted to become members so everyone was all dressed up and out on the floor as soon as they left you could not even find a supervisor they were all hiding in there cubes like usual. They have not hired any one since last year and there are no plans on hiring anyone we are already short staffed.
The other complaint I have is the pay when the last group was hired they were hired at $1.00 more than we make the reason we were told was because they were hired as Caremark and we were hired as Pharmacare. I have been there for a couple years yeah!!!! what a joke I am still a level 2 and if my boss fills like it I may be a level 1 so I won't get as much of a bonus you say bonus I am talking a big joke maybe you might get $50 but there are people there that have never seen a bonus and have been there longer than I have.
The last raise I think I may have received .22 wow lets go on a vaction. Not even enough to buy the extra tank of gas that I now have to buy because they moved us to Monroeville.
The bosses are always outside smoking apparently they do not have assigned breaks and if they want someone on the floor to go out with them they just put them on floor walking then that person gets an extra break.
We do not get raises based on what you know some people are on certain lines and may only get 2 or 3 calls an hour but if your boss volunteers you to work another line you get no compensation and you are the one taking 100 calls a day while some people only get 24 calls in a day. What a joke!!
We were told that Pharmacare and CVS Caremark merged what a joke it was a hostile take over in 2006 but was not announced until a week before we had to move to Monroeville. Our W-2's still say Pharmacare so who do we work for and is that the reason that we do not make as much as Caremark employees make.

We had a snowstorm on 2/6/10 with 20" of snow they closed the building down but never called anyone to let them know not to come in and people showed up because they did not want to get an occurrence. We had an ice storm about 4 weeks before that and they said it would not be held against you for not coming in but a couple people this was put on a write up to get rid of these people. On both occasions we had a state of alert telling people not to go outside and to stay off the roads the malls even shut down but I guess they could care less if you are hurt in a accident.
Do not apply at this company unless you want your dignity to go down the drain. This is the worse company that I have ever worked for!!!!

Stay away from cvs! Specially area12 region 62 and district 8 stores are run by dm that assumes he's smarter than a fart! A company this big puts in charge of their stores complete a$$h***s that have no people skills or graduate degrees to run a serious business. Pay is 7 to 16 dollars the higher the pay the more u will have to suck up to mr.Lyle ur wages are told to everyone. Open door policy is a joke if your a minor ur out of gas u will not get hire at all due to class action payout cvs had to cash out for abusing minors rights. So managers will get in trouble if u hire one in a store. Another lawsuit waiting to happen. Brakes u don't get one. Getting paid for ur work on time it never happens the majority of the time they say I'll see it on ur next pay check! What a joke. They discriminate people base on race and age just go to their stores. Training they put an idiot who dosent have a college degree to teach their employees they give them does jobs cause they're diansours in the company and brown nose the dm Lyle. Benefits non everyone is part time and if ur full time ur luckyif uget 30 hours. They schedule u less than 30 so the system drops ur benefits and they say tough luck. Raises it takes close to one year to get a 25 cent raise what a joke. No structure standers across the company. Is who u know and how much brown nosing u do. High turnover in company. Lots of expire merchandise sold to public. Managers try to cover up numbers and score cards by manipulating customer surveys by ripping surveys from customers reciepts and calling them selfs so they look goodwhat a joke. Pricing is always wrong. The list continues. So do ur self a favor and work somewhere else the economy is not that bad that u will find something better that the shit hole this place is.

Want to be micromanaged, peered over your shoulder, and paid way WAY less than you're worth..

Then come to work with us here at Caremark. We'll work you to death, jerk with your hours, and pay you next to nothing.

Operators are standing buy, call now!

Caremark's Management is a joke. While I was there I was treated disrespectfully. The managers didnt listen to anything you had to say, the supervisors didnt give a crap either. We had a new manager every month it seemed like. The pay is crap and you only get 25 cents a year raise and that is IF you meet the SIGNIFICANTLY EXCEEDS catagory..NOBODY got this they got the just meets standards. Most of us got a 12 cent raise for the YEAR. They will hang raises over your head and repeatedly make up reasons why you didnt get your promotion that year. The "Lead Technician" or Tech III position was filled by someone who couldnt even do the things the Tech II could do, yet he/she got paid almost double what they did. He/She was hired under a different pharmacy manager whom she knew from working at another employer so she got special pay scale. They will nitpick you for everything you do wrong, enforce new rules base on nothing, then contradict everything they tell you. Caremark is not a place to work if you want to advance and move up in payscale and professionally. Ultimately you will be fired or laid off. They just laid off half the branch where i worked at.

Ok, here is my experience with Caremark. I was one on the many temps that Caremark regularly hires who was naive enough to believe that if I busted my can for 3 months and they liked me, I would be hired as a full time employee for this Fortune 25 pharmaceutical company. DO NOT believe this hype! I was there for about 6 months asking repeadedly if they were considering me for hire and was continuously ignored. Finally, my agency called after 6 months and told me my contract was over. I worked hard, was never late and absent once. I went through learning their CATS system and the Caremark way of collecting to only work for half a year. Also, management is very detailed orientated and is on your back for every little thing. It's NOT what you know, but if management likes you or not. So prepare to be chipper at all times and kiss ass. Oh yeah, some of the staff are young aggressive girls who will try and start fights with you even though they DO NOT know you and work for other departments. They are straight up punks. WATCH OUT this job is posted all over Internet job boards and promises an opportunity that only 2 out of 20 temps will get.