Working at Walgreens — Reviews by Employees

I've worked for Walgreens for 12 years and I hope to work here all of my career. This company helped pay some of my tuition when I was in school. There has always been someone in management with concern for me and my future. They humbly offered me training for new management and help me to do my job. Sure, there are some managers that are not good at their job and it was a drain to work for them. But, I've stuck through it during the hard times. It seems Walgreens has a knack for knowing who the bad managers are and not promoting them further. Hopefully this will continue to be the case. I like Walgreens' innovation and business decisions in these tough economic times. They understand and try to be fair to all.

I worked for Walgreens for 3 years as an MGT. I happily quit earlier this year and vowed never to work in the soul-sucking retail industry again and haven’t. I stuck around that long because the pay was good and they really don’t check travel expense reports too closely. Just kidding. WAG has some major issues at all levels. At store level, there is simply too much to do with less and less people to do it. Some nights it is impossible to run photo since the tech called in, help out in Rx, cover breaks, help customers, close the store and still get a list done. But don’t expect understanding from the average Mgr. because they won’t thank you for busting your ass holding the store together, they will ask why the list wasn’t finished. At district level, there is a disconnect with the people that work in the district. I never talked with a DM once in 3 years. I was hired by a group leader and all interactions were with store managers. And finally, at corporate, there is major misguidance in priorities. Sales aren’t down, just sales growth. But sales are still growing. Corporate really sold out its employees by using the economy as an excuse to cut everywhere just to make the investors and board happy. They lie and say that we have to suffer the cuts to stay competitive because most people will buy that line. When in actuality the only thing they are worried about is the one number. Stock price.

I worked for 3 mgrs. in my time with WAG. Longview was amazing. He has been with WAG for over 30 years and hardly spends time in the office. He is always helping in Rx and on the floor. I would have quit sooner if I hadn’t transferred to his store. I felt like I was taking a masters degree course from what I learned from him. Unfortunately that was only the last 5 months of my tenure. The other 2 were pieces of work that would have been better off working for me. The first let his subordinates run the store. Since I wanted to get things done, this made me an enemy to the lazy workers on the staff. He did not back me up.

Hard work is NOT rewarded. My reputation at every job before Walgreens was outstanding. My approach to Walgreens was to work my ass off. But I ask this: how long do you expect someone to work hard when you never recognize them for it, and only focus on what didn’t get done? It is demoralizing and just bad managing. But I have heard it said many times that that is the Walgreens way. The guys in WAG for a decade or two just don’t give recognition.

The worst mgr. that I worked for was lazy. That is well known fact about Battleground in our district. He is always in the office agonizing over product ordering that should have taken minutes, checking sports scores and emails, and talking to friends on his cell. He never helped on the floor even when his EXA was on vacation and we were just buried. So why should I help him make his bonus? I decided pretty soon after getting to that store that it was only fair that I match his output. If it was ok for him then he should have no problem with me doing it. I feel bad for the EXA and other MGT since they still busted their asses since they wanted promotions. Don’t hate me for a situation created by the mgr. I wouldn’t recommend anyone try this since mgrs. are too well-entrenched to lose a battle or even bother to learn from it.

I got suspended 3 days without a warning for switching shifts with the EXA. Why would a mgr. care about this? Especially since both assts. were ok with it. It was at that point that I realized that the only logical explanation was that he was trying to get rid of me. He then had LP called because he heard a joke through the grapevine that originated from me even though no one (especially the person told the joke) was offended. LP didn’t take it seriously, but he had already done way more harm than good. I immediately sent an email to the DM requesting transfer which was denied without a response to me from the DM.

Mgrs. are only evaluated on their numbers. I have never heard of a DM asking employees what they think of their mgr. A good DM would. But most DM’s didn’t get an education until they were DM’s and therefore have more of a WAG mentality than a business one. Mgrs are set and they know it. As long as their numbers are right they can coast.

As a college educated manager, it is a waste of my abilities to be pulling outdates. But I have to because there is no one else there to do it. In the end I would just not do it and say I did. Better that, than to numb my brain. Besides, I will be transferred to a store 20 miles away before the effects of not pulling outdates hit that store. It isn’t the optimal approach, but explaining this to a mgr. would not work. The only way for them to understand is to hit them in their bonus by watching inventory go bad.

Having never worked retail before I wasn’t prepared for all the high-school antics these people play. Hardly anyone is up front with you. If you slight another asst. or a subordinate, you will be the last to hear and it will be exaggerated. Even mgrs. play these games. Don’t ever trust anything you say in confidence to remain that way. Although you can amuse yourself knowing this and put crazy stuff out there just to give people what they deserve for gossiping.

If you still decide to work for WAG, know this: your experience will rest heavily on what kind of mgr. you have. Anyone that says WAG is what you make of it has never worked at a Battleground or is just a masochist, or is uneducated and thinks they have to suffer and skip bathroom breaks to show they are working hard. Assistant managers are not assistants to the managers. Therefore they should be doing more managing than anything else. I believed I was hired for my brain but looking around while I was there I started to figure out that it wasn’t a high priority for WAG.

For the record, I have worked at my Walgreens -- which isn't a 24-hour location -- for over two years now. I started off as a service clerk, moved up to photo specialist, and a few months ago the pharmacist asked to have me made into a technician.

PAY: The pay is better than other retail chains and similar businesses, but it is far from being acceptable. I only get paid 9.25 an hour as a technician; I started with 7.50 as a service clerk. Raises are given based on time spent with the company. Any extra effort you may put into doing your job is pointless.

RESPECT: Again, this seems to be better than a majority of other businesses but is still unacceptable. Everyone is friendly on a personal level, but from my own personal experiences in my store and others, don't expect anything genuine -- especially not from management.

BENEFITS: I can't really say anything about this. For the short time I did utilize the offered insurance, I never actually had to use it. It was a disappointing waste of one thousand dollars. The employee discount is actually pretty generous, though, and I've had at least a week's worth of vacation each year since I started.

JOB SECURITY: As a pharmacy technician, I feel like my job is pretty secure so long as I don't seriously screw anything up. However, keep in mind that in a large chain like Walgreens, all they really have to do is cover your empty spot with someone from another store or something until they can find a replacement. At my particular location, the manager is renowned for never firing anyone without being forced to; a teenage kid once set the front register on fire by carelessly playing with the lighters, and he still works for the company to this day.

WORK/LIFE BALANCE: Like any job with retail, do not expect any semblance of a normal life. Your schedule will often lack rhyme or reason. If someone does not show up for a shift and it is your day/night off, expect to be asked to cover it. Expect these issues to become worse the closer it gets to the holidays. They heavily discourage requesting any time off or being unavailable to work certain days from November through the New Year.

CAREER POTENTIAL/GROWTH: They seem to prefer to promote from within the company, though sometimes it isn't anything substantial. For the majority of people, Walgreens is a dead-end job with little to no chance for growth.

LOCATION: There are Walgreens all over the place. When I travel, I find it humorous to visit other stores and shop for random items just for the novel feeling of being inside a Walgreens and not having to work.

CO-WORKER COMPETENCE: Because it is retail, expect to work with a lot of teenagers, college students, mothers, and old people. A great deal of these people either lack the intelligence, experience, or energy to correctly do their jobs. Teenagers in general are just plain irresponsible, for the most part, though thankfully a lot of them grow out of it. Training is a bit of a joke. The only real way to learn your job seems to be through experience.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: Again because you'll probably be working with teenagers, students, mothers, and old people, expect your co-workers to be for the most part neutral to friendly. Several of the stores I have been to are perpetual rumor mills, so watch what you say and how you act. It could easily get you in trouble. Management has little no considering for your life outside of work or your personal well being, for the matter. Most of them are very by the book, though the assistants usually aren't as anal as the store managers themselves. EXAs tend to fall somewhere between the two.

Overall, it's a pretty typical retail experience. Not as terrible as some, but definitely not the best. Just average. Walgreens is tolerable to work for if you just need something to get by, but it isn't anything I would stick with for the long term. You burn out pretty easy.

First I have to say "Your life and your job is going to be what you make of it!"

PAY: I think the pay is great! Yes, I admit it hurt when the guaranteed 4 hours of OT was cut from our pay with virtually no notice, but it is still good money. I chose many years ago not to go to college so I take full responsibilty for the outcome of my life. Who really knows when graduating from high school what they want to be when they grow up and what exactly it is going to cost to live and where that money is going to come from? Face it, most parents don't share all the gorey details of cost of living with their children.

RESPECT: You get what you deserve. If you respect yourself and your work ethic the respect from upper MGT will be there. (Of course there are a few I have met in the "Walgreens White Collar Upper MGT position that look at you as if you are no more than dirt beneath there feet, but that is because they have no respect for themselves) As an asst. mgt there are a few employees I have run accross that have no respect for me but I in turn have no respect for them. I feel those employees are there to receive a paycheck and not work for it. "Nothing in life is free and that includes your paycheck!" Maybe these people should be paid for a job well done, not for the hours they spend walking around being bored and not have to be told what to do day in and day out.

BENEFITS: You have got to have them. Be thankful they are offered. Compare our plans to what you would have to pay if Walgreens was not offering it to you.

JOB SECURITY: If you really and truly do your job you should not have to worry about losing it. If you are a slacker then that is another story. There are days that we can not always give 100% and that happens but if you can not do (or will not do) your job biggest part of the time....WHY SHOULD YOUR JOB BE SECURE?

WORK/LIFE: Can not comment on store manager or EXA hours but as an asst mgr. you only work 40 hours a week and possibly have an hour drive time each way. That is still only 50 hours out of 168 hours in a week. Even if you take out 8 hours for sleep each day you still have 62 to 72 hours per week to do what ever it is you need to do. If you want a 9 to 5 job apply at a bank or become a doctor! No one says you have to work with Walgreens. Sure beats the "Unemployment Line!"

CAREER POTENTIAL/GROWTH: As I stated earlier, I chose not to go to college and took the road of working hard. I was hired as a photo tech, soon became head photo and then joined the asst. mgr training program all in 4 months time. I have been an asst. for nearly 2 years and really enjoy it. I am undecided on the EXA position whether it would benefit me or not but I know the opportunity is out there.

LOCATION: I have worked in several of our local Walgreens. One is within 5 miles of my home and 3 within 15. I work at one that is a little further away but I have become used to the drive so it really doesn't bother me anymore. The group of people I work with compensates the drive.

CO WORKER COMPETENCE: As far as all the mgts. in our store we all work well together. Again we all have days where we don't all give 100% (me included) but I think we are a good team. For the most part we have great employees. There are always a few though that are just there to receive a check without working for it. They are the ones that are always complaining about something. They are bored, they are hungry 24/7, you have to play babysitter with them because they are always wandering off in "Never, Never Land" , they follow you around and you have to constantly be asking them, "Did you do....? Are your.....done? They will of course say "Yes!" but you know that it isn't done, and they will be the first one to be sitting in the office when the clock strikes 10:00pm and you are trying to get the end of day process going. These are the employees that you just wish you could fire without question.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: For the most part we have a great work environment. I have been in stores that I would just rather not be let alone work in so I don't have to many complaints when it comes to our store. Again there are is always a bad egg or two no matter where you work. They try their hardest to keep things stirred up and will be successful at it if they are allowed to get away with it. I do wish that there was just a plain "3 Strikes Your Out Policy" instead of constantly writing people up with no consequences. The same people are written up time and time again for not doing there job or being allowed to get away with bad attitudes. If you are not a people person....Walgreens is not the job for you!

BOTTOM LINE: There are far worse places to work than Walgreens! I have been there. If you are disatisfied...find another job. I am sure if you are miserable at your job you are making others miserable too. There are things we do at Walgreens I don't agree with but I still have to do them. After all they are paying you to do it! If you don't want someone telling you what to do all the time, Be your own boss, start your own business then hire someone like you that you will have to deal with every day!

Morale is very low in all locations. Cuts across the company have negatively affected most aspects across the board at the store level. They do not pay what they promise. They also don't care if you have to live at a poverty level. Store managers can get away with not following company policies. Store managers have their favorites and don't care if other employees know it or not. I happen to have a very, very sexist store manager who won't address anything with me, I have to find out from other managers or other stores! There is almost no possibility of being promoted to EXA because my boss is unapproachable!!! The benefits are so good I don't want to leave the company.

PLAN FOR RECOVERING MGT OT:
Please people, read this post and give it some serious consideration. I have a plan to recover the $5000+ that our execs stole from us in terms of OT. Right now, the American populaces' opinion of corporate America and the fat-cats at the top of it is at an all time low. (Bailouts, million-dollar bonuses, exorbitant salaries, etc.) We have to fight this company in the arena of public opinion and kick the VP's and Wasson where it hurts, in the stock price. There are thousands of MGT's in this company, and if we band together, we can do it...

1. Use the court of public opinion and fight the PR battle: Every MGT needs to write to their local newspaper, call their AM local talk shows, get to the big media (Fox News, CBS, etc), and get the word out to the shopping public about what WAG did to it's hard-working managers. I'm betting the public at large doesn't know what happened. We can damage WAG badly in the image dept. and crack their propaganda operation by exposing this.

2. Friends and family boycott: This is the important step. Get every relative and friend you have to walk away from WAG for the rest of November. Ask them to show they care about you by not spending one dime at WAG for the rest of the month, and pull all prescriptions for the rest of the month. If even 1/3 to 1/2 of all MGT's can get their family and friends to do this, the financial hit WAG would take would be devastating. I have to believe that when the big-wigs see 10,000-50,000 scripts transferred out, they will literally shit themselves. And with Thanksgiving and Black Friday in this month, we can collapse November sales and earnings. Let the crooks who run this company explain THAT to the shareholders and the board of directors.

3. Deluge of communication: Have all those same friends and family write e-mails, write letters, and make phone calls to corporate offices letting them know the why's for pulling their scripts and boycotting the company. Crash their servers, pile their offices with letters, melt their switchboards with calls. Unless they are all insane, they will get the message. This is where we have the best chance to re-instate our pay. They will be desperate to recover those customers and scripts.

Remember, the primary compensation for the corporate execs is in the stock value. The idea is to knock it down into the high teens to low twenties. This will make the fat-cats cry uncle. We don't want to bankrupt the company we work for and screw ourselves, we just want to teach them a very painful lesson. These people took thousands of dollars away from honest managers who are now wondering how to pay for college educations, mortgages, child-care, etc. Yet they raised their own pay and that of the pharmacists by the same amount of money! I understand that it will be hard, and that it will take inconvenience and sacrifice, but if we can get even 1/2 of MGT's to get onboard, we can sock these crooks silly. Let's take these bastards for millions of their pay and let them see how it feels. Please post responses so we can all see if this plan of action is do-able.

So yeah, I just read a lot of the reviews on here and the one thing that popped in my head head was, A.A. Just like in A.A., you all have the same stories, just different ways of saying them. You know what, if you don't like the compnay, leave. Yeah, it is true that we management do not care about you pee-on employees, but no company really does. The company is out there to make money. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. How else will it survive. If you are just reading this blog about the company I can tell you that upper management does some bullshit things. Hmmmm, let's think of the best one to date. Ever since I have worked for the company I have always said, and other managers agreed, that AD items should be on an endcap. This saves time for us managers running back and forth filling a shelf that holds 2-8 items in that little space. It pisses me off that I would stop doing what I was doing to get a fucking $.33 can of tomatoe fucking soup. Everytime time I ask or "suggestion box" this idea it was rejected, why because they didn't want to pay me the money knowing it was a good idea. All of a sudden upper management wants us to have a mandantory endcap with the AD items for that week that WILL sell a lot of. Its like they steal store employees, MGT's, EXA's and store managers ideas for themselves just so the company doesn't have to pay the money for a good suggestion, no they paid this asshole fuck $50.00 for suggesting adding extra trash bags at the bottom on trash cans to save time. <----STUPID IDEA!!!!

The one thing I hate about the company is that they take money from the Assistants, then then they cut hours, finally they say oh by the way here is another ass ramming for you, we are going to fire/lay-off 6000 assistants and give that position to the STL. The STL is the dumbest idea ever. Here you have an employee that has keys, but no authority. Think about how many people are going to figure out that the STL can't tell them what to do. Straighting is going to look like dog shit with these stores. We should be called Wal-greens, Wal-mart's little pig brother. STL, stand for Snitching on The Lessers. Basically if something doesn't get done one night the store manager is going to ask the STL who didn't do their job. Wait a minute here, can a cashier tell a photo tech what to do? No, they can't. So what thinks people will listen to the STL.

I just recently quit this company. At the store level it's not worth it at all. Everything is aweful. From your co-workers to the store itself. As an assistant I got no respect has not time to do anything beacuse I was so tired from working insance hours for no reason. Was looked down upon by the customers because they think store people are trash and looked down upon by my co-workers because I thought I could do better.

I don't even want to get into what they should do to improve it beacuse I will be here all night. In short, don't waste your time on this company unless you are a pharmacist.

I have worked for this company for five long years. I thought it was bad when I started, and I didn't think it could get much worse......I was wrong.

The pay: I would never say that the pay was good. However, after they took the four hours of over time away from us with out any warning, the pay is about what I figured that I would be starting at after collage. The worst part about it is that the assistants were the only ones to get the pay cut. it just goes to show you you want the people above you think of you contribution to the company.

Respect: There is none! The upper level managers have no respect for for anyone. They just try to manipulate everyone into working harder so that their bonuses with no be affected by they economy. it is sick! That is the first thing that should have been cut. This whole "rewiring" thing might as well be call. Ways I can take money away from you.

Benefits: They are going down hill quick. Health benefits were ok, and now they changed them and the are not good at all. Profit sharing was good at one time. That has gone down the drain! Their idea of a benefit is giving us days where we get a better discount. Thanks guys. Yet another way to take money away from us.

Job Security: I have news for you, this "rewiring" is a way to rename jobs and give lower pay. WOW, sounds great! The STL position, we have already gone through three. The first one was doing fake returns the second day of her training, fired. The second was fired for sleeping on the job. The third one lasted three days and said that the job wasn't worth the $10 an our pay. You get what you pay for Walgreens! If you pay a low wage, you get low quality work! Also, I don't think anyone is untouchable. After the Christmas season, there are going to be the largest cuts yet. Also, if I were a store manager I would be worried about this "community leader" position. Too me it looks like they are going to have managers over see multiple stores, and have the EXAs manage the stores with one Assistant, and a STL. OR they might just have STLs. That would get a lot of people some nice bonuses!

Work/Life Balance: There is none! Unless you are a Pharmacist!

Career Potential Grown: I think we are in a career regression at walgreens!

Location: It might be good for some, but as a assistant they do not care. They just send you where they want to at any time. I have been in 6 different stores in 5 years! They range from 15-45 minutes away from my home. Plus, I love seeing all of the Walgreens I pass on my way to work! What a JOKE! No one cares! They need to get rid of the way that they break up the districts, and how transfers are done. Your district manager should have nothing to do with it. If a store has an opening people should be able to take the job based on seniority.

Co-worker Competence: You get what you pay for. Walgreens has the attitude of we can replace people instead of investing in people. You always loose the good ones because they can get more pay somewhere else, and you keep the bad people who can't do any better.

Work Environment: The computer systems are terrible. Again they won't invest in anything because that might affect the stock or someone's bonus.

All in all I can say that every one of these criteria are negatively affected by people trying to make money by taking it away from others....SICK! I don't know how these people sleep.

This company is sad.. the managers are lazy, so are some co-workers and loads more downfalls within the Walgreens company.

First off, I am am employee at a local Walgreens and like my store, but this is truth. I am a cashier/service clerk

All the people are nice at mine and such. All the managers are cool and so are co-workers

Now here are IN MY opinion the downfall of Walgreens..

1. Cashiers should STAY AT THE REGISTER! Not be told to put up candy in the candy isle. Unless of course the store isn't busy and such

2. It's sad how only ONE DAMN register is open! Really..what if someone has to take a restroom break? I usually ask the person in photo if they can watch..but more than one register should be open imo.

3. Managers need to be background checked better and be "tested" in the Walgreens company.. as I have one who is kind of mean to me.
I think people lie on their applications..

And that's it from me.