Working at CVS — Reviews by Employees

Even tho I was hired as an assistant manager (I am a college grad), I was only allowed to stock shelves for the first 6 months. Most of the time the (married) store manager ignored me as he was always fixated on one of the single employees. When I was introduced to other employees and managers, they would always be rude to me at introduction and immediately tell me that they did not appreciate the fact that I was hired from without and not someone who was promoted from within. The store manager scheduled me for 45 hours a week initially but rapidly moved my hours up to 70 hours a week - even tho the money was great, the job was unbearable.

I echo 90% of the other reviewers complaints: The stupid STUPID extrabucks program which tripped me up constantly while ringing up customers, one cashier and one supervisor per shift (which is stupid, because one cashier CANNOT handle all of the customers, face the front half of the store, take down old sale tags, put up new sale tags, vacuum and take care of photo all at the same time. The store I worked at has machines that have- I kid you not- been with the store since it was opened. The charge card readers are scratched all to hell (I got complaints about this 25, maybe 30 times in one shift), half of the time it didn't even read the card at all. The sale prices were almost never entered in the computer. Meaning, if I didn't go back and check EVERY SINGLE ITEM, or the customer didn't catch it, then I'd be overcharging them without even knowing it. I smell rotten eggs there.

The manager is never there. I never seen hide nor hair of him since my first day. They will pounce on you even if you didn't do anything wrong. At the end of my first day- during which another cashier used my register after me- it was found that it was short of around 10 dollars, maybe more. Don't remember. I was absolutely paranoid of getting all of the change right that day, so I know it wasn't me. And guess what? I'm automatically put on 'probation' for my next 20 shifts. And then I'm constantly second guessing myself, recounting change, and in turn, making the 4 or so customers wait longer to get helped.

I'm a pharmacist and I can honestly say I really would not recommend this company to my colleagues. The work environment is terrible with lack of respect from upper management and subbordinates. Don't let all the commercials fool you it's all about making money. It is just another retail store under the guise of health care. They put unrealistic goals on you. Even if you do achieve your goals, they give very little incentives/bonuses which are borderline insulting and penalize you by decreasing your budget for help. Compared to my colleagues in other chains we always have less hours of pharmacy technician help. They also always push more and more programs to lure customers in (automatic refills, forcing us to solicit more rx's by telemarketing, forcing pharmacists to become immunizers). If we don't reach our goals for "solicitation" we get penalized. I have been with the company for years, there is never less work or more efficient practices. Year after year it more work and less manpower. I understand that businesses are about maximizing profitis, but it's also about treating your employees well so that they can be resources for future growth. CVS has a terrible turnover rate with people coming and leaving constantly. It's a revolving door. As far as techinicians, they are difficult to hire because it's minimum wage, they are stressed out because of being overworked, the raises are pathetic and often get kicked back by corporate. Being that they are disgruntled they often don't perform well and it is difficult for a pharmacist to discipline them because there is very little power with write ups and firing a tech is damn near impossible. Upper managment is never there when you need them. If you have a situation and need to contact them, they don't respond on time unless you threaten them. They want you to function autonomonously but then come at you out of nowhere. They will move pharmacists and techs from store to store without warning. They replace pharmacists with experience and replace them with incompetant robots.

Ultimately the customers are the losers because they're being duped into thinking CVS cares when all the are is $$$. They are getting hustled in order to make this company more money, they are often greeted by overworked and unsupported personnel. Overworked employees=more chance of errors, poor service, unhappy employees and unhappy customers.

Your experience with this company vastly depended on what store you work. Everyone has a different managing style. I worked at 2 CVS stores and absolutely hated the first one and LOVED the second one.

i Worked at the first CVS for 8 months
At the first CVS I worked at The management was horrible,, the hours sucked if you weren't among the favorites, did i mention they picked favorites! they trained who they want for register and everyone else was stuck lifting boxes in the basement, cleaning under the conveyor belt. Micro-managing was a huge problem. Not to mention the managers were extremely snide and condescending. You had to ask for something to do every five minutes which was annoying for both you {the entry level employee[crew member] ) and the manager.. the manager made sure he/she showed how annoyed he/she was. But God forbid you don't ask the manager for something to do.. they'll attack you. Everyone was always really awkward and sometimesy.. it wasn't a comfortable environment at all. There was always tension between everyone. I felt like a guinea pig the whole time i was there. They have like 10 assistant managers and shift supervisors that you have to call up the front for every little thing..
When they get tired of the old crew members they hire 10 new people and train the first blonde with a great smile for the register .
This store is all about perfecting things customers could care less about

AT THE SECOND CVS my experience was the exact opposite. It was like a dream come true compared to my first experience. Hours were great. I was trained immediately after starting. The staff was appalled to know how i was being treated at my previous CVS. Everyone genuinely smiles (not forced) and is very respectful. They are very laid back, as well as professional. As long as you got your work done you were on good terms. The staff are really close and make you feel good and welcome. The top store manager was very understanding and laid back. FARRR from a micro manager. This CVS is also very diverse. Managers were knowledgeable leaders, but not condescending jerks. You could talk to them like regular human beings. This CVS is very loyal to there employees. They don't hire replacements and cut your hours. I was trained for photo within my first week.

What stinks about both these CVS stores and all CVS stores, they start you at minimum wage. But if you get a good amount of hours it's decent. and if you raise your postion to photo, pharmacy, shift supervisor etc - you see an increase in wages. Also as time progresses I believe after a 6-mos to a year you see 25 cent raise. not sure

OVERALL - GREAT experience with one CVS and HORRIBLE with another.
I suggest privately interviewing an employee within the store you want to apply to get a feel for the place. It really depends greatly on management style

I have a high tolerance level for incompetence, but working for this company is a JOKE. I work at one of the smaller CVSes appropriately because I live in a small town, but why my store is budgeted only one cashier and one shift supervisor per shift is beyond me. I've been working here a year and I've contemplated walking out during my shift on numerous occasions soley because I would be overwhelmed the line of customers that have actually reached the door!. I was expected to ring all of these people out while trying to battle with them about their extrabuck nonsense (which is a NIGHTMARE of a system that causes customer confusion) and fighting with them about extracare sales. Then there's the customers that try to cheat the system by using the many loopholes in the extracare system. For instance, many scammers will ask for rainchecks for items still on the shelf and then there's others that buy things for the extrabucks and then return them and still keep the extrabucks. One woman wanted a raincheck for a sale on toothpaste that happened in 2007, yes, 2 years ago, and I was told I had to give it to her anyway for the sale price. The Extrabuck system is a mess. A lot of customers are easily confused by tags that say for instance "Pay 5.99 and get a $1.00 Extrabuck, it's like paying $4.99" and they think the price is actually $4.99.

I make only minimum wage (7.25) yet I was promised a 10 cent raise after a year and I still haven't seen it. I'm only in high school, so I'm not expecting a manager's wages or anything, but it would be nice if my hard work was rewarded. It seems like if you do your job and you do it well, it goes unacknowledged, yet if I do something WRONG, then I'm written up and talked about. When I first started working there, I accidentally exposed a customer's film because, well....I was learning how to develop photo and the photo technician blatantly told me I was stupid, seroiusly. I'm not kidding. Even the store manager would gossip with her favorite employees about any cashier they deemed either unworthy or intellectually sub-par.

And on the topic of photo, cashiers are way literally overw worked and underpaid. Cashiers working the closing shift are expecting to ring out customers, face ALL of the aisles, reshop merchandise, take out the garbage, finish up any film for the day, set up paper and film tests, vacuum the store, newspapers, and stock shelves if need be while the shift supervisor counted drawers and walked around. Let me remind you that I am the only cashier on the closing shift. I get 20% discount on anything that isn't a sale item, that's not a benefit that's the bare minimum.

Overall, CVS treats their employees like dogs. When your store loses sales or an economic recession hits like the one we are in currently, expect your hours to be cut and/or employees to lose their jobs. Employees are hit hard and hosed down by CVS's money troubles while the upper management emerges untouched. Do you really Tim Ryan (who's beaming face is plastered all over CVS's break rooms) takes a pay cut when CVS loses money? I think not. Do you think he cares that one of my store's best managers was fired because she opened the store an hour late because her sister died the night before and she stayed at the hospital until 3am. No, but I doubt any corporate big-whig would - but at least Tim Ryan could stop PRETENDING like he cares.

I worked my ass off for this company and nobody appreciated or noticed anything I did. Now that I quit a week ago, I hope they start to realize what a mess the store is going to be. I constantly organized and cleaned the place.

The managers were nice, except this one who you'd really have to get on her good side for her to be nice to you. I felt like every time I called a manager to the front, for 20's or to scan their card to override a return, that it was MY fault. They would walk sluggishly to the front of the store while I'm desperately waiting for them with a huge line of impatient customers. Walking to the front of the store to give me change is NOT that hard at all. Am I supposed to apologize because a customer paid with a hundred dollar bill? Or if I need pennies?
I don't even know what they do when they sit for hours in the office. They worked their way up to be in management, but sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who is controlling the store with everything that I did.

My boss had also promised me to be head cashier 4 months ago. This would have surely fixed my annoyance of asking a manager for change because with this position, I could just get it myself. He never followed up on it though. He promised everyone everything, but never actually put it to action. I confronted him about it after I heard he promised it to a new girl and 2 other employees as well. He gave me the excuse that I needed to work at least 4 days a week, but I already have been for the past year. He didn't think I still did. I definitely deserved that position. I would have taken it, but I realized that I did NOT want to go through another school year of working until 11pm while getting up at 5am for school. Not to mention my grades of my most important year in high school suffered because of this job. I wish I would have had more time focusing on my grades instead of working 5 days a week at this place. The money was not worth my lack of sleep and decreasing grades.

The only good things about this job are that I worked with my friends, my boyfriend, and I lived just 5 minutes away.

I have worked for CVS for about 18 months as an assistant manager. The pay is decent but not great. There is very little respect between the DM, store manager etc. The store manager does just about anything they want. Ie working you long hours 6-7 day work weeks...etc. I could go on and on. The benefits are decent. Job security does not exist at CVS. There is none. The turnover rate for managers in the district I work in is 82% and no one seems to care. There is vertually no one left from when I was hired 18 months ago. They either burned out quit or got fired. Work life/life balance what a joke. You work between 60-70 hrs a week usually 6 or 7 days depending what the manager feels like. Oh and lots of nights! NO life no time off...period. It goes on and on. Don't fool yourself saying it will get better it won't. This is CVS!
When a holiday comes up you dont get paid for it you still have to work your 6 days etc...because you are on salary. Career growth depends on you. If you dont mind working 6-7 days a week and don't complain then you will go far.
Location is cool as there are many stores close to my house in the district. Most of the employees know their jobs and can take care of things that need to be done. Most days the work enviornment is hostile due to the neighborhood where the store is located. One other thing, you have to fight and complain to get to take your vacation. If you don't take it you lose it it does not roll over into the next year! I lost 36 hours last year because my manager would not let me take it. That is CVS. I am looking for a new job.

I have worked in the pharmacy for about a year now.
I started out getting paid $7.00 an hour, which raised to $7.30 in about 6 months after I had completed all of my training. After I got certified as a tech, my pay went up to $8.50 which I can't complain too much about. But for the amount of work that we are doing, I still don't think that it is enough.
The respect is alright in my store, everyone is pretty nice and works together well. There is one pharmacist who does not respect anyone, and is extremely temperamental. But if you do your job quickly and efficiently without asking too many questions, she will leave you alone for the most part.
The benefits are decent too, we get 20% of everything in the store, and 30% CVS brand items. Reminding everyone that those items you are getting at a discount could be purchased at the nearest Wal-Mart for about a dollar cheaper. I can't comment on their health benefits since I do not recieve those.
Job security is really good at my store, as long as you come everyday and do your job, you will stay. If you get three write ups, I believe you get fired...but no one seems to get written up at my store.
Personally, my work/life balance is pretty nice since I only work about 20 hours a week. I do go to college full time though, but I find that I usually have plenty of time to do homework and go out with friends.
I would suppose there is some potential growth in the pharmacy, since I went from nothing to being a pharmacy tech in about 8 months. If you are going to school to be a pharmacist you can also intern there, but I am not going to school for that.
The location of my store is about 5 minutes away from my house, so it is very convenient.
Co-worker competence is pretty good, I would say only about 2 of our employees are a little on the dippy side. The majority of my co-workers know what they are doing, and are very helpful if you have a question.
The work environment can be chaotic, since we are a very busy store. Things are breaking frequently, such as registers, and computers tend to freeze, and our mats are not taped to the floors anymore.
I don't LIKE going to work, but I would say that it's not a terrible job. It would be a downright great job if it weren't for that one pharmacist and the customers. Most of the customers are nice and patient, but you do get the nut-jobs who don't like to wait or get irate when you tell them their prescription is too soon.
Overall, it's not so bad.

I was hired as a CPhT in a busy CVS pharmacy. The one week training was a joke! The Senior Tech showed me how to do one or two things on my first day then left me on my own. Phones were ringing, cars lining up in the drive-thru, waiters waiting, customers grumbling... chaos! No one had the time to show me how to do the job, so I started guessing as I went along. I complained and was put in another "training store" where the exact same thing happened. There needs to be some form of classroom training before you work in the pharmacy - which is no place to be making mistakes due to a lack of training! The customer service initiatives are great for the customer, but stress out the overworked, underpaid techs to the breaking point. I must say the people I worked with were great, but they just didn't have the time to train me. Retail pharmacy is retail pharmacy, but CVS could make a big difference if they looked at their training (or lack of) for pharmacy staff.

Stay away from this place. Competitive salary is not really what you think it is! I have 3 years experience in retail from stop and shop. Went to Cvs and they explained that I would be making $9 an hour. Yeah what they really meant was 7.50 just over min wage. The manager would sit in the back and STARE at you through the cameras all day. They would call the front store and yell at you saying they see you in the camera. Alot of the managers would. Next I would ask to join photo and they would say there were no spots open. A few days later he hires a new person right in front of me to join photo. The job title is customer service rep. But your unpacking and cleaning isles and cleaning restrooms. Also doing little register all this for little over min wage. They would make sure you are working every second of your time there. And they would keep you after your time to go home. It is a major sweat house. The days your off seem like paradise you would never be allowed off no matter how much you put in advance. I see a 50 year old man who is the nicest person you will ever see working there and I was shocked out of my mind when he told me he worked there for 6 years and make only $8 an hour barley able to pay his rent. They would say how slow you were when you cleaned isles and eat chips in the manager office and stare at you with there feet up through the cameras. They never explain the rules to you and expect you to know them and write you up when you do something against it. I always think what can writing me up do anything im already treated as worse as possible. I have been working here for 1 year now and its a bad economy and looking for another job desperately.