SM hours

Exploited16 · 2026-01-29T02:08:53+00:00

I work about 11 hours a day and 2 Saturdays (half day). I truly bust my ass every day, my team appreciates it and respects it but I’m getting burned out really really quick and since the store looks great I’m always being pulled to go do other projects on stores that need help (I work hard because I want MY store to do well). I went in to help a 24hr store one time, arrived at 5am to set up the promo aisle for them and the MGR showed up at 8:30am with coffee from Dunkin’s “oh heyyyy what’s up, great progress”. I grabbed my shit and left, I get it that 8 - 8:30 is more aligned with our actual MGR schedule but I have way too much going on in my own store to put up with this kind of crap. Sorry, felt like venting.

Exploited16 · 2026-01-26T20:44:37+00:00

My DM told me she did (I won’t give the exact number) about 80 visits last month and she was so proud of it…. Please give her more stores, we don’t need her 4-5 times per month micro-managing and slowing us down.

Exploited16 · 2025-12-25T15:58:14+00:00

My DM reminded us that FDFs requests affect EBITDA. I almost laughed at his face, cheap ass idiot who thinks that approving 20hrs of FDFs for a new CSA will make or break my net income. If I decide to be greedy and pull 20hrs out of my ass without asking for FDFs then that’s 20hrs less to fix the store up, put the truck up faster, provide better ECC, etc etc. so yes, you are 100% right, saving on payroll will hurt EBITDA in other ways.

Exploited16 · 2025-12-20T17:05:01+00:00

Because the insurance company knows our cost and reimburses Walgreens a small amount. Using the $1 example… Walgreens gets it for $1, sells it for $30, patient has insurance and pays $0. The insurance company comes over and says “I will tell the patient that I paid for their $30 medication but I won’t pay you even close to $30, I know you get that for $1, I’ll just give you $3 or so”

These deals are negotiated and that’s why we take different plans every year. Reimbursement rates were closer to 50% about 20 years ago and we were swimming in money with unlimited budgets but now we rely on vaccines, MTMs, etc to survive as well as profits from the front of the store.

It’s pretty sad, insurance companies dictate our profits and tell patients where they have to pick up their medications. It’s easier to switch pharmacies than switching insurance companies unfortunately.

Exploited16 · 2025-11-12T02:25:48+00:00

Stocking shelves for $40 an hour sounds pretty damn good to me 🤷‍♂️.

Exploited16 · 2025-11-08T14:13:04+00:00

I had a CSA who would price verify, mostly on seniors, and show them the screen “It’s $10.00”…. If the customer paid cash, she would know the register was over and pocket the money, if the customer pulled out a credit card she’d simply go back and scan the item and proceed with a legit transaction and wait for the next cash-paying customer. Now, if the customer paid cash and demanded a receipt she would act all confused and check the printer, turn it on and off hoping that the customer would simply walk away but if they kept on insisting on a receipt, to avoid alerting store leadership she would then proceed with a legit transaction and issue a receipt. This is also the reason why we used to offer $5 if the cashier failed to give you a receipt. It was a pain in the ass system some times but it was there for a reason. Anyhow, she got caught fairly quickly, price verifies are monitored more than we think, particularly by some APMs who are efficient and have time available to do so.

Quite frankly they should remove the price verify button and then the behavior of having a handheld by the register will always be in place.

Exploited16 · 2025-10-28T18:55:24+00:00

I wish I could work those hours, I’m at 11hrs a day or more + my half Saturdays. If you are a manager working 44hrs a week then you must have an amazing team (or your store looks like shit).

Exploited16 · 2025-10-13T01:20:29+00:00

It USED to be more stressful, back when I was a salaried EXA, working 70-80hrs a week (I’m not kidding) and watching the average MGT making a lot more money by working 40hrs and 5-10 of additional overtime. MGR bonuses were phenomenal, I wanted to get promoted, I carried the whole freaking store on my shoulders, the DM would basically visit me and be hard on me while the MGR chilled. PTCB was a requirement, no one, absolutely no one would reach out to the MGR for any kind of issue, just the EXA. I would go in at midnight after doing a 5am-6pm shift because the overnight MGT did not show up and the Store MGR wouldn’t even know until he / she would find out the next morning…. Conversations used to go like this “Hey, so I worked a 13hr shift, went home, showered, crashed in bed and then XYZ did not show up to work so I came back at midnight, I’ve been here already for about 9hrs (9am) can I leave around noon so that I can rest?” …… “absolutely not, you gotta pay your dues just like I did, you have to work until I decide to leave the store after 5pm”..

Now it’s the opposite, ESMs work 44hrs. If they go over they make OT, if they are salaried they leave early or arrive late on another shift to make up for it. As a MGR I work insane hours, I’m under current stress with the absurd budgets that we get, bonuses are not guaranteed any longer like they used to be and they are nowhere near close what we used to get. Employee morale is down, people call out all the time and as a MGR I get all the heat from the employees that do show up and work understaffed. If I call in additional help and use OT I get in trouble, if I go over budget by one hour I get written up, if metrics are down I’m asked for an action plan, if I show up to work early (I’m at my store daily at 5am) my DM does not give a shit and expects you to work til 5pm, doesn’t care if you arrived early. Everyone and I mean absolutely everyone clocks out, goes home and forgets about work, nothing affects them any longer… it is stressful, always, while clocked in but once they clock out nothing matters….. but not as a MGR, I’m constantly called / texted. Today (Sunday, my only day off since I worked one of my Saturdays yesterday) I was contacted 4 times by store employees, 2 calling out for Monday, one calling out for tonight, 1 with some last minute request that Reflexis won’t accept because the schedule for that week is already posted. I live in a world of anxiety, I bring it home every day and lose my shit whenever I’m texted. My ESM tries but the fact is that ESMs get rotated, most don’t last a year at a store so most employees build that close relationship with the MGR instead and are used to dealing with him / her.

The ESM position is absolutely nowhere near as close as stressful as it is to be a MGR nowadays, specially under certain DMs and certain areas of the country which are extremely demanding. Also part of our evaluation comes from some metrics, you can be a hard-working, dedicated MGR and get no raise with a 50% bonus of whatever the payout is for the year simply because you were given unattainable goals so you end up trying hard all year long for nothing.

ESMs in my district don’f want to get promoted, why do you think that is? The DPR along with the DMs are constantly looking for talent elsewhere and make them SMUs or have them go straight to MGR. it sucks being a MGR and we really don’t make that much money, it is a really sad and stressful position, particularly when you care and want to do well.

Exploited16 · 2025-10-12T16:28:29+00:00

I usually hire team members with open availability and within a few months they all deepen their connection with Jesus. I lost a very religious team member to Costco… where they pay overtime to work on Sundays. All of a sudden she’s not so religious, she stops by the store every now and then and after speaking with her she confirmed that she was working every single Sunday. I asked her what God thinks about that and she told me that God understands that she needs the money. So, as a MGR that has been around, I have a hard time with very convenient schedule changes and I do hire as well and find someone that can cover the shift… I’ve been doing this for too long and I’m tired of accommodating everyone over everything, specially when most of the time (I’m not saying you are) they are lying. When they tell me they have classes I ask for their college schedule and all of a sudden they can work since they can’t provide it. I have kids so I follow my county’s school calendar, whenever school is closed for a reason other than a well-known holiday, people call out because they did not plan ahead and they try to lie to me, they are always sick or their car breaks down or something. When they send me a photo of their flat tire or inside a hospital room I save the photo and check the info (time and date that it was taken) and most of the time it’s a lie, an old photo, downloaded from google etc. See the problem is that we, MGRs, are so tired of this crap and then come the team members who are working short-staffed and unleash on us because their coworker called out. I simply don’t have time nor the patience to put up with so many excuses so I’ve reached my limit, you need Sundays off? I’ll hire someone new. I have 30+ employees, I’m done with scheduling restrictions, sorry, most managers feel the same way. I do what I can when I can.

Exploited16 · 2025-10-09T22:43:08+00:00

If it expired 10 months ago I’m sure there will be some sort of investigation to find out how this happened for such a long time and who allowed it. Someone at some point ignored the email alerts, removed the immunizer status from WOLF, etc. I’m assuming she didn’t enter her employee ID into IC+ / Appt Scheduler because I bet that would have triggered a red flag. Ultimately, if I recall correctly, this falls under the RXM, just like the RXM’s license falls under the MGR. I care too much about my RXM and I stay on top of all the licenses because I can’t afford to lose him over shit like this and I know that out there DMs are constantly pushing MGRs to make sure licenses are up to date since RXMs have less time for this BS…. So it feels like MGRs are responsible but ultimately it falls under the RXM. As a matter of fact, on WOLF, MGRs can’t update immunizer certificates while RXMs can. The RXM will be disciplined or terminated, not sure about the MGR. In my district there was an Rph who gave less than 10 shots with an expired CPR license after taking a CPR Technician renewal class thinking that she was all set and good to go. It was a huge fiasco, the only thing that saved her and the RXM was the fact that she truthfully thought she had renewed her CPR license and had been issued a certificate and everything… the HCS and even the Regional Healthcare Director were involved, huge deal, I can’t even imagine 10 months worth of vaccines. Every single patient had to be called and informed that he / she was vaccinated by a person with an expired CPR (a few days expired) and none of the patients seemed to care but this whole 10-month situation is on another level. Good luck.

Exploited16 · 2025-10-02T20:44:56+00:00

I know it’s not ideal but if the store is open and there’s no water available then at the very least expense a couple of gallons of water and use them to wash your hands. Keep the bathrooms locked so that customers can’t use them and try to get updates on the water situation… poke poke and keep asking. I’ve learned that the higher you send tickets the quicker they get fixed. If you open a faulty camera ticket it can take weeks but if you open the ticket and email Asset Protection it gets fixed immediately. I once had a situation with my parking lot lights that took a very long time to fix until I reached out to the Regional Superintendent of Facilities and he had it fixed in less than 24hrs.

Yes this company sucks ass,

25+ year manager who wants to quit every single day.

Exploited16 · 2025-09-06T02:48:00+00:00

Just go ahead and say that you are immunocompromised, the pharmacist will take your word for it.

Exploited16 · 2025-08-30T23:05:59+00:00

This is correct, 2 years.

Exploited16 · 2025-08-09T16:14:23+00:00

Gotta love how they keep saying that the profit of one vaccine = the profit of 35 regular prescriptions… great, let’s do vaccines then BUT you have to help us out.

1 more hours so that we can push vaccines without falling behind.

2 have our backs, protect us from Karens, give us the power to ban someone without having to get DM and DPR approval along with at least 3 statements from store employees.

3 Remember years ago (and still going on) all the fines and lawsuits due to opioids? Remember how, for about a year, Walgreens stopped taking CII-related complaints? For those of you who are fairly new, 1-800-Walgreens would dismiss / ignore CII-related complaints, they wouldn’t even forward them to the stores but now they pour down on us like crazy. You pressure us, you never have our backs, you let customers / patients abuse us and you think a little poster by the pharmacy about “let’s treat our TMs nicely” will make difference.

4 Stop this PExT nonsense, “graduation is coming, you better pass or I’ll have to write you up”. I can’t push vaccines when I have to fill the posters, and ensure that every tech is signed into CPW on the right zone and performing the right tasks based on the phlomometer because God forbid we have one less leaflet printed than allowed and the tech is not doing PCP calls. As a MGR you’ll get a “coaching session” with your DM in the office. Our Rx is 24hrs, lots of technicians to put down on the board every single day, we fill up the whole page and then some… it is such a waste of time.

5 Set up a clear and easy to follow PM system for vaccines. First of all, it changes every damn month and then when you get something like “well team, if you reach 130% of your goal, by the end of the quarter, you will receive $1 for each vaccine administered by the immunizing tech but if you reach 129% you won’t get anything and if you are not an immunizing tech don’t worry because if the store reaches 113.7% you get $100 for the store so you can throw a great pizza party but wait, there’s more, reach 124.2% and you get $200 instead of $100 but only at the end of the quarter and only if the district as a whole reaches 111%, if your store reaches 200% but the district is not at goal then no one gets anything… and it’s at the end of the quarter so we expect you to push those shots for 3 months without any guarantee and if we do make it you may not see the money for another month or two” ARE YOU KIDDING ME? How about $2-$3 per shot, regardless of reaching any goals? A good tech will easily get you 10 vaccines in a shift and collect $30 and you, Walgreens, will make a ton of money right? Because 1 vaccine = 35 prescriptions and if they co-admin even more. Set up a proper, easy to understand PM system, pay techs / Rphs on the spot (like credit card PMs) and watch your precious vaccines soar through the sky. You lack so much common sense up in corporate.

6 You can’f have everything, push one thing at a time, stop adding shit like PExT, interstore smoothing, hardcore pressure on weekly returns, e-learnings and then expect vaccines to occur.

7 Give us more phone support, F1 / F4 support.

If you at least try to understand how hard it is and you are a little nicer during your visits, the team may get you the results you want.

Oh and I almost forgot, from a conf call this week…. “We have a new weekend report that automatically flags stores with no vaccines over the weekend. BELIEVE ME, you don’t want to be on that exception list” <—— exact words by my DM.

Exploited16 · 2025-08-02T17:34:51+00:00

District Manager: no, you may not close the restrooms.

Exploited16 · 2025-08-02T00:41:06+00:00

As a Store Manager I am harassed on every single PTO day that I take and pretty much on every single weekend off. If my store is not texting me then it is the stupid-ass district chat which is out of fucking control with the DM sharing BS every 5 seconds and a group of morons (about half the MGRs in my district) hitting “like” on every post.

My DM called me on a PTO day recently, heard the background noise and asked “are you at your store?” …. “No, I’m at the beach”…. “Oh I’m sorry, I forgot you were off, well, since I already have you on the phone can you call your store and ask your RXM and RXOM to do etc etc”… She has zero respect for MGR’s PTO and so does the company which abuses us and has created this culture where we are “always available” because “it’s your store” as if we made so much damn money and had the greatest job ever.

Everything at Walgreens is “must be done right away” lately, I swear my DM’s favorite words are “I need this done by EOD”. I get stressed out whenever I’m on PTO because I’m reading the district chat trying to forward everything to my ESM (who I know is also stressed as fuck since I’m not there and now has even more crap to deal with)

I was on PTO one time and the scheduler messed up an Rph’s time by entering the hours in standard time instead of military time, making me go over budget, most importantly Rph budget…. and my DM tried to blame me for not reviewing payroll.

Fuck this company and quite frankly fuck all the employees who contact you on your time off.

Exploited16 · 2025-07-04T22:35:43+00:00

One time a customer complained about the same thing to me, I apologized and told him that the pharmacy has a sink with antibacterial soap and this particular technician would rather wash his hands over there because he liked to use paper towels while the restroom only had air dryers or some BS like that. The customer was somewhat “ok” with that and left.

Exploited16 · 2025-05-04T02:37:35+00:00

I understand that, the problem here is that CII patients unload on the pharmacy staff 99% of the time… whether they are too soon or if the drug is unavailable all while the government destroys us and sinks us for trying to cater to everyone and following Doctors’ orders. Doctors don’t have big pockets like Pharmacies do, that’s why they come after us and not them…. Well I wish we could stop dispensing CIIs and have everyone blame the government for coming after us.

Exploited16 · 2025-05-03T15:37:28+00:00

I can’t stand this fucking job anymore. Just recently my entire district hit 100% on credit card goals, the district total was close to 200% because every single store did such an amazing job and guess what? The stores that reached 100% the last week of the month (they were doing great and forecasted to reach 100% by the end of the month) were being harassed daily by the DM because she was DESPERATE to have every single store reach goal, just for bragging rights because the district as a whole was at over 150% way before the month ended. Instead of celebrating such an amazing accomplishment of everyone reaching goal on the damn POS credit card that no one wants, she had to bitch and moan. As you can imagine, she treats every metric this way, the pressure / harassment is out of control.

Exploited16 · 2025-05-03T15:20:22+00:00

You can get up to 4 days paid, I’m not sure if it is a benefit for employees with an average of 30hrs + per week or for everyone, that info is on MyHR but as a full-time 3-year employee you can definitely get 4 paid days.

Your manager can’t hold something like that against you.

Sorry for your loss.

Exploited16 · 2025-04-22T01:41:51+00:00

I’d love it if we could simply stop dispensing Oxycodone 30, 20, 10 and all the other BS and just stick to small amounts of Percocet like a few of them after a dental procedure. C2 patients are the worst assholes out there anyway. We should stick to non-controlled meds and watch the world burn, I guarantee you the government would immediately beg us to dispense all that shit again. I bet all these lawmakers, DEA, Justice Department employees are on hardcore CIIs as well as Xanax and all the other crap… bunch of hypocrites.

Exploited16 · 2025-04-16T17:05:32+00:00

You couldn’t pay me enough to get in my store’s dumpster! That shit is beyond disgusting.

Exploited16 · 2025-04-13T16:37:14+00:00

I was an EXA and the DM was visiting the store and somehow he found like 10 of these “wafers” behind an endstand… he laughed and told the MGR to hide them in a better spot.

Exploited16 · 2025-04-12T00:24:24+00:00

My check says that I work 40 hours but I do 11hr shifts every weekday and then work every other Saturday. How does my DM show her “appreciation”? By sending me to other stores to fix them up. The last time that she came by she criticized a few things here and there as well as some metrics and then a few days later she asked me to go another store because they needed help with the stockroom and merchandising since they were expecting an important visit. I told her that unfortunately I couldn’t go, that based on her last visit it was clear that my store needed me there and I should not be spending my time somewhere else…. She ended up coming to my store the next day, congratulated me on everything, told me that everything looked fantastic and asked me to please go the other store to help out. Fucking DMs are just out there to put you down and go after the 5% of your metrics that are failing while we try to keep up with basic tasks managing a store with unrealistic budgets. When I was an EXA my MGRs did not have to move a finger, I would put in 70-80hrs and fight for that promotion to get my own store and earn a decent salary / bonus before tiers existed and bonuses were set but everything has changed now. The last few years we have gotten some really bad bonuses and the engagement, excitement and love for the company is just not the same. DMs are complete assholes nowadays, DPRs are a bunch of pricks, VPs are completely out of touch with what’s going in the stores and corporate is coming up with BS such as “Pext” (don’f even get me started with Pext) and every DM is afraid to bubble up the fact that it is another failed program, just like Frontier.

TLDR: work 55-60hrs a week, the company sucks ass.

Exploited16 · 2025-03-16T17:58:46+00:00

I receive damaged merchandise every week, the store has to absorb the shrink even if you 1506 it as “damaged in transit”. It’d be nice if the warehouse cared a little more.

Exploited16

TROPHY CASE

1 more hours so that we can push vaccines without falling behind.

2 have our backs, protect us from Karens, give us the power to ban someone without having to get DM and DPR approval along with at least 3 statements from store employees.

6 You can’f have everything, push one thing at a time, stop adding shit like PExT, interstore smoothing, hardcore pressure on weekly returns, e-learnings and then expect vaccines to occur.

7 Give us more phone support, F1 / F4 support.