Thread regarding Walmart layoffs

PCSM in 2 districts in GA that I know of were both put back in stores and took other RPH jobs

Mr. Sam Walton said "There is only one boss; the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."

If what has happened this past week upsets you then you need to get everyone you know to call

1-800-WALMART and express their opinion on this. Your family members, your customers, your friends, your fellow pharmacists...anyone you know of. Walmart will only listen if they are afraid of losing business. We all have a voice. We just need to make it heard and in large numbers. Make no mistake...this will happen again if we do nothing. May God bless those who are going through difficult times right now. We can only hope that better days are ahead.

I'm sorry for everyone who is going through this!! I quit the pharmacy in May due to getting another job.I'm glad I listen to that inner voice.

All the pharmacist out there, we have to stay together! Like physicians, we have to almost mandate the membership to a professional organization and lobby to keep our status and improve working condition !!

It appears that everyone displaced conveniently doesn't fit into any discrimination categories. Its almost as if all of us weren't picked at random, but very carefully picked so no one could claim discrimination. If the upper management within walmart makes so much money, why not save money there by displacing them. They don't interact with the public and don't affect sales. Pharmacy staffs work hard to help their customers. Displacing staff means no one is there to help the customers because those left behind are doing the job of three people or more. Therefore sales are hurt. I have loved working for the company and thought I always would. Its shameful what is being done. Shameful. I don't think Mr. Sam would approve.

I am not a young pharmacist, have been doing this for 20+ years. This industry has taken a toll on my body- standing for 12 hrs a day, with less breaks than are legally mandated, all have contributed to knee/back/joint problems. Each year it becomes harder and harder for me to work multiple back to back 11 and 12 hr shifts. I go home and am almost completely useless to my children, because I'm completely exhausted. And the constant stress of having to ingratiate myself to angry customers, remain calm in the face of being blatantly disrespected as a human being on a daily basis? Don't even get me started on what that does to your spirit. But then it happens again...from my employer. So now I'm a not young pharmacist, single parent of kids. And no job. In a saturated market. I think I'm going to have to sell my house, and most of the things in it. This has dramatically impacted me and my children. I have no illusions that I will find another job anytime soon, or that we will even have a home to live in. Devastated. Good luck to anyone else out there, because I know I'm not the only one. Sending prayers for peace of mind, and that instead of just trying to survive, that we all can somehow thrive.

Trim the fat of PCSM’s and consolidate market directors. Get rid of the people who are not directly influencing patient care. Not the hard working people actually dealing with the public and developing patient relationships.

THANK YOU FOR CALLING YOUR WALMART PHARMACY, THIS IS TECHNICIAN/PHARMACIST "EMPLOYED CURRENTLY" HOW MAY I HELP YOU TODAY

Pharmacist laid off, evaluations were exceeds expectations, and then was told on last evaluation that WM no longer giving this evaluation to anyone, so stepped my eval down 1 level. Only worked with the company for little over a year. "Accompanied" out of the building in front of staff and customers, desperately trying to hang on to my dignity. Failed miserably.

Walmart Pharmacy has a separate page here on Thelayoff you can see it here &walmart-pharmacy or here https://www.thelayoff.com/walmart-pharmacy

Word from inside sources say that more cuts to Div 1 is going to occur in sept. Pharmacy cuts may be over for now but store associates are next on the chopping block.

This ought to do wonders for morale.

Haven't been cut this round?

Not to worry, your turn will come up some time in the future.

All cashiers left in the market were moved out of pharmacy and pcsm demoted. Georgia.

The pharmacy schools are totally to blame. They sold us out!! My wife and I graduated Pharmacy school in the mid-80s and owed less than $20,000 between us. Typical graduate owes about $250,000 now.

The schools got greedy and have screwed their graduates over. The next time your alma mater calls you for a donation,....we’ll...you know what to say

My wife and I have been blessed to see the best of times in pharmacy when you got sign on bonuses and were respected by the public and our employers.

Funny, Walmart was the one who started the $4.00 pr-scrip-ions years ago. If they would have only raised it over time, they would have been able to pay for adequate staffing and keep long-time,loyal employees

I feel for the young pharmacists out there. Hopefully things will improve but I’m predicting about 20-25 years to end this cycle

I bet Sam Walden would be rolling over in his grave if he could see what his company has become. The way to be profitable is to cut the fat at the top of the company ,not the ones serving the customer. Get rid of all the Vice Presidents of rubber bands and a company has a great chance to make it.

CVS pharmacies had hours cut beginning of this year and are continually being reduced. Pharmacists working open to close in some stores with just one tech and opening and closing for 1 to 2 hours by themselves. They are so busy they can't even answer the phones most of the time. Apparently we are all in similar boats. Very sad for all of our customers. Good luck to all.

I got laid off yesterday as a pharmacy tech for 25 years of loyal service.....i was told i would get a severance pay at the end of August,,,,however I have to work in division 1 until then....why do i have to work in division 1 if my job was so called eliminated??? If i agree to take the package why not just let me go NOW

Today I was informed there will no longer be any pharmacist overlap period meaning 12 hour days. We fill 280 rxs per day. Where is the concern for patient safety? Also was told all stores in district (11 stores) will be cut about 30 hours each. 330 hours per week and the health and wellness district manager says no layoffs are coming? Also our clinic district manager position was eliminated.

I forgot to mention that the newly rehired and previously displaced workers would also return with their PTO reset as a new employee. Of course, the company would never do any of this intentionally. They have "Respect for the individual"

Yeah, they do!

I hate to cynical, but then we worked for the company that boasts that it espouses "Respect for the Individual" as a core value even as it is terminating, without warning, the very people who worked to grow their business. So there's that. However, I have noticed several posters say that their supervisor told them that there were probably going to be more "displacements" going forward. (How I hate that euphemism! Why can't they just say "fired" and call it what it is??) And everybody says that they have been told that they can reapply for any openings in the next 60 days, but of course they are not going to ever post those positions within that time frame. So it's really not that big of a stretch to think that they could wait at least 60 days and then have another round of "displacements". At that time, this week's then newly FIRED employees would be eligible to apply for these newly opened positions as their 60 day period had passed. Of course these "new" positions now mysteriously pay $10 to $20 less than the nearly identical one they were previously forced out of as a "business decision". Imagine! A ready-trained work force desperate for a job in an oversupplied labor market!

Even the Wal-Mart that just paid 282 million to settle and try to silence an international bribery scandal would have higher ethical standards than that. Wouldn't they?

I keep hearing that those that were displaced were associates that have had low performance or been coached or what not. And some that say it’s completely random. For those that were displaced, can you confirm which is true?

I can't for the life of me figure out why Walmart is destroying it's own pharmacy business only to hand over the angry customers to Amazon's online pharmacy.

It makes no sense, but I, as a customer, wouldn't put up with it. I'd shop elsewhere too.

I was let go towards the end of my shift 2 days ago(NC). My heart goes out to all the others both let go and those left to deal with the terrible conditions that will be left behind. My biggest frustration was that the exit interview wasn’t a little more honest. I was encouraged to reapply full well knowing no positions will be posted within the 2 month window so IF I ever went back to Walmart it would be at drastically reduced pay.

I was recently a tech at Walmart in TN. I'm going to make it a point to check on the guys and gals I worked with to see how they are!

After 11 years working as a pharmacist for walmart, I got laid off yesterday!!!!!!

Just wanted to send out something positive to those who have had to leave Walmart Pharmacy this week - especially those who were hoping to be here for the long haul.

Hope new opportunities have shown themselves. Peace.

2 pharmacists cut from my store in Ohio Monday and Tuesday. Busy pharmacy that put out 2700+ scripts weekly and always in the black. Both were long time RPHs with the company. Funny, how of the multitude of displacements , they are all longtime veteran employees and not new ones. Coincidence? DM says more displacements to come.

Walmart Pharmacy has a separate page here on Thelayoff you can see it here &walmart-pharmacy or here https://www.thelayoff.com/walmart-pharmacy

We should probably move the discussion there and have separate threads for locations an positions....

Have not had any layoffs in the area...but cuts in hours for techs and pharmacist to 'streamline' our business and make us more efficient to be the 'pharmacy of the future'...

I'm saddened to hear about all the layoffs of pharmacist, technician and pharmacy cashiers. As a fellow tech my heart goes out to each and everyone of you'll. What ever happened to Walmart treating associates as FAMILY 😔. SHAME ON YOU WALMART.....

I can say today with our changes its been a complete cluster for us already on day 1 with less staffing, moral is down the techs and pharmacist are drowning with the work load and no cashiers. Techs are looking for new jobs elsewhere some not even within the industry.This will only get worse , and if they day script count was down (only due to 90 day adherence) wait until our cusyomers go elsewhere due to our in ability to keep up anymore due to lack of staffing. The only thing this will do is make more room with errors and mistakes while rushing to get scripts done . SHAME on Wal-Mart trying to save a dollare will lose them millions !

1 cashier and 1 tech so far in san diego store

Why not also layoff the incompetent DMs? They might as well while they're at it. It's only fair this way!

“We are on a transformational journey on how we operate our pharmacies and serve our customers, investing in key growth areas to develop our business and associates,” Marilee McInnis, a Walmart spokesperson said in an email to International Business Times. “We are aligning our staffing with the demands of the business to consistently serve our customers now and in the future.”

Yes this also happened to me. Funny thing is though, I was already at a store pulling solo 12 hour shifts/closed from 1:30-2 for lunch everyday, no overlap, yet was told my position was “no longer needed.” I helped get my former store to be one of the most profitable in the market. It was really just to replace me with either the PCSM, so their job could be saved or with a lower paid RPH. Is that even legal, when I did nothing wrong (and in fact my position was still very much needed)?Instead of laying off a bunch of long-term pharmacists, why not just renegotiate our salaries?

Yes. My areas Pcsm job was saved. And give a pharmacist job. I was a manager and let go Bc my position was being eliminated. But there is a new younger less paid pharmacist working my job at my store. Don’t think my position was eliminated or can be legally with the state board. Just wanted me gone Bc I was paid too much.

I’m a staff pharmacist in the Houston area; I was told I was “displaced because my position was no longer need” but it turns out I was axed so that my position could be given to save the PCSM at my home store. Coincidence? I think not. Has anyone else had this happen in their markets?

I feel for all my fellow pharmacists. I own an independent pharmacy in a small town. I love my job, my patients, my coworkers. My business if still profitable but less and less as time goes by. Pharmacy is going down the tubes for one simple reason... Profits ! The profit we make on each Rx is slowly going away. The PBMs and Insurance companies have so much power that they slowly lower our dispense fees and what they pay for the cost of the d--g. 90% plus of the RX filled are price controlled and many times we are paid below cost. The future is bleak as long as the profits keep getting pushed lower and lower. So what happens in 2020, and beyond, the PBMs will lower the reimbursements on the contracts that Walmart, CVS and Walgreens will sign. If only they had the guts to say Hell No, we ain't signing !! Many independents have started saying NO, especially on Preferred Contracts.

Any in San Diego lay off?

I live in South Carolina, about 90 employees got"displaced "here as well.It all comes down to adherence. Walmart lost about 6 million dollars last year. So instead of finding another way to save $,they just cut hours and fire people. So sad!They waste so much $on these health fairs and advertising, cut back on that,but no fire people have less help and loose customers. Makes no sense!!

4 technicians laid off and 1 pharmacy cashier (who will still be working outside just not w pharmacy anymore) here in san diego