ppeared into the back area, then made numerous personal calls, followed by various mobile calls outside. The staff did exactly as they pleased, mostly complaining about how terrible it was to work there but none of it involving working in the dispensary, tidying the disastrous shelves or organising the chaos to make it a better place to work in.

One of the dispensers pulled m

Yesterday I worked in a pharmacy business that had recently been taken over by another company. Whilst I waited outside with a few other customers and a delivery driver till after 9am when the store should have been open we joked about how perhaps they were all having a cuppa out the back or that they’d changed the opening times with being taken over. Finally a young lady came to the door to unlock it and let us in. She looked thoroughly miserable.

I entered the dispensary at back of the retail area to discover what I can only describe as chaos! Every bit of bench space piled high with prescription items waiting to be checked. I assumed that this pharmacy must be running on locums as a manager could not possibly allow his or her dispensary to be in such disarray.

Then the pharmacy manager appeared. She was not expecting me. Not her fault she didn’t know about me, they hadn’t told her. Did I know how to work the computer system? They had had to work it out for themselves – no-one had trained them. The phone rang, the wage department wanted to speak to whoever faxes off the wage forms. Naturally I turned to the manager – she didn’t know anything about it, she didn’t do it, no-one had shown her how to.

The printer malfunctioned, I asked if she knew how to reset it? Her reply, you must have pressed the wrong button, I don’t know how to do it, no-one has shown me.

I checked the prescriptions, cleared the work space, got on with the huge pile of as yet unassembled items whilst the manager disappeared into the back area, then made numerous personal calls, followed by various mobile calls outside. The staff did exactly as they pleased, mostly complaining about how terrible it was to work there but none of it involving working in the dispensary, tidying the disastrous shelves or organising the chaos to make it a better place to work in.

One of the dispensers pulled me

he door to unlock it and let us in. She looked thoroughly miserable.

I entered the dispensary at back of the retail area to discover what I can only describe as chaos! Every bit of bench space piled high with prescription items waiting to be checked. I assumed that this pharmacy must be running on locums as a manager could not possibly allow his or her dispensary to be in such disarray.

Then the pharmacy manager appeared. She was not expecting me. Not her fault she didn’t know about me, they hadn’t told her. Did I know how to work the computer system? They had had to work it out for themselves – no-one had trained them. The phone rang, the wage department wanted to speak to whoever faxes off the wage forms. Naturally I turned to the manager – she didn’t know anything about it, she didn’t do it, no-one had shown her how to.

The printer malfunctioned, I asked if she knew how to reset it? Her reply, you must have pressed the wrong button, I don’t know how to do it, no-one has shown me.

I checked the prescriptions, cleared the work space, got on with the huge pile of as yet unassembled items whilst the manager disappeared into the back area, then made numerous personal calls, followed by various mobile calls outside. The staff did exactly as they pleased, mostly complaining about how terrible it was to work there but none of it involving working in the dispensary, tidying the disastrous shelves or organising the chaos to make it a better place to work in.

One of the dispensers pulled m

h disarray.

Then the pharmacy manager appeared. She was not expecting me. Not her fault she didn’t know about me, they hadn’t told her. Did I know how to work the computer system? They had had to work it out for themselves – no-one had trained them. The phone rang, the wage department wanted to speak to whoever faxes off the wage forms. Naturally I turned to the manager – she didn’t know anything about it, she didn’t do it, no-one had shown her how to.

The printer malfunctioned, I asked if she knew how to reset it? Her reply, you must have pressed the wrong button, I don’t know how to do it, no-one has shown me.

I checked the prescriptions, cleared the work space, got on with the huge pile of as yet unassembled items whilst the manager disappeared into the back area, then made numerous personal calls, followed by various mobile calls outside. The staff did exactly as they pleased, mostly complaining about how terrible it was to work there but none of it involving working in the dispensary, tidying the disastrous shelves or organising the chaos to make it a better place to work in.

One of the dispensers pulled m

didn’t know anything about it, she didn’t do it, no-one had shown her how to.

The printer malfunctioned, I asked if she knew how to reset it? Her reply, you must have pressed the wrong button, I don’t know how to do it, no-one has shown me.

I checked the prescriptions, cleared the work space, got on with the huge pile of as yet unassembled items whilst the manager disappeared into the back area, then made numerous personal calls, followed by various mobile calls outside. The staff did exactly as they pleased, mostly complaining about how terrible it was to work there but none of it involving working in the dispensary, tidying the disastrous shelves or organising the chaos to make it a better place to work in.

One of the dispensers pulled m

ppeared into the back area, then made numerous personal calls, followed by various mobile calls outside. The staff did exactly as they pleased, mostly complaining about how terrible it was to work there but none of it involving working in the dispensary, tidying the disastrous shelves or organising the chaos to make it a better place to work in.

One of the dispensers pulled me to one side and explained that it wasn’t always this bad. They were getting used to new systems and that it wasn’t the manager’s fault it was in such a bad state – she just didn’t have the support of the staff.

Hmmmm, there was an awful lot of It’s Not My Faulting going on! The business was in turmoil with no leadership and clearly had been for some time. Morale was at rock bottom, customer service was with it and it was all someone else’s fault.

I wonder what would have happened if the manager had taken responsibility for the business, the team, the training and for herself? I suspect that I would have witnessed a very different scene and felt a very different atmosphere and experienced a completely different level of customer service. All for the better I might add.

I hear It’s Not My Faulting on an all too regular basis going on all around me. It’s time to realise that we are all totally responsible for everything that we do and every thing that happens to us. Yes, I do mean everything. Wouldn’t you rather take control of (and responsibility for) your own destiny than get to the end of your time, wonder where it went and fell sorry for yourself that life was unfair to you, you were a victim of circumstances.

When would NOW be a good time to step up?