I believe the workplace has turned into hostile/drama plagued environment.
I work in a community hospital and I thought things were not pleasant when I first started working. Well, after 32 years of practice and hard work-I realize that I had it good back then-- in the old days! Yes, in the old days everything was antiquated requiring a lot of mental and physical work. People were kinder and respectful. Today, I work in a hostile environment and things have not changed when the Manager or Assistant Manager have been notified of the abuse certain staff are dealing with in the workplace. The job has become easier. Individuals have too much time on their hands and cause disruptions in the workplace.

I can not afford to run after 32 years of service. I worked part time in retail and home care in hopes of placing a foot in the door-an opportunity to finding another job to get out of the mess I am in at the present time. Unfortunately, these two alternate work places were just as bad if not worse. At least I got a bird's eye view of other jobs for Technicians.

Technicians do not get paid well enough to bounce from job to job. Technician jobs are available if your are willing to up root and move on to another state. Yet, the problem I am finding is that the pay/benefits is not worth my leaving my current position. The grass is not always greener on the other side.

I have committed myself to do my job and refrain from any interaction with co-workers that is not related to work. I do my job to the best of my ability and the best that I am capable of doing. Lack of interaction with co-workers is very difficult especially when some are lazy and rude and I am a people person. I grew up respecting others. I will not tolerate being spoken to or treated like a peon. I carry myself with pride and dignity. If I am treated badly- I let the culprit know that it is unacceptable behavior. It does not always work because being diplomatic works with some and not with others. So, I have created a lot of enemies because of my self respect. You can take everything away from me but not my self respect. I guess growing up in the ghetto has had it's good impact on my self esteem.

I engage myself in learning and understanding what I do in pharmacy for 8 hrs a day -40 hr weeks. I self-taught myself a lot of things. I work all the positions in the department and do office work entailing auditing/administrative stuff. I keep busy. It is daunting when I am working two or more positions and get paid the same as everyone else that just does one job.

But, I must confess that I do love what I do and have made if fun for myself by learning all that I can in distribution (finding a better process) or looking for products that are user-friendly. I have taken on the responsibility of Job shadowing (college/high school students) and Pharmacy Intern students that have enhanced my personal growth and taken me away from the daunting agony of the personalities I have to deal with daily in the workplace. I forget from time to time about my love for my profession because of the lack of approval,lack encouragement,dealing with unprofessional (hostile/rude) co-workers and managers that do not want to deal with conflict in the work place.

It drains me from time to time, but it is a paycheck and I have to make the best of it because I tested the waters elsewhere and did not find anything remotely better in working conditions. I did find a job working in a physicians office once a week that helps break the monotony and allows me to breath and do what I do best.
Complaining- does not do any good - You have to be proactive - you may not find another profession that will be any better because the hostility and rudeness is indicative of our society and is not going away. Find the things that make you happy or of interest in pharmacy-explore other avenues of pharmacy that may be of interest.

I have worked two and three jobs all my life. I have made the most menial jobs fun. When I use to run the floors I would play games testing myself and challenging my abilities. I did not pay attention to the gossip etc-I was busy learning the computer and learning about how pharmacy works. Engage yourself and hopefully it will help you deal with your working conditions.

Imagine the people that are locked into a job for life because there is no upward mobility or due to lack of education. How do they survive? (Like steel mill workers-coal miners-dietary staff-housekeepers etc) You have to find your niche to get through till you are able to retire.

Carry yourself with pride and dignity- do not fall into the the abysmal pool of gossip and prejudging others. You will always have to deal with rude people and you can not escape unless you create your own business and hire your own staff or live in your own world..Even in your own business you have customers /other companies with an array of personal aggressions.

Your own world that is impossible unless you have a breakdown and get committed ( not a good existence). Working in a place where there is no leadership or disciplinary action is NOT easy --I KNOW!!! If you have a policy that dictates a certain protocol to file a complaint -follow the protocol and file a complaint. Or when evaluated you state the date/names of staff involved in the incidents that caused you grief (keep a copy)and update information of improvement of lack of improvement-then present it to Human Resources or your Manager. You will get
a frown or disapproval for your actions but they will know you are serious.
No one should have to work in an unpleasant work place.

Unhappy people cause illness to others that are vulnerable and cause major errors in pharmacy. I have been around a long time and never thought this profession would stoop to the lowest of lows. You would think that educated people would be able to make the world a better place. Book knowledge is a powerful thing but if you do not have common sense and people skills it means NOTHING!!!

Professionalism in Pharmacy strikes a chord.

Where is the white lab jackets, the respect, the team work and pride in Pharmacy. The last ten years I have seen a decline in all the above mentioned. I have a passion for what I do and most of my superiors are younger than myself. I call them by their surname and show them I have their backs in assuring their license does not get compromised by doing an efficient job.

Yet, I find so many ungrateful for having a job that enables them to broaden their horizons and the continual learning experiences with new drugs/technologies.
Most people in pharmacy are doing it for the pay -no passion whatsoever. I have never seen so many rude young adults. If I were their parents I would certainly let them know how unprofessional and demeaning it is to the profession.
They should be filmed and force to view themselves being rude.

The decline in professionalism is slowly spreading because I have seen the same demeanor in other states' clinical,retail,home care. I am astonished because I would never have guessed thirty two years ago that things would be as they are today.

I have found joy in what I do because I keep finding things that can be tweaked or organized or invented to create a smoother process in distribution of medication or enhancing our environment by making it user friendly. There are so many things one can do if you were to get away for the gossip and the self center modes of those being obnoxious or plain cruel whether it be to a customer ,co-worker.

I give respect therefore I expect respect in return. Running away is never a solution because I personally tried and found it worse elsewhere. I agree that there are P&P in the work place to prevent such outlandish behavior. Unfortunately, in order to get anything done documentation has to be done and I mean a lot of documentation. Political correctness has created a complacent HR and Management when it comes to correcting violators of the P&P.

I had to assert myself and not contribute to the unfavorable behavior. My superiors in management are clueless on the events that go on because they are in front of their computers all day. So, it leaves very little room for anyone to assert any type of control or oversee that the problems do not flourish into a war zone. HR is not helpful either.

It is frustrating for me to see a profession that I fell into accidentally that has created years of rewards and satisfaction become a war zone. It truly is sad.
In my first encounter w/pharmacy I found solace working in a clean professional environment while the world was slowly deteriorating. I found comfort at work doing my Pharmacy stuff. Now, I have no place to feel the comfort ,rewards and satisfaction because of the unprofessionalism and the lack on cleanliness with those that work and feel they are too good to clean or pick up a paper off the floor. I never thought I would be an old geeser talking about how times have changed because I stayed in the mix of things and trying to keep an open mind and always learning something new. But, I have become that old geeser saying Times have changed for the worse NOT better.:(

I enjoyed the comments about Professionalism. I also want to add the thoughts on Pharm Techs and their lack of a Professional attitude with each other. I work in a community hospital pharmacy at the in-patient area and some of the staff make life here a living hell!! This was my 1st job after getting certified and really am thinking of leaving after 13 months here. If ALL pharmacies are like this one, I chose the WRONG health care field to be in. Most of my co-workers have NO professional courtesy for one another. It really reminds me of grade school and schoolyard bullies. Gossip about EVERYONE else runs rampant and as a new Tech, I was called stupid, a moron and other choice comments that I will not repeat here. What happened to showing the new person the ropes and how to do things??

Maybe my next place will have this Professionalism you speak of, but this place needs education about it in a BIG way.