The Catbird Seat

It’s my weekend to work.

I really hate working the weekend. I generally don’t complain about it (oh, that is SO a lie) because it’s just part of the deal of being a retail pharmacist.

Seriously, though I dislike working weekends and nights, I don’t try to get out of it, and I don’t whine to anyone except close friends and Paul. [except for the occasional blog post like this one]

Weekends and nights just come with the territory.

Like drive-thru windows.

And crazy/pitiful/lazy/ignorant/mean/sick people who frequent pharmacies (myself included.)

Which brings me to the story of last night.

Prior to going to work, I read a beloved friend’s blog-post about modeling Christ’s treatment of “the ungrateful and the wicked” that was quite convicting. Here’s a snippet:

How counter-cultural is the call to be a disciple: to display forgiveness when vengeance seems reasonable; to give with no thought or expectation of repayment; to show compassion when condemnation seems normal. By following Jesus’ “call to action” . . .you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:35,36 ESV)

BAM!

I thought long and hard about the people I often deal with at work.
I thought about how easy it is for me to get irritated and judgmental about the ingratitude of customers.

I thought about how quick I am to accept grace and how slow I am to give it, especially with the aforementioned crazy/pitiful/lazy/ignorant/mean/sick people that walk through the doors of Walgreens.

I thought that I would be different last night.

And then the combo of Friday night, the drive-thru window, and a regular customer collided and I had to make a choice.

Here’s the scenario:

Gentleman comes to the drive-thru window second lane. [Which means that we can’t see him well, or him us, and all transactions have to go through the pneumatic tube.] He tells the tech that we called him at home and told him a prescription was ready. [We didn’t.] And though a prescription had been called in, it wasn’t ready. [Yet.] The patient was slightly agitated, and a little huffy at this news, so the tech asked me to speak to him. I did, and gently assured him that the matter was under control and we’d have his prescription ready in a matter of minutes. [We did.] I gave the filled prescription to the tech, she rang him up and sent the prescription (in its stapled bag) out to the customer through the pneumatic tube.
Several minutes later, I receive a call on the phone from a gentleman talking about how he was disabled and couldn’t get his prescription and would we please “just fill it again and send it out to me.” I was completely confused, until, after prompting the caller for the information, he gave me his name. He was still in the drive-thru. Calling on his cell phone. From the drive-thru.
Apparently when the cage that transports prescriptions and $$ opened at his vehicle window, his prescription fell to the ground. He said he needed me to fill his prescription again, because he was disabled and wasn’t able to pick up the medication. I was unable to tell if the actual medicine had fallen to the ground, or merely the prescription bag, so I pleasantly told him I’d send someone out to his vehicle to help. “Oh, thank you,” he said, relieved.
After heated discussion between me and my techs about why this was happening [my asking them to go outside to the drive-thru] and who would be performing this task [I let them decide amongst themselves] and how unfair and ridiculous it was [to which I replied, “I would go, but I can’t. The man is asking me to fill the prescription again, and until I know the state of his existing prescription, I can’t do that either. So either way, we’re getting that prescription back in here or to the man in the truck.”], one of the techs went outside to retrieve what I assumed was a torn or open prescription bag and capsules that had fallen all over the ground.

As we watched her approach the gentleman, I was both surprised and relieved and irritated as I watched my dutiful tech bend over and pick up a completely undamaged, stapled prescription bag (complete with contents) and hand it to the man in the truck. Who then sat in the drive-thru for another 5-10 minutes eating take-out food.

I felt like such a sucker.

When the tech (understandably irritated, as well, I might add) returned to the pharmacy, she informed me that the man had pulled up too close to the drive-thru [and was “too fat and lazy”—her words] to get the driver’s side door open wide enough to bend down and reach out and pick up the prescription himself.

He did not pull forward, open his door all the way, get out of the vehicle and get the prescription himself. [Which is what most people do in that situation, as it is a very logical thing to do.]

He didn’t push the “Call” button on the drive-thru and say, “Hey, your drive-thru dropped my prescription bag on the ground, and I’m unable to walk. Could someone help me?”

He CALLED THE PHARMACY ON HIS CELL PHONE and ASKED ME TO FILL IT AGAIN, instead.

I still can’t figure out whether I’m angry at his nerve or baffled by his craziness to think that was even an option.

But I am. Angry and baffled.

Oh, and the tech also informed me that the customer can walk just fine and COMES IN the pharmacy regularly and waits anywhere from 10-30 minutes standing at the pick-up window until his prescription is ready.

Sucker times two.

I think the very WORST part, for me, is that because of the laziness/disability/craziness/whatever of this customer, I asked MY TECH to demean herself (how she, no doubt, viewed the whole exchange.) and serve this man who probably didn’t deserve it.

If it had been me, I think it wouldn’t bother me nearly so much. In fact, I might have just been delighted to get a chance to walk outside during my shift. (Though I’d probably have also gone home and b—-ed about “the man in the drive-thru.”)

I want to be a servant. I just don’t want to ask my employees to serve (possibly unreasonably?) because of MY personal convictions.

So, I’m still plagued with this question:

Sucker or servant?

Filed under: General, Catbird, Like a fire, Local Color, Random Thoughts on May 19th, 2007