Members, just be careful what you say about places where you are currently working. Employers can and do trawl this site, impersonate students etc and try and find out who is saying things about them any way they can.
If you want to say something a company won't like, then PM me and I'll quote it anonymously, provided you can convince me its not spurious and slanderous!
On the other hand, they won't object if you want to praise them!
I worked briefly with a decent assistant at an independent and he'd come from Asda. The only reason he'd moved over to the independent was money but he soon shipped himself back to Asda when it became obvious the independent were nothing but a bunch of cowboys. He said Asda were good to work for but at his level (MCA), just didn't pay well. Apart from that, no probs.
Hi marine
I work for Asda and have done for nearly 15 years. Asda will suit some people and not others. If you want to sit in the back on the computer, snipping and licking, we are not for you. If you want to spend your time training up your colleagues to let you have time on the counter sharing your knowledge with the customers, we could be.
As pharmacy is just a part of quite a diverse business, you will need to have the confidence to assume the role of the expert in all things to do with pharmacy - so long as its professional ethical and legal.
You will not be spoon fed at Asda but you get given the tools to do a great job and you are trained to use them during your 4 week induction - the trick then is for you to do just that - use them!
We do have strict SOPs and policies which you need to stick to but these have been written by front line pharmacists, and have been fine tuned throughout the years following feedback from other pharmacists. They are there to protect the customer, protect you the pharmacist and yes ultimately to protect the company too. This is why we need to follow them.
We don’t have a massive support structure made up of pharmacists but are moving more towards that, as now we have over 180 pharmacies. You will have support in store from non pharmacist managers. As I said, you are the expert in pharmacy and they are experts in other things. They have been trained not to override you, and will not override you, on professional matters.
As with any company you may be unlucky to have a run in with a rogue manager and it is for you to influence them to improve their understanding of pharmacy - if that doesn’t work, you need to call me and I will help influence or give you some feedback if you may be in the wrong …..
You will also have a network Professional Development Group pharmacists who work as pharmacists in store and are great to use a sounding boards or call on for advice
Other than that you don’t generally have to ask for permission to do things but we tend to ask for forgiveness if it goes wrong.
If it helps, I can send you a list of pharmacists and phone numbers you can call or I can send you a spreadie with the phone numbers of all of our pharmacies and ask any one them yourself. You will probably get honest feedback, some which may be awful but hopefully it will be good
And yes, David S, I do sometimes lurk on the forums, rarely post but never impersonate anyone. Although the forumites' comments are not always factually correct they are really useful to get a feel for what pharmacists out there are currently thinking and have concerns about
Thanks to everyone for the contribution .Thank you so much for taking out time to write all these John, really helpful. I have applied for a post in ASDA, i'm waiting for a response. If i am hired, i would definately contact you,because i would need alot of support. Is it also true that sometimes i would have to deal with customers that want to pay for things like alcohol, meat etc on the Pharmacy till. I was told i may clash with the manager if i object. Anyway, i'd get into the sysyem first and see what it is like. I hope you wouldn't mind me asking alot of questions Thanks
Good luck with the application marine - call me whenever you want.
If you do join us, you will be invited to Asda House in Leeds for 2 days for the 'Best Welcome' part of your induction.
It can sometimes get a bit wacky as you'll be with about 100 plus other new managers from People Managers, Grocery Managers, Bakery Managers, Optometrists, Produce Managers. We also get a chance to meet with you and the other new pharmacists for about 90 minutes - we have no agenda for this session - its just a chance to have a chat and for you to ask any questions and we tell you as it is, warts and all.
If your particular intake clashes with one of our 'Late Lunches', we get an update from what's happening in stores together with a business update from the Exec on how we are doing. Then usually we have a band on - we had Peter Andre last month ...
As far as serving other things from the pharmacy till, we will not sell alcohol, tobacco, or fireworks from the pharmacy but if a customer sees that you are not busy and it saves them time you may get asked by a customer to take for their newspapers or something similar. This is usually rare and we do not encourage it, but it may happen.
It's important that you realise before you join us that even though you are a pharmacist and a professional, you will not get any preferential treatment just because of this - everyone gets treated the same as everyone else here - even the superintendent...
I know it all sounds very odd and as I said earlier Asda isn't for everyone. I can guarantee that things will not always be rosy and we all get fed up with the jobs that we do some times, but if you are up for it and get stuck in it can be a great place to work.
Thank you, now i'm looking forward to working in Asda. I really don't mind if we are all treated the same. The fact would be that i would put in my best to help my patients and customers, because my customers matter to me alot. If they are happy with my service, then i would be fufilled. The four week training you wrote about, would that be on the job or going somewhere separate for the traning? Would i be paid for that period? I really hope they take me. I think i would like it from all you have written. Thanks. If i'm employed i would have loads of questions for you. Thank you for your time.
you will get your salary from your first day including expenses and accommodation for your time at Leeds
The 4 week training will be protected training time in a completely different store called a Store of Learning. You will get a structured 4 week training plan to cover topics from policies and process, how we do things, how we train and manage our colleagues, how we ensure that we have enough colleagues and put the Right People in the Right Place at the Right Time. You will be with non pharmacists as well as pharmacists at this point. On top of this we will train you in how we run our pharmacies so that when you land in your store you will know exactly what to do and how to do it.
I don’t know which store you have applied for but see that you are based in London so the SOL that you go to would be Wembley or Stevenage, both of which have really good pharmacists who will look after you. However things may not always go according to the exact plan so you will have to stand up for yourself and get things back on track if needed.
These 4 weeks are an expensive investment from our point of view because we tend to pay fairly well for the right person (tip - we want people who will fit in with our culture, look after our people, challenge and improve what we do, not just do what we do - we assume that you know how to be a good pharmacist)
Please don’t waste these 4 weeks - you will not get as much intense investment in you for quite a while!
john evans. Can i ask to asda offer a pre-reg placement because i cant find it on your website. If i can ask is your website accurate were in it states its a 45hr contract for 45k a year
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