5 Pharmacy Work Habits That Annoy Your Colleagues

Annoying work habits can set the tone for lower productivity and teamwork in the pharmacy workplace. If any of these habits sound familiar, make a commitment to break them.

1. Arriving late for work

Being stuck in construction traffic, a sick child, or not being able to find your car keys happens to all of us. Being consistently late, however, shows disrespect for your workplace, and it undermines those co-workers who make a conscious effort to be on time. Aim for arriving 10 minutes early or stay 10 minutes later.

2. Cherry Picking

The computer age has many of us working in a queue where metrics are based on the number of orders reviewed. When we see an order which is overly clinical, requires research, or needs clarification, its easy to click "escape", and select or cherry pick the simplest orders with the least amount of effort.

No one likes working on a team where pharmacists aren't pulling their weight. Unfortunately cherry picking affects the pharmacist who is being selective, the patients who have more complex orders, and those co-workers who are forced to deal with them. Paradoxically, being a cherry picker may boost your personal monthly statistics, however, it hinders professional growth because of the lack of necessary skills needed to take on more challenging tasks.

3. Complaining too much

Venting can be healthy in the moment when things go wrong. Complaining about co-workers, the boss, and the tasks at hand, however, makes you look whiny, unprofessional and uncooperative. A constant negative attitude gives off a pessimistic vibe which can affect the morale of co-workers. Focus your energy on being a problem solver by offering ideas to make the situation better or more productive.

4. Not following through

Simply stated, do what you say you will do when you say you will do it. Be accountable. Your co-workers will notice, respect you, and tell others of your credibility or lack of it.

5. Using work time for screen time

According to Michael Winnick, author of Putting a Finger on Our Phone Obsession, we spend an average of 2.42 to 3.75 hours per day dealing with phone screen time, primarily between the hours of 7 am to 11 pm, when most pharmacists are working. This means many of us are texting, sliding, and tapping at some point during our work hours.

Dopamine makes screen time habit-forming and hard to confine to our lunch and coffee breaks. Personal cell phone use while working is against company policy in many workplaces, distracting to our co-workers, and lowers productivity.

Most importantly, being distracted by screen time is a cause of drug errors. Keep your phone in a drawer and off your desk. Your co-workers will appreciate your mindfulness.