Loyalty

Dying persons always seem to give the best pieces of advice.

I got a call from Cora this morning. She told me to expect a call from an independent pharmacy in Oakland because she told them I was interested in applying for an intern position. I love how she has always been a big help to me. She was also the one who told me about Craigslist when I was still looking for a place to move into.

I was really saddened when I learned that Cora was no longer pharmacy manager of CVS Sta. Clara. She went on disability leave because her cancer which she had just recently recovered from has suddenly relapsed. It was originally in the breast, but now the cancer has metastasized to her liver. Doesn’t sound really good, does it?

Our phone call this morning lasted for thirty seven minutes, 37 minutes full of stories of hard work and success and lessons learned in life. Dying persons always seem to give the best pieces of advice. She told me to be kind and patient, honest and true. But the biggest lesson she taught me today was this:

Loyalty.

She started with Long’s Drugs (which would later be known as CVS) in 1992, as a pharmacy clerk. She had no technician license, no intern license, no nothing. So she was there basically to type prescriptions and ring them up as a cashier. Later on, she went one step higher. She became a pharmacy technician, then an intern pharmacist, a staff pharmacist, and ultimately, a pharmacy manager, all these positions in the same company. This is loyalty, one thing I apparently lack, based on my actions these past few days.

A couple weeks ago, I gave my 2-weeks notice to my boss at Ross. I wasn’t even planning to quit before I went to work that day. But at one point during my shift, I suddenly felt so tired and sleepy due to my lack of sleep the night before. It was then that a thought hit me: Why don’t I just quit? Right here, right now? I don’t need this part-time job anyway! So I opened the WordPad application on the computer in my office, typed a 2-weeks notice, and printed it out. Voila! I had an instant resignation letter! Before I took off, I handed it over to my boss and left.

Two days later, when I finally felt relaxed and rested, I regretted my decision, and took back my notice. Lesson: Never make decisions when you’re tired. I wonder what my boss had thought when he learned that I’d changed my mind. Not a very good impression of me, most likely. What kind of employee would quit one day and then take it back two days later? Not a very good one, absolutely.

Before that, I applied for a volunteer intern position at Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy. After a month-long series of e-mail correspondence with their pharmacy manager, I finally got hired by them and given my first day of work. So I wrote a letter to my manager at Walgreens, indicating that I would like to cut down my working days from 5 to 3, so that I could have some room in the week to do my internship at Pharmaca. Now I’m thinking, if I were the manager that day and one of my newest employees came to me to tell me she would like to cut down her availability so that she could also work for another company (which happened to be one of our competitors), what would I think about her? Not very loyal, indeed.

Now, let’s go back to Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy. So, I did show up on my first day of work. It was a very nice experience. They had me do pharmacist’s duties under the supervision of their pharmacist, and it was really cool. Never in my life had I counseled a patient about their medications. And the pharmacy itself was very nice too, very elegant and fragrant (it reminded me of aroma therapy), unlike the stressful and ever-busy Walgreens. The only downside was the long commute and the fact that it was a volunteer position, so I wouldn’t be getting paid for it. When I got home that night (2 hours after my shift ended because of the loooooong commute!), I sent an e-mail to the pharmacy manager, telling her that I was quitting.

So that long awaited first day turned out to be my last day at Pharmaca as well. Test of Loyalty: FAIL.

Two days later, I found myself walking my way to Walgreens, and speaking to the manager about getting my full-time hours back. I wish the manager thought at that moment, Wow, so this non-loyal employee seems to be loyal after all. But no, the damage had been done. Eversince I came my way back to Walgreens that day, I never got any full-time hours again. As of now, the most I’ve gotten is 32.

I think my greatest flaw is my tendency to make big decisions on a whim.

Now I’m suffering the consequences of my non-loyalty. Cora was right. Better be loyal to the ones you work for, because you don’t know whom you might be needing help from in the future. I doubt that they will still be willing to give good referrals once I apply for a position in some other company someday. And now that Walgreens is facing some sort of a potential financial loss in the coming year because of the ESI thingy (we can no longer bill prescriptions thru Blue Cross, Anthem and Tricare), and CVS is rejoicing because of the increasing number of patients transferring their prescriptions from Walgreens to them, I kind of regret my decision of choosing Walgreens over CVS last December. It had only been a week since CVS had hired me as a technician when I resigned and chose Walgreens because of the higher rate and number of hours they were offering me.

I was watching the movie trailer of “The Ides of March” on YouTube a while ago when I heard this line from the character Paul, “There is only one thing in this world I value, which is loyalty. Without it, you’re nothing.” Then I went ahead and read the movie synopsis on IMDB. It’s about a young talented Stephen who works for a presidential candidate as a campaign staffer. The senior campaign manager is Paul. Now, seeing that Stephen is wise and intelligent, the opposing party tries to recruit him to their team, which seems to be stronger than the one that Stephen and Paul are working for. Stephen eventually agrees, joining the opponent, and leaving Paul and their presidential candidate behind.

But before Stephen finally leaves, Paul goes on an inspiring monologue about loyalty. He says that, “When he first started, he was working with a no-name politician. The opposing side tried to poach him, but he was honest and told his candidate. His boss said he would not stop him from leaving, but Paul stayed loyal to him. They lost, but three years later, the guy ran for governor, using him as his manager and they won.” Now, that same governor is making his way thru the presidential election (IMDB, 2011).

“‘There is only one thing in this world I value which is loyalty. Without it, you’re nothing,’ Paul says” (IMDB, 2011).

Now that I look back to everything, I realize that I have been failing the test of loyalty every now and then. I know that I shouldn’t keep this happening. I need to do something, don’t I?

Sometimes, money just isn’t everything.

God still loves me. At least, He didn’t give me cancer to realize all these. He just had me speak with someone who has cancer.

I wish Stanford gets me. Amen.

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