So. I’m sitting at my desk at Caremark. Blatantly ignoring the no-personal Internet rule to write this blog. What are they gonna do, fire me??
I figure while I wait for the Washington State branch to get back to me I’d share a little. Besides, I’m past my shift end by an hour and a half…
I’ve been with Caremark (now CVS Caremark or CarePlus CVS/Pharmacy depending on which email you read last) for almost five years. Four years, ten months, and a week – to be closer to exact (although not dead-on).
In line with the rest of my life, that’s a good amount of time. I’m only 28, so it’s little over 17% of my lifetime. I guess that’s not really an impressive percentage.
But what I’ve done in that time, I think is.
When I started with Caremark in August 2003 in Phoenix, I was a lowly Certified Pharmacy Technician. I was fresh off a job with Express Scripts, which was more like being a member of the Hitler-Jugend. I was 23 and at a point in my life that jobs weren’t lasting more than a year. I wasn’t expecting to walk into Caremark and start a career. I never saw myself as having a career. To this day it’s hard to see myself as an adult.
I had made friends and got into the rhythm of life as a tech, not thinking I would ever do more than that.
Then the materials Manager Gary Geiger approached me and suggested I apply for an open position of Database Analysis. I thought “okay, cool, they’re looking for candidates, why not?”
That was when I learned about the unspoken corporate rule. If the hiring manager asks you to apply for a job, that means they want you for that job. Of course, it also means if you’re not asked, you may as well not apply.
So I got a hand-me-down suit from a friend and interviewed. To this day that is my lucky suit that has landed me every job I’ve interviewed for wearing it. And yes, I wore it to Macy’s.
I, of course, got the job and started up the brief and semi-steep hill of my career.
Gary was one of my all-time favorite bosses. He was more like a father figure to me than anything and helped mentor me into a more professional version of myself.
I moved from Database Coordinator to Inventory Analyst to Materials Supervisor.
Then along came Steve. My conspiracy theorist side me still to this day thinks he had a hand in getting Gary fired. Him and Mark. At least Mark was nice to me.
Once Gary was de-throned, Steve took over as my manager.
I think he had a daily check list of his tasks and at the top was “Make Erin cry.” And he did a good job of that every day.
What can you expect from a misogynistic, balding, middle-aged, momma’s boy with a Napoleon complex??
But I’m not bitter…
He and the second shift supervisor were in cahoots on it too. I would get upset about Steve, tell Denis, he would run to Steve. I had to watch my back on anything and everything I did.
This, plus the added stress of a home-life that was teetering on the edge, I was in bad shape.
So out of the blue I applied for a job in the Chicago mail order facility for Caremark. Doing what I did in Phoenix, but as far away from Steve as I could get.
I didn’t need the suit this time, they hired me sans interview since the manager Tom and I had a working relationship from a project team I was on.
So two weeks later I was off to job number 5, Inventory Supervisor.
On a side note, I’m happy to report that Denis flaked out on Steve and the Phoenix pharmacy is now closed, the two not being related. Denis wishes… The down side of that is Steve is still employed with the company and not living in a box downtown somewhere.
But that’s beside the point.
Mt Prospect was different. Many of my employees were in the mind set that women belonged bare-foot, pregnant in the kitchen, so reporting to me was not the best scenario for them. The half that didn’t care that I was a woman were so set in their ways that they did not accept me coming into their world and implementing a new way of life.
I’ve never met a bigger group of anti-change people in my life.
Not to mention they’re desire to throw us all under the bus. (Not to say there wasn’t a gem or two.)
So I got out of there…
Fortunately it was to go to a position I had wanted to do for a boss I liked.
I came to Northbrook in July of 2006 as an Inventory Analyst. I had not realized until now that I’ve been here for two years now. That’s a record.
But the list of promotions (and I call them promotions because my pay has gone up every time) does not stop there.
In September of this 2007 I was promoted, based strictly on my merit, to Senior Inventory Analyst.
Pretty cool. I had not even asked for that one.
I was moved over to a new area and set out to learn a whole new computer system and way of ordering.
And that’s where you find me today. Sitting at my desk, on page three of the longest blog ever, giving you all the history of my career.
Why?
Because this chapter ends tomorrow.
Friday the 13th, 2008, my reign of terror ends.
At least in Chicago.
I’m off to New York City. And I’m at a loss for words right now.
People ask me if I’m excited. And I am. But it’s all a little surreal for me. It just feels like I’m going on vacation.
Even when I look at the never-ending gobstopper of crap that is my apartment, half in boxes, half in piles, it hasn’t really hit.
I think because I’ve wanted to move to NYC for so long now my mind says there is no way it’s going to actually come true.
Like the city is a mirage and as soon as I pull up to my apartment it will disappear and I’ll be left standing in the desert.
***
And as much as I would like to keep typing and with all the things I want to say, I need to split.
So I guess I can say to be continued…
My hands are killing me and I need to eat.