drugstore.com Reviews

Pros

Good work and life balance.
Competitive salary and benefits.
Opportunities for lateral vs upward promotion.
Strong bench strength.

Cons

'Closed' circle. Belong to inner circle of President, VP/Director or you will be squeezed out and replaced by 'yes' men.

Advice to Senior Management

Playing outside the box is what made you unique. Start listening and stop losing your innovators and forward thinking employees

Pros

When I first came to drugstore is was a great place to be; challenging environment, cool stuff being accomplished, a great work comraderie. They are still fairly flexible about maintaining the work life balance, and that is pretty much the only remaining plus.

Cons

Senior Director and above folks - answerable to Walgreens - are no longer honest or straight forward w/their reports. Reviews are done by quota rather than genuine performance, you have senior people laboring at ground level rather than doing any high level strategic planning, and people are set up to fail.
There are also some Director level folks who would like to ingratiate themselves w/Walgreens who definitely watch the clock on behalf of everyone else. Consequently I see the nice flex time perk disappearing soon.

Advice to Senior Management

While the reality is that Walgreens now owns drugstore, it doesn't mean that it all has to go downhill. No one trusts current management (at least in some of the retail departments) and morale is the lowest its been since I've been here. Perhaps if it was felt like senior people were actually engaged in their own jobs rather than ours, that there was some respect for our time, (instead of wasting it on friviolous, meaningless meetings), some sign that they believe they hired good people and treated them as such, then it might turn around. As it is, the exodus has begun, and will only accelerate in the coming year.

Pros

Good benefits and comparable pay.

Cons

Managers are not trained to deal with people. Some threaten employees and create a hostile environment.

Pros

People are great
Work Life Balance is Good

Cons

Limited room for growth due to size

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what your doing.

Pros

easy to skate by without much accountability.

Cons

very low accountability across the entire org

Advice to Senior Management

pay attention

Pros

back then seemed like there was leadership opp

Cons

the bar is very low. most employees wouldnt be hired at a forturn 500

Advice to Senior Management

hire a real leader

Pros

The company is growing and management does a pretty good job of looking and securing growth opportunities. Drugstore also seems to provide reasonable work/life balance for its employees - the pace is not as hectic as other places I've worked (but that could depend on your role). Also, the company supports initiatives that improve the health of employees, such as subsidizing a healthy eating program with a local naturopath.

Cons

The company seems to reward, recognize and promote senior roles but not manager and below. There aren't a lot of opportunities for growth from your current role.

Advice to Senior Management

Look for ways to recognize and reward employees at all levels.

Pros

The pay is good. I suspect they do this because there is no other way to hold on to full time talent. People don’t stay for the development aspects.
Can usually work 50 hours or less a week. Not bad if you have a family.

Cons

There is no room for software innovation. It is clear that this place had it at one time but has lost it.
Management uses the charge back system for funding projects, large and small. This immediately stops all creativity in software.
There is no ownership for anything. Doing the "right" think is not respected.
Typically upper management doesn’t practice what they preach as far as SD methodology goes.
Most development is outsourced to India, or on shored from India.

Advice to Senior Management

Drugstore has lost the only edge it had, software. You had better figure this out, and fast. There is no reason the competitors will not be on top of us now.

Pros

Very collaborative work environment, good work life balance, fast paced, lots of room to grow as a company so it's exciting

Cons

career growth not laid out well for most roles (below directors); other than that, not much to complain about...most things are good

Advice to Senior Management

Nothing.

Pros

-culture
-easy work
-better than most other call centers

Cons

-They don't care about their employees on a one on one basis
-They don't recognize good performance
-The bonuses are a joke
-bad hours when you first start

Advice to Senior Management

none