Pharmacy staff from Walgreens and CVS describe their daily struggles.

• Some pharmacy employees at large U.S. drugstore chains are at a breaking point.
• Concerns among workers arise from the belief that companies such as Walgreens and CVS are imposing excessive demands without providing adequate staffing or resources to ensure safe task execution.
• Walgreens and CVS employees, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and a store manager, were interviewed by CNBC about their typical workday.

Pharmacy employees at large U.S. drugstore chains are reaching a breaking point, many say.

Pharmacists and support staff are responsible for a range of tasks, including verifying, filling and dispensing prescriptions, administering vaccines, fixing insurance issues, transferring prescriptions to other pharmacies, and tending to dozens of patients in stores and over the phone. However, those workers have expressed concerns that companies like and are placing unreasonable demands on them, without providing enough staffing or resources to safely execute tasks.

Pharmacy staff from Walgreens and CVS stores in the Kansas City area have recently walked off the job due to increasing workloads, understaffing, and cuts to their hours. Some employees plan to walk out again from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1.

CNBC interviewed pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and a store manager from both Walgreens and CVS about their typical workday. All employees requested anonymity due to the fear of retaliation. They described ending their shifts exhausted after spending long hours managing numerous tasks in the pharmacy with insufficient support from extra hands.

In 2022, the two largest pharmacies in the U.S. based on prescription drug market share were CVS and Walgreens, with approximately 9,000 retail store locations each across the country.

While CVS has over 30,000 pharmacists and 70,000 pharmacy technicians, Walgreens has more than 86,000 health-care service providers, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and other health-related professionals. On average, CVS pharmacists earn $61.44 per hour, while Walgreens pharmacists make $53.85 per hour, according to Indeed.

Walgreens acknowledges the outstanding efforts of its pharmacists and technicians and has implemented measures in its pharmacies to enable them to focus on delivering exceptional patient care.

The spokesperson stated that Walgreens is concentrating on recruiting, retaining, and rewarding pharmacy staff, while also enhancing technology and centralizing operations to manage workloads appropriately in pharmacies.

CVS is experiencing an unprecedented demand and a clinical workforce shortage in the health care industry, prompting the company to make targeted investments in its retail pharmacy business based on feedback from its pharmacy teams.

The spokesperson stated that the investments will commence in November and continue throughout next year, and will include enhancing pharmacist and technician recruitment and hiring, as well as strengthening pharmacy technician training, which will enable teams to schedule additional support as needed.

According to CNBC's accounts, a typical day for staff from the two chains is as follows.

Walgreens pharmacist

A pharmacist at Walgreens stated that their shifts can last between six and twelve hours, on three to five days of the week. The pharmacist added that they usually begin work at 8 a.m., an hour prior to the shift.

Typically, the pharmacist commences their shift by finishing several paperwork duties that take approximately five to ten minutes.

Pharmacy technicians are responsible for checking which medications are out of stock, but this task often falls to them because their colleagues are busy with other duties.

The pharmacist checks which medications were not delivered by drug distributors and informs patients about when their prescriptions will be ready.

The pharmacist cancels vaccination appointments for shots not in stock, spending 10 to 15 minutes calling patients and directing them to other locations with available vaccines. Walgreens allows online scheduling of any vaccine appointment, regardless of stock availability at a specific store location.

Although some Walgreens pharmacy locations had to reschedule appointments when vaccines first became available this fall due to delays in supply, the chain's spokesperson stated that all locations had the necessary supply "within a few days." The spokesperson also apologized for any inconvenience caused to consumers.

According to the pharmacist, vaccine appointments start at 9:15 a.m. and end at 6:45 p.m. The pharmacy typically schedules one appointment every 15 minutes, and some patients receive up to four vaccines during their visit.

Juggling administering shots with other tasks has become more challenging for the pharmacist and pharmacy technician due to the recent arrival of new vaccines against Covid and respiratory syncytial virus.

The pharmacist stated that in addition to their other responsibilities, they must handle the challenging issues related to prescription insurance coverage. On average, their store receives between 100 to 160 insurance claims daily, prompting the pharmacist to allocate up to three 30-minute to one-hour time slots during their shift to address them.

Both pharmacists and technicians are responsible for serving customers in-store and over the phone. On average, pharmacists receive eight to ten phone calls per hour, which can take up to 10 to 15 minutes each.

In addition to verifying and dispensing prescriptions, the pharmacist is also responsible for completing all those tasks and other minor duties.

The doctor usually handles the first part of that task, which involves processing new prescription orders.

The pharmacist ensures that the prescription information entered into the system matches the doctor's orders for patients. With 300 prescriptions received daily, the pharmacist reviews 25 prescriptions per hour. A technician or the pharmacist fills these prescriptions, and the pharmacist performs a final review to ensure the medications in the bottles are accurate.

Pharmacists frequently experience interruptions while performing tasks due to the urgency of other issues, which can result in a backlog of work.

The pharmacist pointed out that the pharmacy takes a scheduled lunch break from 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., but they often work through it. During lunch, they typically have to handle new insurance issues or catch up on other tasks they couldn't complete while working with patients.

Pharmacy technicians from CVS, Walgreens

Pharmacists rely on pharmacy technicians to assist and support patients in their work.

An CVS pharmacy technician stated that they usually arrive at their store at 7:50 a.m., 10 minutes before their shift begins. The technician mentioned that they typically work with one to two other technicians and one pharmacist during their shift, which they believe is insufficient to manage the workload.

The technician processes new prescription orders from doctors, continuously matching each prescription to the patient profile in the CVS system and entering all the correct information before sending it to a pharmacist for review.

The technician is responsible for another aspect of the process, which entails filling prescriptions and printing labels prior to the pharmacist's review. It was stated that their store location experiences a prescription volume of 600 to 1,000 per day.

As soon as their store location opens, the technician and their co-workers will have to handle numerous patient phone calls and customers waiting to receive their prescriptions or other essentials through the drive-thru.

The technician performs a variety of tasks in addition to filling prescriptions and caring for patients. These tasks include administering vaccines and returning unpicked-up medications to pharmacy shelves.

A technician from Walgreens performs similar duties, but their shift typically runs from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. This technician stated that they experience anxiety at the start of their shift because there is usually an increase in patients visiting the store after work: "You're walking right into chaos."

Often, patients experience long wait times at Walgreens due to understaffing, causing some to become frustrated and lash out at pharmacy staff, which can be overwhelming.

The Walgreens technician stated that they usually remain at work beyond their shift to perform necessary closing tasks, such as emptying the trash and disposing of confidential patient data. Upon returning home, they admitted to being completely drained due to fatigue.

Pharmacists and technicians may receive assistance from employees who do not have official responsibilities in the pharmacy.

The CVS store manager works at the front of the store from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on three to four days of the week and assists at the pharmacy until 9 p.m. They still hold a pharmacy technician license, enabling them to perform tasks such as administering vaccines.

The store manager stated that they are a salaried employee, meaning they are essentially working in the pharmacy without pay to provide additional support to their staff.

The store manager stated that either myself or my staff are being forced into a business aspect that we did not agree to, due to a lack of resources.