Walgreens harrasses customers/employees to make them get the flu shot

[ellenrr]

---nice to know anti-union, discriminatory Walgreens cares about the health of its customers and employees. ;)

Accounts are pouring in to NaturalNews that Walgreens customers feel they are being verbally harassed by Walgreens employees at the checkout counter over flu shots. Multiple accounts from NaturalNews readers describe aggressive verbal harassment by Walgreens employees who appear to be "over the top" in pushing flu shots, even onto pregnant women!

"I get my scripts filled at Walgreens so they know me real well at the one I go to," one reader told NaturalNews. "When I was pregnant they kept trying to push one on me and I kept refusing them."

Several readers who say they are Walgreens employees have also reported to NaturalNews -- and requested anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs -- that they were being rewarded with incentives or threatened with reprimands if they met a certain "goal" of pushing a certain number of customers into getting flu shots. "I have been told that I have to push the flu shot on my customers, arrange flu shot clinics at off-site locations and draw up flu shots to give to the customers," one person who claimed to be a Walgreens employee told NaturalNews. They added, "Please don't blame the employees who are asking about the flu shot, they are having their jobs threatened," indicating the existence of a feeling of intimidation by their employer.

"Another employee informed me that they do not receive bonuses but will receive write ups and threats if they forget to ask each customer who enters their stores if they want a flu shot," says blogger Aydan in Oak Park, California (http://aydansrecovery.blogspot.com/...).

"A Walgreen's employee who checked me out yesterday asked if I had gotten my flu shot," reports another NaturalNews reader. "I said no. She pressed me to get it. Then, she added that their entire staff was going to be rewarded with iPads when they met their quota."

CVS pharmacies also appear to be using employees to push flu shots: "I work for CVS and they are making us wear shirts that say get your flu shot today, and 50 dollar bonus for whoever has the most sales. I hate my job..." says another NaturalNews reader.


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033859_flu_shots_Walgreens.html#ixzz1eQz1T0Iv

[LeftishBrit]

1. Let's see, Whom to trust - Walgreens or Natural News?

I think the answer is - a big fucking NEITHER!

[hobbit709]

3. you got it.

[Dorian Gray]

2. Gasp

They tried to push the flu shot onto pregnant women? The horrors!

(My doctors recommended the flu shot when I was pregnant. It is a pretty standard recommendation.)

[Frustratedlady]

4. Never once has any employee/pharmacist asked about the flu shot at Walg.

They have signs up, if that's what people consider "asking" but that's all.

[DURHAM D]

5. My Walgreens pushes M&Ms at the checkout.

Its like 3 bags for $2.

However, they also always ask if I want to donate a $1 to a homeless shelter.

[MineralMan]

6. Not at the Walgreens I patronize.

The checkout people there barely look at you, and never say a word. The pharmacy folks are nice, though. Sounds like another local thing that Natural News is trying to spread as a meme. My doctor's assistant asked if I had gotten my flu shot. When I told her I had, she entered that in my record. I go to a Minute Clinic in a CVS for my flu shots. Fast service and zero cost to me, since I'm on Medicare.

Natural News would rather I got the flu, I guess. No, thanks.

[Sgent]

7. One employer I had (multi-physician practice with a lot of geratrics)

provided free flu shots for employees and family.

They then adopted a policy that if you missed work during flu season, and didn't get the shot, your first sick day was unpaid.

Personally I didn't have a real problem with this, it it seems kinda minor compared to what many hospitals and the like are doing now (requiring it for everyone).

That being said, I have no problem with employees, especially those in the health care field, be required to get a flu shot for patient safety.

[SheilaT]

8. I work in a hospital.

I don't have direct patient contact. Two years ago during the hyper-scare about avian flu they were trying to require everyone to get a flu shot. I declined, pointing out to the unfortunate employee tasked with getting everyone to get a shot or sign the waiver, that I was in the precise category of those who were supposed to be last in line to get the shot: over age 60.

Why, might you ask, would those over age 60 be last in line? Because they've already lived through at least two type A epidemics, which is what the avian flu was supposed to be. Also, the 1918 (Spanish influenza), the 1957 (Asian flu) and the 1969 (Hong Kong flu) were type A flus, which are, by the way, the most virulent and deadly. I think maybe I got flu in 1957, but don't really recall. I can tell you I haven't had flu in at least 40 years.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

9. I haven't had the flu in decades & never got a flu vaccination

ever