Walgreens

The following is a brief summary of what I have experienced as an employee at Walgreens. I was with the company for over 4 years, and was promoted 4 times. Shruti is the District Manager, Scott is the District Loss Prevention Supervisor, and Donna is the District SIMS Training Supervisor. I was on maternity leave from 4/2/08 until 6/19/08. Also, since the following statement I have been harassed by an employee still working in the store (she actually threatened my boyfriend telling him "you're going to get your F#@$ing head blown off"), have been called "a low life" by an EXA who knows nothing about me, and have had my work history tarnished. Let me clarify something right now. I did not steal anything. I did not kill anybody or cause any other type of harm to anybody, and I did not break any policy or law. I was an assistant manager for 2 years. I am not the only woman in my district to be discriminated against.

Shruti threatened to take away my position when I was on maternity leave for not handing in paper work that she decided was due sometime after I left. Shruti called me on 9/19 around 5pm to say "I'm going to tell you the same thing we told Lindsay & Depre. We can't be discussing things that go on." I told her that I knew I couldn't. She then said "Unfortunately we work for Walgreens, and that's just how it is. I want to remind you that you are a member of management." Her words sounded more like a threat. I again told her that I knew. Shruti then said "We can't be discussing things that go on. So I need you to stop." I was shocked. I had no idea why she was accusing me of anything. I told her "I haven't been" and Shruti said "I know you are close with Roxanne. I'm not saying you can't talk to her. You can talk to her as much as you want. You can talk to whoever you want. If you want to talk to Roxanne, I can't stop you. We just can't discuss anything with ANY employee." I told her that I knew once again. She said "You know, I'm trying to help you guys out here. Is there anything you need to say?" I told her no. Finally the conversation ended.

On Thursday 9/18, I went into the Washington Township Store to pick a few things up. Joe Depre (an assistant manager) walked up to me and said "So it appears that Deneen and Murray are no longer with us." I said "What? I hope not. I can't understand why. I know Murray can be tough sometimes, but nothing that would deserve something that extreme happening to her." He replied with "Yeah, I know what you mean. It doesn't make sense." On Saturday 9/20, Joe Depre came in on his day off to gossip about who the new EXA would be. He was whispering with Lindsay between aisles 5 & 6, when I walked up into the middle of it. Joe said "Now this is priveleged information because my brother works in the store, but we're getting Nicole" Lindsay then started shaking her head saying "Ok, Ok, Nicole. Yeah, she's good. That's good." I had told Lindsay that my back was hurting really bad. She kept following me around like she was watching me. She started trying to check up on my work from the night before. Lindsay, although she is an assistant manager, she's still just an intern. She is below me. She wasn't just making conversation, she was inspecting me. Lindsay has never been involved with unloading truck, and has never cared about what did or didn't get done the night before. Before the truck came, Chris Roberts had showed up early. I told him he could come help me in aisle 8 with a reset, and put things on the risers for me. When I came in that morning, I counted the safe, and I had the keys for the shift. That means what I says goes, goes first. Lindsay was just for back up. As soon as Lindsay saw Chris, she grabbed his arm, and said "Here, Chris, I need you to do this." I said "I already have something for Chris to do." "Well, he needs to do this first.", was her response. I was livid. The rules are, I was running shift, she is beneath me, and I gave him an instruction first. You are not to go over another manager's head, or try over-riding what another manager had said. While we were unloading truck, Lindsay kept coming into the stockroom. She wouldn't stop trying to interfere, and complaining to the boys that it wasn't getting done right. After truck was finished unloading, Lindsay had the nerve to complain about me to the staff. She said that I was moving too slow. I had already told her that my back hurt so bad, that I was having trouble even walking. She put me down in front of staff, and if they hadn't known me better, it would have done nothing but teach them not to respect me. Monday, 9/22, I learned I was being transfered. I asked if there was something we could do, and the John Fredericks said "Well, you can't stay in that store." I said "I figured that much." He asked me where I could go, and I told him I wasn't sure because I need to get my one daughter off to school in the morning, and I have to take the other one to the babysitter, who was very close to the Washington Township store.

I couldn't take it anymore. I went outside and dialed the Fraud Hotline from my cell phone. I told them that I felt as is I was being retaliated against because I have a close relationship with Roxanne.
A little while later, Shruti called the store to "see if you guys are ok." I told her that we were fine, and that we were working on resets. Shruti never calls to check on anybody. She's not a people person, and could honestly care less. I knew that she was really going to end up coming into the store, especially since she asked if me and Tony had switched, and what time would I be leaving.
Just as I expected, Shruti and Scott came waltzing in around 2:15pm. They asked to talk to me in the office, and I agreed. Scott said "Now, you're a mama, too. So, I want you to think about this question carefully before you answer it." We were not discussing children at all. He had no right to say anything referring to my kids. I took that as a threat. He asked if I thought it would be right for someone to want to write a statement for somebody. I said, that it depended on the person. He asked if I had been collecting statements for Roxanne, and I told him no. I told Scott and Shruti that people had been coming to me asking what was going on. I told them that I would then try brushing those people off with a bunch of "I don't know" answers. I told Scott and Shruti that those people would then ask me if they should write something for her, and that I told them to do what they want, and that I didn't know anything. I told them about Depre's couple of talks, and they said they would look into it. Scott made me write a statement. After I was done, Scott and Shruti went out of the room for probably 30 seconds. Shruti came in and said that I was suspended for 3 days. I asked what for, and she said for discussing things and not listening to her. I told them I hadn't been, but got up and left. Shruti was supposed to call me on Thursday 9/25. I called her at 8:50 in the morning because I had to give her a different phone number to call in order to get in touch with me. I left a message with Kathy, who emailed Shruti everything I said. Shruti's emails go to her cell phone, and since she was out of the office, it made sense for Kathy to send her the email with my number so that she would be able to contact me. I called back before 1pm, no answer. I called back around 3, no answer. I called back a few minutes later, and finally Kathy answered again. She told me that Shruti had come back to the office, but was with somebody. Shruti called me back about an hour or two later. She asked if I would be around any Walgreens the next day, and I told her yes, the Mount Ephraim one. She told me that she was waiting to hear back from Employee Relations because it was an on going investigation, and that she wasn't sure when I could go back to work, but that she did want to talk with me. I agreed. I told her that I had gotten a call from somebody saying that Lindsay had sat them down in the office and said "I know there's this whole 'Team Whitty' thing." Shruti asked who she pulled in the office, and I refused to tell her, but told her that Lindsay would know who she talked to. She told me she was going to call Employee Relations again, and then call me back. I didn't hear from her until 9:30am the next day. That day was 9/26 (Friday), Shruti left a message asking if I could come in around 10 or 10:30am. I called her back and let her know that I had to drop my daughter off, and it would take me about an hour to get there. Donna, Scott, and Shruti were all at the store. Scott refused to let my fiance` into the room with me. I told him that I didn't feel comfortable, and wanted my own witness. He told me that I had to pick somebody within the company. I responded with "but I thought I'm not allowed to discuss anything in front of other employees." He said it had to be somebody in the company that was unbiased. I picked Joe Truxon, just because he was the store manager. I felt like I was ganged up on while we were in the training room. I had to explain to Joe Truxon what we were talking about, just so that he knew what was going on, because Scott told me to. Shruti asked if I had anything I wanted to add from the other day. I told her no. Shruti them told me that I lied, and lying to the DM is a terminatable offense. I told her that I did not lie, and that I told them people came to me. Shruti started to shake her head in agreance with me, but then Scott started laughing and saying "This is the first I'm hearing about this!" I said "Really? Because I said it directly to you." He then said "Well you didn't write it in your statement." I couldn't remember everything I wrote in my statement. It might say Voluntary Statement at the top of the page, but it wasn't voluntary what so ever. He even tried coaching me about what to say. I told Scott "Well, I know I wrote a bunch of other stuff in my statement." He said "Yeah, but this is the first time I'm hearing about this." I said "Oh, Ok. Well, you were there." After this, I made arrangements to go to my store, and clean out my locker & drop off keys. I left the Mount Ephraim store and headed straight there. When I got there, Peg Stanton (who I had in fact written a statement against about 2 years prior) was there. She watched me as I emptied my locker, like I was a criminal. I told her that I had something in the break room, but she didn't follow me. On our way to the door, I asked Stanton if she would check my bag. She said "Oh, yeah. Here lets make sure we're right in front of the camera, and I'll blow my kisses to Scott (she then blew a kiss at the camera) just like I used to." I left. I went home and was looking at the policies, and realized that I was supposed to be paid out immediately according to Walgreens policy. I had been talking back and forth with Marvin at Employee Relations, and asked him about it. He said that he would call Shruti and tell her to take care of it. Marvin called me back and said that I could "call the store in a few minutes and see if Peg Stanton the store manager" was still there, but that she would also be in the next day. He told me that Shruti was calling the store and having them do my pay out. I waited about 15 minutes. When I called the store, no call had come through yet. I waited a few more minutes, and called back. Kelly got on the phone and said that Shruti hadn't called, but that Stanton would be in the next morning. I said I'd try again tomorrow. I called around 3 pm the next day because I was very busy until then. Kelly said that I should call back in 20 minutes because Kate had gone to get coffee and she didn't know if Shruti had talked to Kate about it. When I called back she said that Shruti had still not called. I asked her to get in touch with Shruti and she said "Why do I have to do it? It's your pay." I told her I didn't have Shruti's phone number, and she said "well, Shruti doesn't work on the weekends anyway. Wouldn't she have told something like that to the store manager or the exa?" I said "I dont know. Maybe" Kelly said "Well, I told you to call in the morning, so I don't know what to tell you." I told Kelly "Well, I had stuff to do." Kelly said "Well, I don't know what to tell you. Call back Monday." I said "whatever", she said "bye", and I hung up. Honestly, it should have been taken care of at 11am the morning before. Also, when Kelly said that Stanton was going to be in in the morning, I didn't know it meant just for the morning. I thought they were going to work a shift, since it was truck day. Also, I was never given a time. What if I had called at 9am but they were only there until 8:45am? I told my fiance` about what had just happened with Kelly, and he said that he had Shruti's phone number still. I called her immediately. She didn't answer. I left her a message. I said "Shruti this is Heather. Marvin said you were going to call Washington Township about my payout, but everytime I call, nobody knows anything about it." I waited a little while, and then called the Fraud Hotline again. A week went by before I was finally given the ridiculous reason that since I have direct deposit, I can not be paid out. I have done plenty of pay outs as an assistant and know that direct deposit is not an issue. When my check was deposited (2 weeks after I was fired) it was 2 hours short.