South Star drug as one of the leading drugstores in the Philippines seems promising. Their demands for employees are never satisfied. SSD branches continue to spread all over the country, but there is a secret.

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South Star drug is one of the most popular drugstores in the Philippines. Its chain grows each year, reaching very province and every city. They stand by their slogan “Mapagkakatiwalaang tunay” meaning, most trusted.

Besides providing the best medicine money can buy, SSD or South Star drug also prioritize in customer satisfaction. Like any other business, they value their customers’ needs and interests.

South star drug stability and popularity can be very attractive. You may be interested for applying for a job. But let me rephrase an important statement above, “They value every customer’s needs and interests”.

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Applying for a job is money and time consuming. Before leaving any bio-data or other credentials to any SSD branch, feel free to check out the following:

Application Standards

If you are already married or single but over thirty years old and you are applying as a pharmacy aid forget it. They will only hire you if you are a registered pharmacist.

There are three sets of examinations: English, Math and Logic. If they do not like you and if you are not a pharmacist, they may flunk you. They do not show the test results as a policy, so you will never know if you really failed the test.

Getting through the series of examinations, you will be required to submit more documents that would mean more investment of time and money. You will be interviewed and oriented as a final step of your employment. Of course, there will be handsome promises of compensations. Trust me, you will find yourself grinning with these.

Harsh Policies

You may expect strict rules and regulations from an established institution like South Star Drug. How can a business flourish if it would have some friendly policies? I’ve listed some grounds considering unacceptable habits within the drugstore.

  • Tardiness

A total of fifteen minutes late within a fifteen working days will result into a memo. If the employee commits the same offence he will be suspended from work.

  • Absences

Emergency absences should be notified to the office within one hour before the employee’s job schedule. An unexcused absence will cost a memo from the management.

  • Short/ Over

This applies to the cashier. Any money lacking or excess shall be paid by the person in charge of the cash register. While a ‘short’ would mean that he had been careless in giving change, an ‘over’ would mean that he didn’t register an item that had been sold.

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  • Customer service

You must always present that wholesome face of yours. You are obliged to greet the customer good morning or good evening all over again, one customer to the next. When you receive a payment, you must speak its value to the customer. You must always be friendly if not; you can be reported to the management for being direct. Any noncompliance with these will mean memos and worst, suspension.

More?

  • The founders of SSD are Bicolanos. There’s a main office in Manila, but the mother base is in Naga city.
  • SSD has many bosses. Get use to the addresses ‘ma’am’ and ‘sir’.
  • They tend to give seminars from time to time usually in the main offices. There’s a transportation allowance but you’ll have to pay for your food.
  • All employees are on probation and will be observed by the OIC.
  • Missing and expired medicine will be paid by the drugstore employees.
  • There’s the usual monthly inventory, weekly orders and deliveries. But did I mention that the number of employees in a drugstore depends on its sale? If a store’s income is above fifty thousand, it is entitled for five people including the OIC. The drugstore operates for seven days a week and each employee has a day off. This means that if one employee is off, the four remaining employee will take turns in running the drugstore. A bit short to handle customers, don’t you think? The four employees will end up in partners- a cashier and a pharmacy aid. Imagine doing the order, inventory and receiving the delivery while attending to the customers with only two staffs.

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  • Freebies and promos for the customers mean more paperwork and obligations.
  • Medicine incentives are good news for drugstore employees.
  • They give additional pay for holidays and they do not close during Christmas and Lenten season.
  • They give Christmas parties and outings. Trust me, you won’t enjoy them.
  • Product prices are monitored through the Net. They don’t tag prices for reasons that product costs tend to change each day.
  • Most SSD drugstores do not have generators for brown outs.
  • Although sales reports and other statements are delivered through the Net, hard copies are shifted trough weekly deliveries.
  • There’s always a re-shuffle.  Any drugstore staff is obliged to transfer from one drugstore to another.
  • You may discover that promotions in SSD are very fast. For starter you are only a merchandiser then you are going to be a merchandiser-pharmacy aide then merchandiser-PA-manager. Pharmacists are the most pitiful. When they get promoted, they become the pharmacist- manager-janitor. If you are a pharmacist, please… do not take the promotion. They can be very persuasive but say NO. But if you would want to live in your assigned drugstore, take the job.

FINAL WORDS

Working for SSD can be dismaying. This is the main reason why employees don’t last long. The management doesn’t care much for their drugstore staffs.

As a consolation, SSD offers the best training back ground for any employee. If you would want a stressful yet challenging job, do go on with your application with South Star drug. The best of luck my friend.