If you guys have some time to read this, could you let me know your thoughts? Am I being unreasonable here?
The background:
I'm a newly graduated pharmacist. I've interned for the company for 3 years and know the job, but this is my first time having to manage people and I'm having an issue.
I'm a float. I go to any store in the district that has a hole in their schedule, but I do have a "home" store where I work every third weekend and 1-2 evenings a week. The technician I'm struggling with is a part-timer at my "home" store.
As a floating pharmacist I am essentially a shift lead; I work with 1-3 techs at a time. I get the final say on any work-related decision during my shift.
When the techs type a new prescription into the computer, I double check it for accuracy and send it back to them to fix if they do something wrong. (when we send something back to be changed we call it "declining.") It could be a major mistake, if they picked the wrong drug. Or it could be a minor mistake; when doctors put instructions on scripts they use all sorts of medical jargon and shorthand, and we have to translate it into patient friendly language. Sometimes the pharmacist doesn't think the tech's interpretation is quite clear enough, so we send it back to them to reword it.
With that said, I have no disciplinary powers. I suppose I could send someone home for the day, but that's about it. Only the pharmacist-in-charge (PIC) has full-on managerial powers. (Each pharmacy has 1 officially designated PIC).
The problem:
In summary:
There is a technician that I work with (call her Jane) that has anxiety. She gets anxious when customers are unhappy with her or our workflow is backlogged. She bottles it up until she explodes on her coworkers (usuallly the pharmacist) when spoken to. I asked her to just communicate with me before she reaches the boiling point and I'll help her out; I've got her back. she says she won't talk to me, I'm just suppoed to see for myself that she's having a bad day and not talk to her (I'm apparently a bad leader if I can't "handle" her without speaking), and the reason she doesn't want to talk to me in particular is because I decline more of the prescriptions she types in, which makes her to anxious to talk to me in particular.
In detail:
I started working at my current home store (and with the problem tech, call her Jane) about 2-3 months ago. Jane has been with the company for 5 years. Everything was fine, I've never had any problems with anyone in the 3 years I've been with the company.
One day she was helping a customer and couldn't get their insurance to pay for their prescription, so the price was too high. She got frustrated and walked away. I fixed the problem in about 20 seconds and asked her to come back so I could show her for next time. She said no. I was surprised, so I asked again, and she again said no. I gave her 5 minutes to calm down, and as she happened to come by my station I just verbally told her how I did it. She got visibily upset, yelled at me, and told me she didn't want to talk about the situation. I told her something like "it's okay" in the way you do when you're trying to calm someone down, and she told me if I didn't stop talking to her she would ask to not be scheduled with me anymore. (I have no clue if the PIC is able or willing to honor a request like that.) She went to our little pharmacy break area, cried for a little bit, and calmed down. The other techs told me that she is well-known for blowing up on pharmacists (both floats and the 2 full timers assigned to the store) and that it's not just me.
I texted the PIC about it. PIC apologised profusely and said Jane has anxiety issues, and acknoledged that it doesn't make it right. I let things go and moved on.
A couple weeks later I walked in on a Thursday afternoon for my shift. Jane was already there, and the moment she saw me she started telling the other techs that she wasn't sure she would show up to work that Saturday because she was scheduled to work with me and it wasn't good for her mental health. (I didn't leave anything out here, the previous interaction was the only negative interaction we'd had.) I was confused and it was a busy day, so I didn't say anything and just got to work. A couple hours later, we were all very busy with a rush, and 1 tech was on his lunch break trying to eat in peace. Jane walked back by him and was talking to him (he was not participating). I heard her say "She [me] makes me sick" and mutter some other things I couldn't make out. A few minutes later the drive through dings, the rest of us are still busy or on lunch and Jane is just standing around back there shit-talking me, so I say, "Jane, there's someone in the drive through." She says, "So?" and I said, "Could you get it please?" and she yelled, "No, I'm trying not to freak out on customers." So I got drive.
Texted the PIC again. Same response as before, but she offtered to talk to Jane about it.
Saturday rolls around. I'm scheduled with 3 techs, including Jane. 1 tech is on time, Jane is 10 minutes late, other tech is 15 minutes late. Jane apologizes to the puntual tech but doesn't say a word to me. She says hi to the tech that walks in after her but doesn't say a word to me. She picks the work station farthest from me, the one we usually never ever used except in rare cases when we are overstaffed. I asked her how she's doing, she mutters something I can't hear, and the other tech next to her says, "she's fine."
At this point all I know is that multiple times now she has either blown up on me and refused my requests as shift lead multiple times now for no reason, and given me attitude the moment she saw me for no reason. I told her she needs to act like an adult and communicate with me. If she's having a bad day and needs to take 5 minutes to herself that's fine, I've got her back, but she needs to let me know instead of bottling it up inside until she snaps.
She told me that I'm a bad leader because I'm not handling her propery, cried in the bathroom for 5 minutes, and then was perfectly nice to me for the rest of the day.
The others were scheduled to leave before her, so we worked the last hour along. I asked her if we could talk, and we had this final conversation without yelling. (All the previous negative interactions involved her yelling at me).
I essentially reiterated that I just wanted her to communicate and let me know politely that she needs a break BEFORE she explodes on someone. This is really all I want.
She told me that she was not going to communicate with me because I decline more of the prescriptions she types in (in otherwords, I send more of them back to her to be fixed or changed in some way) than the other pharmacists do, and since I decline more I personally make her too nervous and she is not comfortable working with me or talking with me at all about anything. She reiterates that I am a bad leader for not being able to "handle" her without speaking to her. She says she's trying to not hold it against me because I'm new to managing people, but she just really doesn't think she can work with me.
I haven't looked at any stats, I don't know if I decline more than the other pharmacists do. The company does track how often the techs have to fix what they entered, but techs are NOT disciplined or rewarded based on these stats. It's just FYI info. And even if I do send more back, it's my right because it's my pharmacist license on the line. If I approve the way she typed the directions for the prescription, and the directions end up being either unclear or flat out incorrect and the patient is harmed, it's my license on the line. Not hers.
I think I can safely say that most pharmacists would find it absurd that she is upset with me over how often I make her retype instructions. But I still just want some opinions on the whole thing.
Warming, with Sleet and Heavy Icing
