Spiffy Works Extra, Gets Paid Less

Last night should have been great. It wasn't. It started off pretty busy for a Thursday night, with about five people coming in all at once with urgent (!) scripts for 15 Vicodin. All from the same facility and doctor since it's 11:30 on the Thursday evening. How they all get out of the ER at the same time I don't know. They must discharge them in droves, like cattle. I can see it now: The triage nurse releases the hordes with their $500 bills and scripts for 15 little pain pills. She cries,

'To Corpopharm! It lies 5 blocks south of here. Make haste, you heathen whelps!'

One of the patients had an exception and needed Xopenex, which is albuterol but fancier and, consequently, not covered by her insurance. My tech was good enough to call the doctor to see if we could switch it to generic albuterol, which would be covered. The doctor replied that albuterol would not cut it and that the patient needed Duoneb, which is albuterol... plus another ingredient. WTF?!? I was tempted to get on the phone and ask doctor if he knew what the hell he was prescribing, but decided to get to work on the 4 other people that were growing restless and mugging me from the waiting area.

I finally got everybody taken care of and out the door by about 1 AM. The faithful Corpopharm herd gets paid on Thursday evening, so I got on my phone to check my direct deposit. I was really curious to see this paycheck because it covered the last 2 weeks of overnights that I worked. 14 days straight, tons of hours. This means it should have been BIG. It wasn't. It was about the same as most of my paychecks. I stopped at my normal pharmacy on my way home to get the pay stub to start the dispute. The pay stub was not there either. Cut to Corpopharm boardroom at corporate headquarters.

VP: Uh, sir? We've got this issue with one of the pharmacists in the field. He's pulling some major hours and really helping us out of a jam. We need you to approve his pay differential. You know, keep the guy happy.
CEO: Hmmmm....
VP: Sir?
CEO: What if we... don't?
VP: Sir? Don't what?
CEO: Give him the money. What then?
VP: But Sir, we can't...
CEO: Can't!?! I'm the CEO, I can do what I want!
VP: But Sir, he's got the pay stub and of course he'll...
CEO: Pay stub? (CEO pulls Spiffy's pay stub from the inner pocket of his suit. He produces a lighter and puts flame to the paper, instantly igniting it.) What pay stub?
VP: Ah! I see...
CEO: Let him take this up with HR. They're a third party located in Manila. They don't care anyway!
VP: HA! I don't even know where Manila is!
CEO: MWWAAAAAAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!