Today was one of the worst inventory days ever. Like I wrote in my previous entries, inventory days are not fun because they happen on the first of each month regardless of how busy we are or what day of the week it is. Well, this month's inventory day happened to be a Wednesday, which is the worst day of the week in terms of workload. Since our lead time is currently negative (i.e. things getting done the last minute), none of the deliveries scheduled for today were done ahead of time. Not a lot of people had signed up for the inventory count, which means that the clean room and the warehouse got released to compound and to pick orders at 2:00pm. On top of that, at least 5 people that directly impact the workflow were either absent for the day or had left early. My boss was one of those people because he was missing in action after 4:00pm. Then the fun really started when the Murphy's effect took place. I was laughing hysterically when in the middle of the chaos we had realized that we run out of Liposyn III, and about 10 TPNs that need to be delivered today were left hanging (thank god we had enough of a more expensive brand in stock which is interchangeable). Yesterday, we realized that we run out of heparin and eclipse pumps (this is equivalent to something like Lipitor 10mg and Vicodin in the retail setting). The boss must have had a nervous breakdown because he was screaming on top of his lungs and terrorizing everyone, especially the inventory technician and the operations manager. When all of the HPRs left for the day, some delivery tickets had to be manually written by hand because none of the RPhs know how to enter them into the computer system. It was nice of the compounding techs to stay behind and to finish up all their work, since only one of our pharmacists is certified to compound. After having to attend 3 one hour conference calls, dealing with a very psychotic boss and few angry people during a very busy inventory day, I thought to myself that I really need to learn how to handle stress well. By some kind of weird coincidence, today I discovered a small book in the lunch room entitled "How to Handle Stress." It really made my day. Here are some excerpts for your entertainment: 1) Use your Mastercard to pay your Visa 2) When someone says, "Have a nice day", tell them you've made other plans. 3) Make a "Things to do list" of things you have already done. 4) Tape pictures of your boss to watermelons and launch them from high places. 5) Go shopping. Buy everything. Sweat in it. Return it the next day. 6) Write your next memo in Pig Latin. 7) Tell your boss to blow it out of his mule and let him figure it out.(sometimes I wish I could just strangle him with my bare hands because of his stupidity) 8) Read the dictionary upside down and look for secret messages. 9) Start a nasty rumor and see if you recognize it when it comes back to you. 10) Bill your doctor for the time you spend in his waiting room. 11) Drive to work in reverse. 12) Stare at people through the tines of a fork and pretend they are in jail. 13) Make up a language and ask people for directions. 14) Write a book entitled: Compulsive, Neurotic, Anti-social, Manic Depressive, Paranoid, but Basically Happy. Does anyone have any recommendations how to handle work-related stress, and specifically how to deal with a very paranoid and psychologically unstable Boss? | 
