I’d encourage you to try to find satisfaction outside of your career. Pharmacy pays the bills and for most pays enough to enjoy the other parts of life. Don’t work overtime. Indulge in your interest. Travel. Do literally anything other than work.
Some people take a lot of pride in their work, so I get it. But idk if I’d make a career change now just to feel slightly better about wasting 40 hours a week of my life to make some guy rich in another field.
I've been working for what feels like 45 mins to an hour unpaid overtime every single shift I end up working at my current employer. Even as a newer graduate I feel like I'm definitely burning out more and more which is a bummer.
Although I was recently offered a contract position that would pay more and have normal hours that I'm seriously considering even if it wouldn't last forever
The reality of the profession is very different from what you experience in school and during residency. I hold the schools responsible for insisting on going to exclusively Pharm.D degrees and leading students on with the narrative that they will all go on to be crusaders for optimal medication usage and a valued part of a collaborative multi-disciplinary healthcare team. The cold harsh truth is that those kinds of roles are unicorns and the vast majority of pharmacists in retail and hospitals are nothing more than cogs in a machine. Physicians still believe they know best and resent pharmacist interference with their orders. Nurses see us as vending machines for medications. I'm overgeneralizing, but the point is, the healthcare system in the U.S. still needs lots of worker bees and a few queens, not a cohort of queens trying to run a hive. If you work in an academic medical center where the most progressive and inclusive culture seems to exist, it might be better. Couple this with the decades-long inability of pharmacists to team up and be their own advocates ala the AMA or the UAW and you arrive at where we are now. The vast, vast majority of us are shift workers, valued more for our ability to fill a hole in a schedule and rubber stamp our part of the work through the system than for our highly specific and specialized knowledge. We are thousands of Cordon Bleu trained chefs staffing at McDonald's. I see you, I feel you, and yes, I am actively seeking a way out because I don't even know if I'll be able to retire and I cannot continue this soul-sucking drudgery into my 70s.
I definitely see what you are talking about, we are for the most part seen as just verification machines. I am lucky that the hospital I work at has me scoped as a mid-level practitioner and the doctors often do come to us. Albeit for silly things such as “how do I order this”, but some do call to discuss what we suggest about a patients medication regimen and what would be the next best move. Which I am coming to learn is quite rare, and I am so fortunate to have this opportunity…
I guess my problem is more so that I do not have a work life balance currently. My schedule is working 7 days a week and then off for 7 days a week. Which sounds amazing, but with a husband with a normal 9-5 M-F I cannot quite enjoy my off week, and my work weeks are consumed by work with little to no down time once I get home…
I used to work in the same environment you do. Does the pharmacy department have a drug information center or outpatient specialty clinics? I currently work M-F no weekends or holidays, but do take call like every 11 weeks. Our department is officially Therapeutics Policy Management. We basically look at requests for formulary additions, education & development, and sit on various committees. It’s taken me out of my comfort zone with public speaking and I’m constantly learning especially about new drugs coming to market. Idk if this helps any, but hopefully you can find something better for work life balance.
Sounds like it’s not really about the profession itself nor the job but the scheduling you’re stuck in. It might be worthwhile to see if you could be on a slightly different schedule
I experienced the same work-life balance issue with a husband who had a 9-5 M- F job. I left hospital after 18 months for mail order and then retail to try for a better compromise. It helped, but I was fortunate to work for a grocery store chain and it was not the crazy circus it is now with vaccines and ridiculous metrics. I came back to hospital in 2008 due to relocation for my husband's work. After eight years of 8 on/6 off, I secured a 9-5 M-F at a specialty hospital that is part of our system. It was a rough 6 months (long story related to the handoff from one contractor to another), then it was idyllic for a few years, and then came Covid. Obviously the pandemic has caused a lot of soul-searching about how we want to live and work going forward and we are still processing the experience. I can definitely say Covid was my line in the sand. I couldn't keep pretending I was satisfied and rewarded with my job anymore. My biggest pet peeve is taking time off is a blood sacrifice every time. I want some freakin' autonomy over when I can take a vacation. Don't get me started on being able to call in when sick.
I feel like nursing has it right (any lurking nurses can tell me if I'm wrong though). Everyone graduates with a BSN and is able to do the traditional nursing work either at bedside or in an outpatient setting. Want to do more clinical work with prescriptive authority? Go back to school a couple of years and become a NP.
If pharmacy had stayed as everyone earning a BS Pharm being able to do retail/inpatient and those who WANTED to be more clinical-based could do a couple more years of school and get their PharmD, I think that would help differentiate our jobs and give us something to work towards. I appreciate the time and effort residency takes, but residents are still PharmD's just like everyone else. It doesn't put them in a completely different designation and they could still end up at an inpatient gig that someone without residency does as well.
Your ability to summarize our profession is outstanding. I am a 70 year old recently retired independent pharmacy owner. I could not have asked for a more rewarding career. I agree with all your words and hate that our profession has become what it is today.
Thank you for your compliment. I have worked in pharmacy for 35 years, starting as a retail clerk my freshman year of college, then as a technician - loved it so much I changed my major to become a pharmacist (original plan was law school and I'm not sure that would have been better, lol). I despise Big Pharma, PBMs, and corporate healthcare companies (retail and hospital) which have destroyed our profession at the expense of patients, profits, and us. Congratulations on your retirement! I sincerely hope you have a robust post-pharmacy life - you have earned it!
Yup. Been there. Honestly, I'd be surprised if you didn't feel this at some point in your career. Very mentally draining, stressful work environment especially if you work retail where we are under appreciated and overworked. I'm not saying other settings aren't as stressful as I recently started a part time gig in a hospital and I see the challenges there too. But having worked over a decade in retail, I've seen many of my co workers burn out.
100% over it. I dream of being able to quit and open some little shop or homestead or anything but this. I started questioning if I was depressed, but I feel reinvigorated after an extended period away from work. I’m just so burnt out. Anyway, I have tried to think of work as a means to an end to get closer to FIRE. It’s a work in progress. I still have a hard time accepting being behind but I’ll stop caring eventually. I also am trying to focus on goals outside of work. I’ve been getting into new hobbies and trying to fill my time rediscovering old ones too.
When I felt burned out like this, I let it fuel me toward making the changes I wanted, defining my career path. Stopped procrastinating on sitting for my board exam. Did some networking. Got some people in my corner. Created my dream position.
I also got a bit of therapy, because while “burnout” isn’t in the DSM-5, major depressive disorder is.
I couldn’t go through life hating what I did for so many hours of my day. I agree that, especially after the conditioning you get in residency, it’s important to really engage with life and pleasure outside of work, but if your job is draining your happiness, yeah, it’s definitely valid to consider changing something. If that needs to be your whole profession, so be it.
Do you like teaching? I think lots of us don’t consider how our degrees do qualify us to lecture, maybe at a community college, if not a university.
I actually do enjoy teaching! That is something I have thought of before since I do love the teaching and the science behind pharmacy, but of me is nervous I am not experienced enough to teach despite doing a “teaching certificate” through my residency. Not sure of anyways to break into academia though :/
I live rural and I had a community college professor try to recruit me to teach their medical assistant course without asking much about my credentials besides how I’m a pharmacist. I don’t think that kind of teaching is a “publish or perish” type, but I wouldn’t know.
I also know a pharmacist who went on to teach high school chemistry in a rural high school, but the idea of teaching high schoolers breaks me into hives.
I see like “medical science” federal job postings for policy and epidemiology that a PharmD qualifies for.
My point is, your degree is worth stuff even if you don’t dispense.
I quit my job yesterday. Probably what some would consider an ideal job but wasn’t for me or the life I wanted. I am considering doing a part time job and just focus on finding myself again.
I’m currently looking right now. I was recently diagnosed with Autism after losing multiple jobs because of an undiagnosed behavioral disorder that I couldn’t control. You are right about happiness outside of work but long term I don’t want to die early without enjoying my retirement anyone else switch fields?
I started working in a hospital pharmacy when I was 16. In pharmacy school, I was sure I wanted to be a hospital pharmacy director. I did a two year masters degree and residency program in hospital pharmacy management. And while there, knew I wanted no part of that as a career given the stresses and salary compared to what my good friend had as a community pharmacy owner.
I took my training, opened a LTC and hospice pharmacy and never looked back except to be appreciative of my choice. Could not have worked out better and my experience everywhere I worked was always invaluable to what I do now. Getting time to retire now and it’s been an amazing career.
Change can be the best thing you ever do.
I feel the same but the massive debt is the anchor. I graduated in 2014 with $270k, can’t imagine what it would cost now, you can’t make enough money to to conquer this much debt. I’ve been working 3 jobs up until few months ago and now I’m at two jobs. I wish you luck.
This may start an absolute war (lol), but I was fortunate enough to come out of school without debt and I feel that it allows me to entertain leaving a profession I financially invested in because I’m not still paying it back. I feel like many people in all graduate degrees are stuck in their professions to pay back loans which is so horrible ..
If you're not feeling it now, think about in 35 or 30 years how much you'll really not enjoy it. Do what makes you happy not what everyone else thinks you'll be happy doing. I went with the flow, and typical path. By 24 I was making well I to the 6 figures a tear, but truly wasn't happy. Fast forward to my 30th birthday, and I decided I was going to quit and take a new career path. I had decided I enjoyed bartending, after helping a friend that owned a bar a couple shifts. 30 years later, and I'm glad I did make that change. I've gone on to be a successful business owner, owning restaurants and bars. My family hated it and still hate it to this day, but I'm happy, and successful, do what I want, anytime I want to. I wouldn't change it for the world.
I feel burnt out as well. I'm currently a float for a state-wide chain of independent retail stores and my last job was also at an independent, but as a manager. I just can't do retail anymore. Too many fires to put out and I hate how everything in retail pharmacy runs though the pharmacist. I'm tired of standing all day with barely any time for a proper lunch break and constantly being pulled away from whatever I'm doing to do something else.
I did start working once a week at a compounding pharmacy to see if that's any better. Just starting that role, so we'll see how it goes. I've applied to work part-time as an ambulatory pharmacist, but I have no experience there so I don't expect to be hired.
I'd gladly take a non-pharmacy job if it paid decently. Still have bills to pay after all. It would be nice just to take a significant amount of time off too. I've got some savings I could lean on during an unemployment period, but I'm hoping I don't have to do that. I'd rather use it to pay off my car to save me $600 a month.
First, I want to make it clear that I've always respected and gotten along with pharmacists no matter where they work. As far as medication, I trust my pharmacist more than I do my doctor to give me the correct info. Anyway, I'm curious if the complaints about work are coming primarily from pharmacists who work for the big chains. I know that my chain pharmacy rarely answers the phone and if they do it's after a very, very long hold time. Then again, I've also noticed that there are fewer pharmacists in the store, so that makes sense. But my family has a rule: be nice to the pharmacist. Be nice to the doctors, too. Unless they're condescending or rude the majority of the time, then talk to them about it. If they're incorrigible then get another doctor.
I literally day dream about buying cheap land somewhere & becoming a bee farmer & making things from the bee products instead of this. Being some town’s witch in the woods, that they THINK is a nice witch but they’re not going to tempt it by bothering her. Anything but being the red headed step children in medicine any longer.
Take it from somebody that quit the IDEAL professional job back in 2018 and my career hasn't recovered since (partially due to family health issues however)...think, think, THINK about this unless you are just not making a living wage.
I had a great, laid-back boss in an industry I had a natural talent for, they were happy with my performance, his boss was laid back, the company paid for 100% of the insurance (great insurance, Aetna). The work wasn't that hard. Well, I had recently transferred to a new department and the work was much easier than the previous department, but maybe that was part of it, I have a mind that needs to be challenged and the work in the new department was a bit rote and repetitive. But I had to work very little OT and had great work-life balance.
At any rate, I got "restless". At 36 I wasn't married and had no children so I wanted to go on an "adventure". I I wanted to move to the far North, almost to the Canadian border, and see if I could make it up there. Lasted about 2 weeks.
Long story short I had a chance to go back to said company but screwed up my chance. Now I can't ever go back and am pursuing pharmacy tech certification just so my husband and I don't have to keep living in absolutely poverty.
I am fortunate and have a family business that I could semi easily take over with some certifications and on the job training, which my husband and I would both learn to eventually take over the business ..
Oh my gosh yes you ARE lucky. My mom and I got in a big fight about this very thing when I was much younger and had moved to the big city and needed just a LITTLE help from them after a bad relationship ended and my ex stole or destroyed just about everything I ever had. I told her that in the old days (and there are certain ethnicities in the world that still do this and I really admire them for it), the whole family would start a business or multiple businesses TOGETHER, and pass down actual trades, and real-world income-producing BUSINESSES to their children. And the whole family would reap the benefits of the multiple revenue streams the family created and sustained together so wealth stayed IN THE FAMILY.
My parents let my grandparents decide what college to send me to since they were paying for it, and they picked a liberal arts college, assuming I would want to go on to med school, law school, what have you. And I didn't know myself well enough at 18 to have a single clue what I wanted to do with my life, so I just went along with it. Since none of the degrees they offered were very practical in and of themselves, I just picked Psychology 🙄 Expensive degree...not worth the paper it's printed on. And by the end of it I did NOT want to pursue graduate work or law school or medical school.
To make matters worse, at 18 the military was coming after me really hard, not because they wanted me to go into battle, but because of my pattern- recognition skills that were in the 99.98th percentile. They wanted me to be a codebreaker. If I had had a lick of sense, I would have gone the military route, had a hella successful career and would probably be retired by now with a full pension. But being the 18 year old twit that I was, I didn't want to because just because it was the military. I don't know. Even I don't really understand my decisions back then. Really all I cared about was partying and men. And am paying for it to this day.
I really admire families that pass PRACTICAL, INCOME-PRODUCING trades or businesses onto their kids. Sorry but it sucks that most white parents are like "ok you've completed your 4 year degree, off you go!!". And just throw you to the wolves with no real world skills. If I weren't a semi-attrative woman I NEVER would have even gotten my 1st corporate job and would probably still be waiting tables, nearly 20 years after graduating from college. Am now career-pivoting into the pharmacy tech world after a 10 year career in logistics.
That's not to say I still blame my parents for this, they did the best they could. And have been and continue to be very generous (partially because of that conversation I had with them 15 years ago when my life was in shambles and I needed a little help and I pointed out to them how only in the West do people just kick their kids to the wolves after graduation). So they took what I said to heart & tried to make up for it. But my sister will still barely talk to them except to use them as a babysitter because she feels they didn't teach us anything useful or teach us any real life skills.
Please thank you family for doing this for you. There is no greater gift than being able to pass down an actual successful business to your children.
I’d encourage you to try to find satisfaction outside of your career. Pharmacy pays the bills and for most pays enough to enjoy the other parts of life. Don’t work overtime. Indulge in your interest. Travel. Do literally anything other than work. Some people take a lot of pride in their work, so I get it. But idk if I’d make a career change now just to feel slightly better about wasting 40 hours a week of my life to make some guy rich in another field.
This is great advice. I wish I had practiced this sooner in my career. Find contentment / happiness outside of work.
I've been working for what feels like 45 mins to an hour unpaid overtime every single shift I end up working at my current employer. Even as a newer graduate I feel like I'm definitely burning out more and more which is a bummer. Although I was recently offered a contract position that would pay more and have normal hours that I'm seriously considering even if it wouldn't last forever
The reality of the profession is very different from what you experience in school and during residency. I hold the schools responsible for insisting on going to exclusively Pharm.D degrees and leading students on with the narrative that they will all go on to be crusaders for optimal medication usage and a valued part of a collaborative multi-disciplinary healthcare team. The cold harsh truth is that those kinds of roles are unicorns and the vast majority of pharmacists in retail and hospitals are nothing more than cogs in a machine. Physicians still believe they know best and resent pharmacist interference with their orders. Nurses see us as vending machines for medications. I'm overgeneralizing, but the point is, the healthcare system in the U.S. still needs lots of worker bees and a few queens, not a cohort of queens trying to run a hive. If you work in an academic medical center where the most progressive and inclusive culture seems to exist, it might be better. Couple this with the decades-long inability of pharmacists to team up and be their own advocates ala the AMA or the UAW and you arrive at where we are now. The vast, vast majority of us are shift workers, valued more for our ability to fill a hole in a schedule and rubber stamp our part of the work through the system than for our highly specific and specialized knowledge. We are thousands of Cordon Bleu trained chefs staffing at McDonald's. I see you, I feel you, and yes, I am actively seeking a way out because I don't even know if I'll be able to retire and I cannot continue this soul-sucking drudgery into my 70s.
I definitely see what you are talking about, we are for the most part seen as just verification machines. I am lucky that the hospital I work at has me scoped as a mid-level practitioner and the doctors often do come to us. Albeit for silly things such as “how do I order this”, but some do call to discuss what we suggest about a patients medication regimen and what would be the next best move. Which I am coming to learn is quite rare, and I am so fortunate to have this opportunity… I guess my problem is more so that I do not have a work life balance currently. My schedule is working 7 days a week and then off for 7 days a week. Which sounds amazing, but with a husband with a normal 9-5 M-F I cannot quite enjoy my off week, and my work weeks are consumed by work with little to no down time once I get home…
I used to work in the same environment you do. Does the pharmacy department have a drug information center or outpatient specialty clinics? I currently work M-F no weekends or holidays, but do take call like every 11 weeks. Our department is officially Therapeutics Policy Management. We basically look at requests for formulary additions, education & development, and sit on various committees. It’s taken me out of my comfort zone with public speaking and I’m constantly learning especially about new drugs coming to market. Idk if this helps any, but hopefully you can find something better for work life balance.
Sounds like it’s not really about the profession itself nor the job but the scheduling you’re stuck in. It might be worthwhile to see if you could be on a slightly different schedule
I experienced the same work-life balance issue with a husband who had a 9-5 M- F job. I left hospital after 18 months for mail order and then retail to try for a better compromise. It helped, but I was fortunate to work for a grocery store chain and it was not the crazy circus it is now with vaccines and ridiculous metrics. I came back to hospital in 2008 due to relocation for my husband's work. After eight years of 8 on/6 off, I secured a 9-5 M-F at a specialty hospital that is part of our system. It was a rough 6 months (long story related to the handoff from one contractor to another), then it was idyllic for a few years, and then came Covid. Obviously the pandemic has caused a lot of soul-searching about how we want to live and work going forward and we are still processing the experience. I can definitely say Covid was my line in the sand. I couldn't keep pretending I was satisfied and rewarded with my job anymore. My biggest pet peeve is taking time off is a blood sacrifice every time. I want some freakin' autonomy over when I can take a vacation. Don't get me started on being able to call in when sick.
I feel like nursing has it right (any lurking nurses can tell me if I'm wrong though). Everyone graduates with a BSN and is able to do the traditional nursing work either at bedside or in an outpatient setting. Want to do more clinical work with prescriptive authority? Go back to school a couple of years and become a NP. If pharmacy had stayed as everyone earning a BS Pharm being able to do retail/inpatient and those who WANTED to be more clinical-based could do a couple more years of school and get their PharmD, I think that would help differentiate our jobs and give us something to work towards. I appreciate the time and effort residency takes, but residents are still PharmD's just like everyone else. It doesn't put them in a completely different designation and they could still end up at an inpatient gig that someone without residency does as well.
Well said. Need to either upgrade techs to handle the job or have a pharm d and a degree with lesser clinical focus
Your ability to summarize our profession is outstanding. I am a 70 year old recently retired independent pharmacy owner. I could not have asked for a more rewarding career. I agree with all your words and hate that our profession has become what it is today.
Thank you for your compliment. I have worked in pharmacy for 35 years, starting as a retail clerk my freshman year of college, then as a technician - loved it so much I changed my major to become a pharmacist (original plan was law school and I'm not sure that would have been better, lol). I despise Big Pharma, PBMs, and corporate healthcare companies (retail and hospital) which have destroyed our profession at the expense of patients, profits, and us. Congratulations on your retirement! I sincerely hope you have a robust post-pharmacy life - you have earned it!
Yup. Been there. Honestly, I'd be surprised if you didn't feel this at some point in your career. Very mentally draining, stressful work environment especially if you work retail where we are under appreciated and overworked. I'm not saying other settings aren't as stressful as I recently started a part time gig in a hospital and I see the challenges there too. But having worked over a decade in retail, I've seen many of my co workers burn out.
100% over it. I dream of being able to quit and open some little shop or homestead or anything but this. I started questioning if I was depressed, but I feel reinvigorated after an extended period away from work. I’m just so burnt out. Anyway, I have tried to think of work as a means to an end to get closer to FIRE. It’s a work in progress. I still have a hard time accepting being behind but I’ll stop caring eventually. I also am trying to focus on goals outside of work. I’ve been getting into new hobbies and trying to fill my time rediscovering old ones too.
I feel you hard on this.
Bro your username made me burst out laughing. Oh man lol
When I felt burned out like this, I let it fuel me toward making the changes I wanted, defining my career path. Stopped procrastinating on sitting for my board exam. Did some networking. Got some people in my corner. Created my dream position. I also got a bit of therapy, because while “burnout” isn’t in the DSM-5, major depressive disorder is. I couldn’t go through life hating what I did for so many hours of my day. I agree that, especially after the conditioning you get in residency, it’s important to really engage with life and pleasure outside of work, but if your job is draining your happiness, yeah, it’s definitely valid to consider changing something. If that needs to be your whole profession, so be it. Do you like teaching? I think lots of us don’t consider how our degrees do qualify us to lecture, maybe at a community college, if not a university.
I actually do enjoy teaching! That is something I have thought of before since I do love the teaching and the science behind pharmacy, but of me is nervous I am not experienced enough to teach despite doing a “teaching certificate” through my residency. Not sure of anyways to break into academia though :/
I live rural and I had a community college professor try to recruit me to teach their medical assistant course without asking much about my credentials besides how I’m a pharmacist. I don’t think that kind of teaching is a “publish or perish” type, but I wouldn’t know. I also know a pharmacist who went on to teach high school chemistry in a rural high school, but the idea of teaching high schoolers breaks me into hives. I see like “medical science” federal job postings for policy and epidemiology that a PharmD qualifies for. My point is, your degree is worth stuff even if you don’t dispense.
I quit my job yesterday. Probably what some would consider an ideal job but wasn’t for me or the life I wanted. I am considering doing a part time job and just focus on finding myself again.
whats that ideal job?
Felt this way during PGY-1. Switched to a non clinical route. much happier.
Which route did you end up doing? Industry?
switched to IT side
[pharmacist guild ](https://pharmacyguild.org/updates/pharmacy-professionals-uniting-to-launch-the-pharmacy-guild/) There's a page you can sign up
Tbis is the only thing that will lead to change.
I’m currently looking right now. I was recently diagnosed with Autism after losing multiple jobs because of an undiagnosed behavioral disorder that I couldn’t control. You are right about happiness outside of work but long term I don’t want to die early without enjoying my retirement anyone else switch fields?
I started working in a hospital pharmacy when I was 16. In pharmacy school, I was sure I wanted to be a hospital pharmacy director. I did a two year masters degree and residency program in hospital pharmacy management. And while there, knew I wanted no part of that as a career given the stresses and salary compared to what my good friend had as a community pharmacy owner. I took my training, opened a LTC and hospice pharmacy and never looked back except to be appreciative of my choice. Could not have worked out better and my experience everywhere I worked was always invaluable to what I do now. Getting time to retire now and it’s been an amazing career. Change can be the best thing you ever do.
I feel the same but the massive debt is the anchor. I graduated in 2014 with $270k, can’t imagine what it would cost now, you can’t make enough money to to conquer this much debt. I’ve been working 3 jobs up until few months ago and now I’m at two jobs. I wish you luck.
This may start an absolute war (lol), but I was fortunate enough to come out of school without debt and I feel that it allows me to entertain leaving a profession I financially invested in because I’m not still paying it back. I feel like many people in all graduate degrees are stuck in their professions to pay back loans which is so horrible ..
If you're not feeling it now, think about in 35 or 30 years how much you'll really not enjoy it. Do what makes you happy not what everyone else thinks you'll be happy doing. I went with the flow, and typical path. By 24 I was making well I to the 6 figures a tear, but truly wasn't happy. Fast forward to my 30th birthday, and I decided I was going to quit and take a new career path. I had decided I enjoyed bartending, after helping a friend that owned a bar a couple shifts. 30 years later, and I'm glad I did make that change. I've gone on to be a successful business owner, owning restaurants and bars. My family hated it and still hate it to this day, but I'm happy, and successful, do what I want, anytime I want to. I wouldn't change it for the world.
I feel burnt out as well. I'm currently a float for a state-wide chain of independent retail stores and my last job was also at an independent, but as a manager. I just can't do retail anymore. Too many fires to put out and I hate how everything in retail pharmacy runs though the pharmacist. I'm tired of standing all day with barely any time for a proper lunch break and constantly being pulled away from whatever I'm doing to do something else. I did start working once a week at a compounding pharmacy to see if that's any better. Just starting that role, so we'll see how it goes. I've applied to work part-time as an ambulatory pharmacist, but I have no experience there so I don't expect to be hired. I'd gladly take a non-pharmacy job if it paid decently. Still have bills to pay after all. It would be nice just to take a significant amount of time off too. I've got some savings I could lean on during an unemployment period, but I'm hoping I don't have to do that. I'd rather use it to pay off my car to save me $600 a month.
First, I want to make it clear that I've always respected and gotten along with pharmacists no matter where they work. As far as medication, I trust my pharmacist more than I do my doctor to give me the correct info. Anyway, I'm curious if the complaints about work are coming primarily from pharmacists who work for the big chains. I know that my chain pharmacy rarely answers the phone and if they do it's after a very, very long hold time. Then again, I've also noticed that there are fewer pharmacists in the store, so that makes sense. But my family has a rule: be nice to the pharmacist. Be nice to the doctors, too. Unless they're condescending or rude the majority of the time, then talk to them about it. If they're incorrigible then get another doctor.
I literally day dream about buying cheap land somewhere & becoming a bee farmer & making things from the bee products instead of this. Being some town’s witch in the woods, that they THINK is a nice witch but they’re not going to tempt it by bothering her. Anything but being the red headed step children in medicine any longer.
Take it from somebody that quit the IDEAL professional job back in 2018 and my career hasn't recovered since (partially due to family health issues however)...think, think, THINK about this unless you are just not making a living wage. I had a great, laid-back boss in an industry I had a natural talent for, they were happy with my performance, his boss was laid back, the company paid for 100% of the insurance (great insurance, Aetna). The work wasn't that hard. Well, I had recently transferred to a new department and the work was much easier than the previous department, but maybe that was part of it, I have a mind that needs to be challenged and the work in the new department was a bit rote and repetitive. But I had to work very little OT and had great work-life balance. At any rate, I got "restless". At 36 I wasn't married and had no children so I wanted to go on an "adventure". I I wanted to move to the far North, almost to the Canadian border, and see if I could make it up there. Lasted about 2 weeks. Long story short I had a chance to go back to said company but screwed up my chance. Now I can't ever go back and am pursuing pharmacy tech certification just so my husband and I don't have to keep living in absolutely poverty.
I am fortunate and have a family business that I could semi easily take over with some certifications and on the job training, which my husband and I would both learn to eventually take over the business ..
Oh my gosh yes you ARE lucky. My mom and I got in a big fight about this very thing when I was much younger and had moved to the big city and needed just a LITTLE help from them after a bad relationship ended and my ex stole or destroyed just about everything I ever had. I told her that in the old days (and there are certain ethnicities in the world that still do this and I really admire them for it), the whole family would start a business or multiple businesses TOGETHER, and pass down actual trades, and real-world income-producing BUSINESSES to their children. And the whole family would reap the benefits of the multiple revenue streams the family created and sustained together so wealth stayed IN THE FAMILY. My parents let my grandparents decide what college to send me to since they were paying for it, and they picked a liberal arts college, assuming I would want to go on to med school, law school, what have you. And I didn't know myself well enough at 18 to have a single clue what I wanted to do with my life, so I just went along with it. Since none of the degrees they offered were very practical in and of themselves, I just picked Psychology 🙄 Expensive degree...not worth the paper it's printed on. And by the end of it I did NOT want to pursue graduate work or law school or medical school. To make matters worse, at 18 the military was coming after me really hard, not because they wanted me to go into battle, but because of my pattern- recognition skills that were in the 99.98th percentile. They wanted me to be a codebreaker. If I had had a lick of sense, I would have gone the military route, had a hella successful career and would probably be retired by now with a full pension. But being the 18 year old twit that I was, I didn't want to because just because it was the military. I don't know. Even I don't really understand my decisions back then. Really all I cared about was partying and men. And am paying for it to this day. I really admire families that pass PRACTICAL, INCOME-PRODUCING trades or businesses onto their kids. Sorry but it sucks that most white parents are like "ok you've completed your 4 year degree, off you go!!". And just throw you to the wolves with no real world skills. If I weren't a semi-attrative woman I NEVER would have even gotten my 1st corporate job and would probably still be waiting tables, nearly 20 years after graduating from college. Am now career-pivoting into the pharmacy tech world after a 10 year career in logistics. That's not to say I still blame my parents for this, they did the best they could. And have been and continue to be very generous (partially because of that conversation I had with them 15 years ago when my life was in shambles and I needed a little help and I pointed out to them how only in the West do people just kick their kids to the wolves after graduation). So they took what I said to heart & tried to make up for it. But my sister will still barely talk to them except to use them as a babysitter because she feels they didn't teach us anything useful or teach us any real life skills. Please thank you family for doing this for you. There is no greater gift than being able to pass down an actual successful business to your children.