Would you do the same job for 30 years?
If you asked me when I first started as a Pharmacist "How long will you be doing this for?" I would have said "until I retire". If you asked me after my first three months of working I would probably answer "I'll be lucky if I make it to the end of the week".
Dealing with customers is hard. Dealing with customers while handcuffed by law after law is harder. Then add in trying to keep everything straight, find drug interactions, provide proper patient care and never getting to eat or get a break. Well, it gets even tougher.
However, as I just renewed my license for another year it shows when I started working as a Pharmacist. 1995 . That means in a few short months I will have done the same profession for 30 years. My current job I started in Nov. 2009 which means I've spent half my pharmacy career in one pharmacy. That is a long long time.
Now there is one point that kind of irritates me. The pay. Of course if you ask 100 people all 100 people will complain about the pay. However I think I have a legitimate issue. In the last 15 years minimum wage has doubled. A person at the front register hired in 2009 making minimum wage would make 100% more in 2024. Have my wages gone up 100%? Not even close, they have gone up 8% which isn't even close to inflation. Now I know the reasons why pharmacy wages have deteriorated over that time, its not my employer being bad its just the way the economics of pharmacy have gone.
However, to make things just a little more insulting. My employer offered my wage to a brand new, inexperienced Pharmacy graduate and they turned it down because the wage was too low. OUCH
Why would I stay?
If I am not getting the wage that even a new graduate is looking for why would I bother? I know I could go to another pharmacy and make more money. Guaranteed. However, the wage discrepancy isn't as large as you might think. Experience adds very little to your wage and the top and bottom wage earners are only separated by maybe 25%. Significant but not necessary life changing.
Still, why would I accept less if I could make more?
The answer is simple. Sometimes the extra money isn't worth the extra hassle or other irritants.
- Do I like to work 12 hour shifts with no breaks for food or washroom? No
- Do I like to be stuck working any hours that the employer chooses? No
- Do I like to be a slave to a district manager who makes silly rules? No
- Do I want to work under constant scrutiny of how fast I'm working or how fast am I making money for the company? No
I'm with my current employer because I know he values his employees work life balance.
Being treated as a human
Now If I've worked 30 years as a pharmacist and 15 with my current employer that means I spent 15 years with other employers. So I have some experience with the big chain stores. It wasn't great.
Why isn't it great?
Well, as a pharmacist if I leave the pharmacy it has to close. If I don't show up to work, it doesn't open. Also the pharmacy typically only has one pharmacist on duty and a limited number of pharmacists working on site. Plus we are typically open every day of the year and often inconvenient hours.
What does that mean? It means that if I'm feeling lousy I'd better show up or I put patients at risk. Although if I do show up I may put them at risk too. Patients need their medications on holidays so I have to work all holidays. Patients work and need medications at inconvenient hours so I have to work inconvenient hours. Pharmacy has to shut down if I go for lunch, well, I'm not allowed to go for lunch.
Not really treated as human.
Worst shift I ever worked. 18 hour shift from 8am until 12midnight. No lunchbreak. No supper break. No coffee break. Plus I got reprimanded by the store manager when I had to close up to go for a washroom break!
Resigned and moved elsewhere shortly after that.
I wish I could say my next employer was better
My next employer was actually worse. I won't give too many details but the very short version. Everything had to go out in 15 minutes or less. If not I would be reprimanded and my job was on the line. Unfortunately that meant it wasn't safe as I couldn't check everything properly in that amount of time. Make a mistake and the licensing board can take away my license or of course someone gets harmed. So, I can make the owner happy and maybe get sued for malpractice or lose my license. Or keep it safe and lose my job. Plus, it kept me away from my family on holidays, weekends, days I got called in, days I worked extra for others who were sick. In the end the money was great and the job wasn't.
However, as the money was good I saved it up, paid off my mortgage and moved to a different job with a better employer where I could work less hours.
Yes, the pay was less but.....
The new employer knew it was important for me to go to church with my family on Sundays...so I got them all off.
That made a huge difference in my life
The new employer knew that getting at least a lunchbreak was important and a coffee break was nice every now and then too.
So I could go home for lunch and see my children when they were small
The new employer made sure there were always two people on shift. So, if I was sick I could stay home. But more importantly as there were two people on floor.
I could do something for my family if it was important
The employer also made a flexible schedule and always asked in advance if there were days I needed off for personal reasons and worked around it the best he could.
So I could almost always to go important life events
And that made all the difference. Sure my wages aren't as good as they may be elsewhere....but it is not always about money. Life is important.
To sum it up I consider myself lucky because (a) my job showed me how important my time was (b) it paid enough for me to free myself from the job and (c) I was smart enough to follow what really mattered to me. Was it the right move? Should I have done something different of make more money? Maybe, but I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out.
And as always I love to get feedback. Especially comments.
Thanks for reading