CVS Pharmacist Floater

[PharmLife8]

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What is CVS floater pharmacist's schedule/PTO like?

How early in advance do you get a schedule for the week? Is it easy to schedule weekends or time off? How does PTO work for floaters?

 

[projektreverb]

In for answers

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

What is CVS floater pharmacist's schedule/PTO like?
How early in advance do you get a schedule for the week? Is it easy to schedule weekends or time off? How does PTO work for floaters?

Your schedule is whatever the scheduler decides it is. Keep in mind that they are likely just a cashier or shift lead that got promoted.

You find out what your schedule for Sun-Sat is on Friday or Saturday.

 

[PharmLife8]

Your schedule is whatever the scheduler decides it is. Keep in mind that they are likely just a cashier or shift lead that got promoted.

You find out what your schedule for Sun-Sat is on Friday or Saturday.

So what happens if I want to take PTO? My letter does not specify how much PTO I get

 

[meltyblend]

CVS PTO is usually dependent on your base. If you log into the myhr website and look at your profile it'll tell you how much vacation time you have.

Edit: Forgot to mention that if you just started with CVS your max PTO is 2 weeks and you probably have to be with the company for 90 days before benefits are even available to you. Of course, this is all assuming you're a full-time employee.

 

[PharmLife8]

CVS PTO is usually dependent on your base. If you log into the myhr website and look at your profile it'll tell you how much vacation time you have.

Edit: Forgot to mention that if you just started with CVS your max PTO is 2 weeks and you probably have to be with the company for 90 days before benefits are even available to you. Of course, this is all assuming you're a full-time employee.

I’m part time 🙁 I’ll look into myHR though! Thanks!

 

[SerenityNow93]

I’m part time 🙁 I’ll look into myHR though! Thanks!

Unless you make either 30 or 32 hours (whatever the requirement is), you likely won't have any paid time off.
At least that was the deal for me.

 

[DOOM N GLOOM]

I’m part time 🙁 I’ll look into myHR though! Thanks!

Why would you expect to get any PTO as a part time pharmacist? Not to sound condescending but if you’re only working 16 hours a week then you technically have the other 24 hours “off.”

Does it make sense for you to request the one or two shifts you work per week off? I think not.

 

[student089]

Wm gives pto for part- timers. Not a lot but still.

Sent from my SM-G960U using SDN mobile

 

[SerenityNow93]

Why would you expect to get any PTO as a part-time pharmacist? Not to sound condescending but if you’re only working 16 hours a week then you technically have the other 24 hours “off.”

Does it make sense for you to request the one or two shifts you work per week off? I think not.

I understand that, but when they make it almost impossible to take an unpaid day off so I can take a vacation with my family who has a more "typical" schedule, including a child in school who only has certain available times to take off herself, this can become an issue. Some of this depends on the ability to swap shifts with other people - if even possible. I know some markets have plenty of people looking for extra shifts, but not all markets have people looking for this - or they just don't want to go to my store because it is inconveniently located for many of the other area pharmacists. I suppose it also depends on the scheduler - and how much that person likes you. And whether they still want to keep you around (I suspect this may have been an issue for me given my "advancing age" compared to the new grads)≥
Honestly, I don't care as much about it being "paid" as a part-time pharmacist myself as the fact that, after over a decade with Target then bought out by CVS, my four weeks of vacation time was erased in an instant and I was immediately considered useless. Target may have made a lot of mistakes but one thing they did realize was the value of part-time pharmacists in the stores that had shorter hours that only required 1.5 pharmacists on staff. Instead of having a constant string of floaters filling in the days the PIC isn't there, they felt it more important to have consistency, at least when I was hired. The patients in my store tend to be demanding of the pharmacists' time and generally want the PIC there all the time. It took years for them to adjust to a new part-time staff pharmacist, and some never did because they just think only the PIC can do everything. Fine. It is quite rough for the floaters that are sent there some days because some of them are hostile with no provocation.
Sorry to derail the thread.
For 2018, I was able to turn in time off requests - these were granted, though unpaid, without any issue. I am fine with that.
For 2019, I turned in requests for a grand total of three days (not all together, either. One day was by itself in a random week). The paperwork stated anything turned in over your allotted hours would be immediately deleted and denied. Denied. I get the logic of "why do you need off?" but maybe I actually would like to attend an event with my daughter who will be going off to college in a few years. I can't tell her choir director when to schedule a performance in NYC. For a bunch of kids from small towns, that is a huge deal that I don't really want to miss.
Incidentally, I had volunteered to be removed from the schedule and simply be PRN and was told they didn't need anyone for that. I would have thought based on the overabundance of pharmacist supply, they would have jumped on replacing me in my position. It seems there are other factors at play there.

 

[wagrxm2000]

Can't a part time person just tell the scheduler when they aren't available? It's not like their hours are guaranteed. Pretty sure we were told part timers only get hours when everyone else has theirs.

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

I understand that, but when they make it almost impossible to take an unpaid day off so I can take a vacation with my family who has a more "typical" schedule, including a child in school who only has certain available times to take off herself, this can become an issue. Some of this depends on the ability to swap shifts with other people - if even possible. I know some markets have plenty of people looking for extra shifts, but not all markets have people looking for this - or they just don't want to go to my store because it is inconveniently located for many of the other area pharmacists. I suppose it also depends on the scheduler - and how much that person likes you. And whether they still want to keep you around (I suspect this may have been an issue for me given my "advancing age" compared to the new grads)≥
Honestly, I don't care as much about it being "paid" as a part-time pharmacist myself as the fact that, after over a decade with Target then bought out by CVS, my four weeks of vacation time was erased in an instant and I was immediately considered useless. Target may have made a lot of mistakes but one thing they did realize was the value of part-time pharmacists in the stores that had shorter hours that only required 1.5 pharmacists on staff. Instead of having a constant string of floaters filling in the days the PIC isn't there, they felt it more important to have consistency, at least when I was hired. The patients in my store tend to be demanding of the pharmacists' time and generally want the PIC there all the time. It took years for them to adjust to a new part-time staff pharmacist, and some never did because they just think only the PIC can do everything. Fine. It is quite rough for the floaters that are sent there some days because some of them are hostile with no provocation.
Sorry to derail the thread.
For 2018, I was able to turn in time off requests - these were granted, though unpaid, without any issue. I am fine with that.
For 2019, I turned in requests for a grand total of three days (not all together, either. One day was by itself in a random week). The paperwork stated anything turned in over your allotted hours would be immediately deleted and denied. Denied. I get the logic of "why do you need off?" but maybe I actually would like to attend an event with my daughter who will be going off to college in a few years. I can't tell her choir director when to schedule a performance in NYC. For a bunch of kids from small towns, that is a huge deal that I don't really want to miss.
Incidentally, I had volunteered to be removed from the schedule and simply be PRN and was told they didn't need anyone for that. I would have thought based on the overabundance of pharmacist supply, they would have jumped on replacing me in my position. It seems there are other factors at play there.

I couldn't even get days off as a full time pharmacist at CVS or Target.

 

[Sine Cura]

The patients in my store tend to be demanding of the pharmacists' time and generally want the PIC there all the time. It took years for them to adjust to a new part-time staff pharmacist, and some never did because they just think only the PIC can do everything. Fine. It is quite rough for the floaters that are sent there some days because some of them are hostile with no provocation.

The problem with stores like this is that they shouldn't be coddling these insane patients. I always joke with my techs about commercial patients and their ludicrous demands like wanting Junel 1/20 or brand Seroquel instead of whatever we actually have. At least Medicaid patients usually STFU. At WM we "have" to get a letter of medical necessity before getting a non-preferred generic. **** that noise, go to Walgreens.

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

The problem with stores like this is that they shouldn't be coddling these insane patients. I always joke with my techs about commercial patients and their ludicrous demands like wanting Junel 1/20 or brand Seroquel instead of whatever we actually have. At least Medicaid patients usually STFU. At WM we "have" to get a letter of medical necessity before getting a non-preferred generic. **** that noise, go to Walgreens.

Agreed.
My customer service scores at target tanked for about a month then rose rapidly after I got rid of our annoying time-sink patients

 

[Hels2007]

The trouble with getting rid annoying waste of time patients (whose scripts are not making you any money, usually, to add insult to injury) is that even as you spend time transferring their 10-20 scripts, you KNOW they will cycle back to you in a few months, because they have done it before, because NO ONE likes them and does what they want, so they just go switch pharmacies every couple months.

 

[projektreverb]

I used to work for a grocery chain that had a coupon for groceries on all new transfers. People would literally transfer in and out just for the coupon every month. It was horrendous. Thank god corporate caught on and stopped that.

 

[Lnsean]

The problem with stores like this is that they shouldn't be coddling these insane patients. I always joke with my techs about commercial patients and their ludicrous demands like wanting Junel 1/20 or brand Seroquel instead of whatever we actually have. At least Medicaid patients usually STFU. At WM we "have" to get a letter of medical necessity before getting a non-preferred generic. **** that noise, go to Walgreens.

Agreed. It's about setting expectations for your patients. If they're used to the staff bending ass over at their every whim then that attitude will be hard to fix.

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

The trouble with getting rid annoying waste of time patients (whose scripts are not making you any money, usually, to add insult to injury) is that even as you spend time transferring their 10-20 scripts, you KNOW they will cycle back to you in a few months, because they have done it before, because NO ONE likes them and does what they want, so they just go switch pharmacies every couple months.

In my state, we're required to comply with transfer out requests.

I can't imagine willingly transferring someone like that in

 

[sozetone]

What is CVS floater pharmacist's schedule/PTO like?

How early in advance do you get a schedule for the week? Is it easy to schedule weekends or time off? How does PTO work for floaters?

Things are changing my friend. My DM at WM is now hiring ONLY new grads at lower rates ~50/hr and LESS PTO. thats the key, so he does not have to "FLEX UP" to meet too many demands. Pharms like me hired on only 2 years ago got 4-6 weeks as salaried full timers. Now they want us out like the plague. Its a burden for them to cover all the shifts with the little help the higher ups gave them. ya know? Little by little they are coming for everything....your PTO, your Bonus, Your raise, your hours, and of course, your Salary! If you have been around for a bit and paying attention, you will know what i said is happening now and very true.