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’ll look into myHR though! Thanks!
