- Joined
- May 30, 2013
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I caught up with some classmates today, and from speaking to other pharmacists all the time, I realized that pharmacists hate their lives. Main reasons are:
1) Jobs are stressful. CVS and Walgreens, where most people are employed. Enough said. People no longer have the option to leave due to saturation.
2) Student loan. Lots of pharmacists I know are paying back around $2000/month towards student loan, that is A LOT of cash post tax. PLUS 33+% tax for all the single people out there, the take home money after everything is not as much as people think. So post tax and student loan, people are hustling their lives away to get $4000 a month, could have learned that much with a bachelor or masters degree, or being a successful plumber with no degrees.
3) The way pharmacists are treated. Not every pharmacist, but lots of pharmacists are treated like dirt. No lunch breaks, no pee breaks, no breaks, working 14 hours straight on one's feet, one person doing three people's jobs, etc. There is no prescription to pharmacist ratio. we are expected to handle the maximum, even the impossible. And there is nothing we can do, because guess what, there is a LINE of new grads waiting to take your job if you don't want it. Have you guys ever told your non-pharmacy friends your daily life at work? I have, and my friends are shocked to learn the way pharmacists are treated, they don't even believe me!
4) Having to move to undesirable areas for work. This is happening more and more, pharmacists are moving to rural/undesirable areas due to saturation in any decent place to live. This means moving away from familiarity, family/friends, culture, things a metropolitan offers, or good school districts. Although I am lucky enough to have never done it, but I can only imagine how hard it is to move to a ghetto, undesirable, rural area by yourself. Your quality of life goes straight to hell.
5) Non M-F 9-5 jobs. Most pharmacy jobs are not your regular Monday through Friday, no holidays, no weekends, 9 - 5 jobs. Many pharmacists work late into the evening and work every other weekends, this means missing events, if you have some sort of social life. This also means missing spending at least some holidays with your loved ones.
6) No job satisfaction. Aside from being spit on, having your life threatened, and being disrespected constantly, many fields of pharmacy work are extremely boring and repetitive. You're verifying all day every day, very little to no variation from day to day. In retail chains, employers don't value you, you can be replaced anytime. There is hardly any room to move up, you become a pharmacy manager/PIC, then what? For hospital staff pharmacists, you MAY become a clinical pharmacist, or maybe the director of pharmacy, but most likely not happening, especially in a good area.
Any other reasons pharmacy sucks? Any happy pharmacists out there somewhere?
1) Jobs are stressful. CVS and Walgreens, where most people are employed. Enough said. People no longer have the option to leave due to saturation.
2) Student loan. Lots of pharmacists I know are paying back around $2000/month towards student loan, that is A LOT of cash post tax. PLUS 33+% tax for all the single people out there, the take home money after everything is not as much as people think. So post tax and student loan, people are hustling their lives away to get $4000 a month, could have learned that much with a bachelor or masters degree, or being a successful plumber with no degrees.
3) The way pharmacists are treated. Not every pharmacist, but lots of pharmacists are treated like dirt. No lunch breaks, no pee breaks, no breaks, working 14 hours straight on one's feet, one person doing three people's jobs, etc. There is no prescription to pharmacist ratio. we are expected to handle the maximum, even the impossible. And there is nothing we can do, because guess what, there is a LINE of new grads waiting to take your job if you don't want it. Have you guys ever told your non-pharmacy friends your daily life at work? I have, and my friends are shocked to learn the way pharmacists are treated, they don't even believe me!
4) Having to move to undesirable areas for work. This is happening more and more, pharmacists are moving to rural/undesirable areas due to saturation in any decent place to live. This means moving away from familiarity, family/friends, culture, things a metropolitan offers, or good school districts. Although I am lucky enough to have never done it, but I can only imagine how hard it is to move to a ghetto, undesirable, rural area by yourself. Your quality of life goes straight to hell.
5) Non M-F 9-5 jobs. Most pharmacy jobs are not your regular Monday through Friday, no holidays, no weekends, 9 - 5 jobs. Many pharmacists work late into the evening and work every other weekends, this means missing events, if you have some sort of social life. This also means missing spending at least some holidays with your loved ones.
6) No job satisfaction. Aside from being spit on, having your life threatened, and being disrespected constantly, many fields of pharmacy work are extremely boring and repetitive. You're verifying all day every day, very little to no variation from day to day. In retail chains, employers don't value you, you can be replaced anytime. There is hardly any room to move up, you become a pharmacy manager/PIC, then what? For hospital staff pharmacists, you MAY become a clinical pharmacist, or maybe the director of pharmacy, but most likely not happening, especially in a good area.
Any other reasons pharmacy sucks? Any happy pharmacists out there somewhere?
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