Walmart=$4 generics; CVS=14 hr no lunch shifts; Now Publix announces...

[Music Man]

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The 5-day annual vacation! Well, at least for the first year anyway. Hope this isn't some new trend. I thought Publix was "the bomb" of retail, and maybe it still is, but a 5 day vacation? Not something I would expect from a Fortune Top 100...

 

[gotdrugs]

The 5-day annual vacation! Well, at least for the first year anyway. Hope this isn't some new trend. I thought Publix was "the bomb" of retail, and maybe it still is, but a 5 day vacation? Not something I would expect from a Fortune Top 100...

Not surprising.

Walgreens in the 90's before the "shortage" had the following vacation structure

First 12 months of service - 0 (that's zero) paid vacation

2nd year of service - 1 week (i.e. 5 days) paid vacation

3rd year of service (i.e. after 24 months) is when you were eligible for 2 weeks.

Then the shortage came so they started offering pharmacists 2 weeks from the get-go. Now that the shortage is ovah....expect the chains to start scaling back on this.

 

[IndustryPharmD]

Not surprising.

Walgreens in the 90's before the "shortage" had the following vacation structure

First 12 months of service - 0 (that's zero) paid vacation

2nd year of service - 1 week (i.e. 5 days) paid vacation.

Yep, sounds about right.

 

[Jabberwocky12]

Well then don't work for Publix. It sucks but not all places do that. And if Publix notices the supply of pharmacists going down then they will either have a better compensation/benefits package or they will try and change the PTO back.

Gotta remember those supply and demand graphs from economics. The companies will do what they can to attract people and nothing more. If they just need to offer a job at 100k and nothing else, why would they want to do more?

It's actually a really good idea IMO. People see the wages first and the benefits second. If a company slacks off in the 401k, PTO, etc. and barely touches the wages, someone will still see the 100k+ and want to take it.

 

[All4MyDaughter]

It's not that strange. Plenty of companies in different industries start off at one week of vacation per year.

 

[jasonkido]

My company, omnicare started me out at 16 days vacation but no sick days. If we got sick we would have to use our vacation days. 16 days is considered 3 weeks and 1 day so that is nothing to complain about

 

[type b pharmD]

My company, omnicare started me out at 16 days vacation but no sick days. If we got sick we would have to use our vacation days. 16 days is considered 3 weeks and 1 day so that is nothing to complain about

My old boss at my nuke job got 6+ weeks / year , however, the sacrifice involved working very frequent nights (1am-9am), taking additional on-call hours and working weekends. Not sure if i would do this.. Nuclear has been known to have some crazy vacation policies. A local indie offers 24 weeks vacation, but the downside is weekend call every weekend (6 hour shift at the minimum typically), and 5 days of 14 hour shifts during the weekdays.

Now what's crazier, working a 3 day workweek of 12 hour shifts retail and only getting 1-2 weeks vacation or working nuclear with 85 hour weeks (shifts in my example were 2am-4pm) with 24 weeks off. Personally i'm headed for nuclear pharmacy but even by their work-hard play-hard standards that is a bit extreme.

 

[Jabberwocky12]

My old boss at my nuke job got 6+ weeks / year , however, the sacrifice involved working very frequent nights (1am-9am), taking additional on-call hours and working weekends. Not sure if i would do this.. Nuclear has been known to have some crazy vacation policies. A local indie offers 24 weeks vacation, but the downside is weekend call every weekend (6 hour shift at the minimum typically), and 5 days of 14 hour shifts during the weekdays.

Now what's crazier, working a 3 day workweek of 12 hour shifts retail and only getting 1-2 weeks vacation or working nuclear with 85 hour weeks (shifts in my example were 2am-4pm) with 24 weeks off. Personally i'm headed for nuclear pharmacy but even by their work-hard play-hard standards that is a bit extreme.

Yeah and with that whole 6 month off thing, scheduling is probably a pain. They either restrict when you can do it so you never have the time off when you want it or there is almost no overlap since someone is gone half the year.

 

[type b pharmD]

Yeah and with that whole 6 month off thing, scheduling is probably a pain. They either restrict when you can do it so you never have the time off when you want it or there is almost no overlap since someone is gone half the year.

the indie thing , yeah, it was a 2 pharmacist operation, so im assuming the owner would work out coverage with the other pharmacist to work alternating weeks/months etc.

and at my (chain) employer, there were 4-5 pharmacists working there, so at any given time one person was on vacation and being covered by the others.

one really cool thing about the policy of my former employer is that you could choose to work more nights + weekends or fewer nights + weekends and that would determine what kind of vacation you would get. of course, you would always have to work your one week of nights and one weekend per month, but if you chose to take more or take call, you would get comped with extra time off for each time you got called in or each additional week of nights you wanted. nice flexibility

on the other hand, working a few retail shifts (12-14h) per week, and getting 3-4 days per week off, at that point you hardly need vacation! Wouldnt be that bad, i would think

 

[Jabberwocky12]

the indie thing , yeah, it was a 2 pharmacist operation, so im assuming the owner would work out coverage with the other pharmacist to work alternating weeks/months etc.

IMO too much PTO is a bad thing. With 24 weeks I could take a month/week off at a time. but can you imagine the stop-and-go of that schedule? You hit the ground running with the schedule and work 80+ hrs a week like you said and then have off a ridiculous amount of time.

After my week/month was up I wouldn't want to go back to work, know what I mean? It's like going back to school after summer break except that you are getting paid whether or not you go to school.

 

[type b pharmD]

IMO too much PTO is a bad thing. With 24 weeks I could take a month/week off at a time. but can you imagine the stop-and-go of that schedule? You hit the ground running with the schedule and work 80+ hrs a week like you said and then have off a ridiculous amount of time.

After my week/month was up I wouldn't want to go back to work, know what I mean? It's like going back to school after summer break except that you are getting paid whether or not you go to school.

I agree. . i'm thinking this is one reason why that indie I was talking about was pretty much always looking for a second pharmacist (job was also in the middle of nowhere)

I think personally i'd rather work for a chain since they are able to offer more flexibility versus being locked into 2am-4pm shifts *every* day you work like you might be at an independent operator (at the very least probably 2am-noon

 

[WhYMee]

if those 5 days equate to 8 hours shifts then that would be 1 week vacation.

wit cvs its
year 1 : 1 week
year 2-4 : 2 weeks
year 5-14 : 3 weeks
year 15+ : 4 weeks

 

[Rxnupe]

The 5-day annual vacation! Well, at least for the first year anyway. Hope this isn't some new trend. I thought Publix was "the bomb" of retail, and maybe it still is, but a 5 day vacation? Not something I would expect from a Fortune Top 100...

Well that sucks but I just want to correct you- I have NEVER worked a 14 hour shift against my will- at CVS you and your partner can make your own schedule so this notion that CVS forces you to work 14 hour shifts is total B.S!

 

[bacillus1]

Well that sucks but I just want to correct you- I have NEVER worked a 14 hour shift against my will- at CVS you and your partner can make your own schedule so this notion that CVS forces you to work 14 hour shifts is total B.S!

Really? So if you're a 14 hour store and you only want to work 12 hours, would they send in a floater to work those 2 hours? I would imagine not. I bet your partner wouldn't want to come in for those 2 extra hours every day either.

I know lots of people at my chain who work 14 hour days. I heard of one guy who they tried to make do 16 hour days. I don't know all the facts for that, so I can't comment on it. But 14 days, no overlap is pretty standard at the chain where I work.

 

[Rxnupe]

Really? So if you're a 14 hour store and you only want to work 12 hours, would they send in a floater to work those 2 hours? I would imagine not. I bet your partner wouldn't want to come in for those 2 extra hours every day either.

I know lots of people at my chain who work 14 hour days. I heard of one guy who they tried to make do 16 hour days. I don't know all the facts for that, so I can't comment on it. But 14 days, no overlap is pretty standard at the chain where I work.

You just answered your own question the operative word(s) here are YOU WANT... there's a big difference between YOU WANT and YOU HAVE TO.. Big difference! CVS allows the staff to come up with any desirable schedule you want as long as both parties agree. When you throw YOU WANT this or YOU WANT that it becomes a whole new ball game. Show me anywhere that states Pharmacist MUST work 14 hour shifts??? If it does I am in serious trouble. I have seen stores where a particular Pharmacist works only daytime or doesn't work weekends. Also, at Walgreens- doesn't every Pharmacist have to work Monday's??? At least I thought that was the case years ago- CVS scheduling is far more flexible than Walgreens for sure.

 

[Caverject]

You just answered your own question the operative word(s) here are YOU WANT... there's a big difference between YOU WANT and YOU HAVE TO.. Big difference!

Spoken like a future district pharmacy manager...

BTW- Walgreens is very flexible in scheduling. You should look up how market scheduling works. It's pretty sweet!

 

[genesis09]

Pharmacists at Wags do not have to work every Monday. It depends on your schedule. I'll have next week Monday off.

 

[PharmDstudent]

You just answered your own question the operative word(s) here are YOU WANT... there's a big difference between YOU WANT and YOU HAVE TO.. Big difference! CVS allows the staff to come up with any desirable schedule you want as long as both parties agree. When you throw YOU WANT this or YOU WANT that it becomes a whole new ball game. Show me anywhere that states Pharmacist MUST work 14 hour shifts??? If it does I am in serious trouble. I have seen stores where a particular Pharmacist works only daytime or doesn't work weekends. Also, at Walgreens- doesn't every Pharmacist have to work Monday's??? At least I thought that was the case years ago- CVS scheduling is far more flexible than Walgreens for sure.

I think you're a troll... Why else would you flame someone's 4 day old post?