What would you do if you got fired tomorrow?

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Move in with parents and get an easier job
 
take a long vacation at least 3 months in another country or multiple countries and then look for a new job
 
isn't this what lawyers are for
 
Joke answer: Open a pharmacy school.

Real answer: Post on here that I need a job ASAP, willing to travel anywhere, licensed in 4 states, willing to license in more.
 
No worries. I've got enough savings right now to live comfortably for 10 months. Getting fired would give me a good reason to get licensed in Texas or California. Then I'd move there to make more money.
 
ChalupaBatman86 said:
That type of scenario is less scary if you have savings. Stash money away every single paycheck.
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Depends on your burn rate. Once that income stops it's a totally different psychology even if you have nice nest egg because here's the rub especially with the foreseeable labor situation. For those of you who still have a pharmacist job, acknowledge it or not, this job you now have is very likely the last gig you will ever have. There is no more job jumping. that train left the station long ago. This is the OP's angst.
 
I've paid off all my debts including my mortgage so I can live pretty cheaply for at least 10 years off of my savings. If I sell my house and move into a trailer, I could probably retire completely.

Ok seriously, I would probably chill and go on vacation for a few months, then start hustling for more hours from my per diem employers. If that doesn't work, then I'll go work for CVS. They're always hiring 😛
 
I guess I'd cut out luxuries like restaurants and movies, tell my per diem job that I'm available for any and all shifts, then think very hard about what I want out of life before making any big decisions.
 
I am not the primary breadwinner, so my situation is different. But I would look for another outpatient clinical position would consider 0.5fte opposed to fulltime. Probably uber drive too for hell of it.
 
Assuming I couldnt find another one...Drop my kids daycare, start clipping coupons and change my student loans to PAYE and rock it. Clip coupons and start ebaying. Once the kids are in school go be a teacher for a community college or something.
 
Call my recruiter friend and get placed in another job.

But assuming I'm unemployable (Rph license revoked/convicted felon?)...

I'd go nuclear option and max out my credit cards ($100k in credit limit roughly), through a series of balance transfers terminating into a checking account unrelated to any card issuer. I'd also apply for new cards and BT that way until I get declined. Apply for store cards and max them out with easily saleable goods.

Then I'd just stop paying all other bills except mortgage and basic utilities. File declaration of homestead. Rent out the house.

Send all liquid assets into my company in exchange for additional stock. Resign as officer and maintain status as employee.

Leave the country or hide out until the statute of limitation on debt renders all of the above debt uncollectable. Do some work online, basically be a hermit so as to avoid being served.

Once I resurface I have a fully capitalized company and I'll go back to finding a way to make money.




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confettiflyer said:
Call my recruiter friend and get placed in another job.

But assuming I'm unemployable (Rph license revoked/convicted felon?)...

I'd go nuclear option and max out my credit cards ($100k in credit limit roughly), through a series of balance transfers terminating into a checking account unrelated to any card issuer. I'd also apply for new cards and BT that way until I get declined. Apply for store cards and max them out with easily saleable goods.

Then I'd just stop paying all other bills except mortgage and basic utilities. File declaration of homestead. Rent out the house.

Send all liquid assets into my company in exchange for additional stock. Resign as officer and maintain status as employee.

Leave the country or hide out until the statute of limitation on debt renders all of the above debt uncollectable. Do some work online, basically be a hermit so as to avoid being served.

Once I resurface I have a fully capitalized company and I'll go back to finding a way to make money.




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Click to expand...
The Donald really did hijack your SDN account, eh?
 
Did just such a calculation before I took this job in case I totally blow it. The result: if for some reason both of us got laid off at the same time (2 different companies), our emergency fund would last 6 months. If she loses her job, we are good indefinitely (I make enough alone). If I lose my job and don't/can't work PRN/agency, but she still has her job, then we have enough to last 2 years. If for some reason we both become disableed (i.e hit by a semi while out together on the weekend), our long term disability is enough indefinitely. One of us can pay off the house, send all 3 of our kids through college full ride, and retire in he/her 50's if the other died (isn't that sad?).
 
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Tell my wife to take some time off, drop the kids off at their grandparents then take a long vacation.

Come back then call some friends with different chains and get a part time job until I can retire. That or tell Walgreens I'll work for less and they'd definitely rehire me. What exactly was a fired for anyways?
 
I'd join one of those rph on the go agencies and become a contracted pharmacist. Hopefully one of those contracted jobs would turn into a permanent position
 
Let's curve the question because "find another job" is too easy. What would you do if your pharmacy license was revoked?


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It would be a roller coaster ride for me as i just bought a house, and i have a baby and wife. My wife is only making 40 000 dollars a year, which is not enough to cover our expenses which can go above 5000 dollars a month,that is included morgage and student loans. And i only have 4 months emergency saving as i have used all my emergency saving for house down payment.
If such a scenario were to happen , i would apply all over the places. I would probably secure a few days at an independent pharmacy. I would maximize my credit line (150 k) or use my 401 k or my stock with cvs ( about$ 13000). Granted i am licensed in 2 states, i 'd move if need be.
 
zelman said:
I'm sticking with opening a pharmacy school.
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Can I be Dean of... you know, whatever? We'll find something. Here are a few phrases I have learned.

"Pharmacy is a small world." (I can say this in a vaguely threatening tone if a student disagrees with me to imply that I actually have connections outside of academia and will sabotage their career if needed.)
"MTM, provider status, new and emerging roles."
"Differentiate yourself."
 
Unlikely I would lose my job (unless of course I decided to move on), given who I work for and how I've set myself up...but I'd put down roots somewhere...likely alfalfa and winter wheat. 100 or so acres of that and I'd also look for a PRN pharmacist job. Max 16 hrs/wk. There are many more doors open at the current time when you don't need 40 hours a week and it is your secondary, not primary, means of making an income.
 
The serious answer is I would apply for unemployment in your state and do all the responsible things that everyone else already mentioned. I've been in enough years to have some belief that a not small group of people who get fired put themselves in a position to be fired from stress or job disagreement. Figure out if you are one of them or what about your previous job you know you can't tolerate and make sure you look for jobs that work (because if you got a job like the last one, it'll probably end up the same way). If your tagline isn't quite a joke about the exes, I'd also report to the family court immediately that you have lost your job and will be in some financial difficulty so an overzealous judge or trustee doesn't do stupid things to your bank account or give you worries about licensing. The #1 reason for professional license suspension is failure to pay the state or something that has the trustee of the state legal obligations (child support, alimony, delinquent IRS/state taxes). I know from oversight experience that at least Texas and probably California refuse to issue licenses to anyone where there are unpaid child support or alimony matters (we lose quite a number of new employees that way).

Absolutely though, don't let it get you down. It's the end of a bad situation, and even with the jokes relating to pharmacy employment, there are good jobs still out there. But your timing is such that you'll have to compete against new grads until the later fall. I hope you do have the savings to weather for a while or be able to find temporary work.

The Donald answer: Join the military as an O-3 or figure out how to get a dumb job in civil service and wait out the three years. It's fairly impossible to be fired even for rank incompetence/special negligence at the job once you get in. There's an Administrative Investigation Board review of the past decade of career escapades for VA going on, and we have cases such as:
1. A pharmacy chief steals from the safe and gave the merchandise to women to get them to sleep with him
2. A deputy director of the mail order in Charleston had such a problem that he literally took bottles in front of the safe pharmacist

and OPM couldn't figure out how to fire them before we got their licenses revoked!
 
The two pharmacists I've known personally who had their licenses revoked had a LOT of lead time between the commission of the offense and actual revocation - two years in one case, four years in the other. I know that one works in a restaurant; IDK what the other one does, although it's also doubtful that he's earning more than minimum wage either because I'm pretty sure he has fairly severe Asperger's.
 
rph3664 said:
The two pharmacists I've known personally who had their licenses revoked had a LOT of lead time between the commission of the offense and actual revocation - two years in one case, four years in the other. I know that one works in a restaurant; IDK what the other one does, although it's also doubtful that he's earning more than minimum wage either because I'm pretty sure he has fairly severe Asperger's.
Click to expand...

If a pharmacist loses their license, can they apply for one in another state? Or are you done with pharmacy altogether? Surprised that the pharmacist who lost their license and ended up working in a restaurant didn't at least try to get a job teaching at a university.
 
You are living in a fantasy if you think you are going to work for 30 years as a pharmacist.

I like how people think they can just switch career like switching cars. Try to learn a career when you are in your 30s and 40s. I am in my 30s and I can already feel like I am not as sharp. Add a load boat of debt, a mortgage, kids, a family. Not going to happen.

Good or bad...this is the end game. I am going to ride every second of it until the cows come home.


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BMBiology said:
You are living in a fantasy if you think you are going to work for 30 years as a pharmacist.

I like how people think they can just switch career like switching cars. Try to learn a career when you are in your 30s and 40s. I am in my 30s and I can already feel like I am not as sharp. Add a load boat of debt, a mortgage, kids, a family. Not going to happen.

Good or bad...this is the end game. I am going to ride every second of it until the cows come home.


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Click to expand...

Why isn't it realistic to expect to work for 30 years as a pharmacist? Because the work will be too difficult to manage to continue doing by then, or because there won't be any jobs left at that point?
 
confettiflyer said:
Call my recruiter friend and get placed in another job.

But assuming I'm unemployable (Rph license revoked/convicted felon?)...

I'd go nuclear option and max out my credit cards ($100k in credit limit roughly), through a series of balance transfers terminating into a checking account unrelated to any card issuer. I'd also apply for new cards and BT that way until I get declined. Apply for store cards and max them out with easily saleable goods.

Then I'd just stop paying all other bills except mortgage and basic utilities. File declaration of homestead. Rent out the house.

Send all liquid assets into my company in exchange for additional stock. Resign as officer and maintain status as employee.

Leave the country or hide out until the statute of limitation on debt renders all of the above debt uncollectable. Do some work online, basically be a hermit so as to avoid being served.

Once I resurface I have a fully capitalized company and I'll go back to finding a way to make money.




Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app
Click to expand...

Rank 3 countries you would go to. Haha
 
PAtoPharm said:
Why isn't it realistic to expect to work for 30 years as a pharmacist? Because the work will be too difficult to manage to continue doing by then, or because there won't be any jobs left at that point?
Click to expand...

Because this is not true: 20 years of experience = better pharmacist

The peak is probably around 5 years. People take this job for granted. They have kids, family and they see their position as a "job" and not a career. They think they can just do A, B, C and Larry Merlo will hand them a nice biweekly check. But you know what? Mr Merlo knows...he knows you are slacking and he would rather pay a new pharmacist $10/hour less than you and get the same result.

You are a dying dinosaur if you think you are going to survive in this new environment.


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Retail = demoralizing job.

My last day as an intern at a major retail, I told myself...never will I return to this place. I don't care if this job pays $1M a year. It is still a sh*tty and no amount money would change that. I was right as I watched all of these miserable CVS pharmacists trade in their lives for a shinny penny.




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BMBiology said:
Because this is not true: 20 years of experience = better pharmacist

The peak is probably around 5 years. People take this job for granted. They have kids, family and they see their position as a "job" and not a career. They think they can just do A, B, C and Larry Merlo will hand them a nice biweekly check. But you know what? Mr Merlo knows...he knows you are slacking and he would rather pay a new pharmacist $10/hour less than you and get the same result.

You are a dying dinosaur if you think you are going to survive in this new environment.


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Click to expand...

So it is basically an inevitability that all/most retail pharmacists will be fired after 10-15 years or so on the job?
 
No, not all but it will be much more competitive. CVS does not want to fire their veteran pharmacists because they will be accused of ageism. They will force them to float, not give them 40 hours a week, cut their benefits. They will use their metrics as a mechanism to do all of these things and slowly but steadily they will thin the herd.


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BMBiology said:
No, not all but it will be much more competitive. CVS does not want to fire their veteran pharmacists because they will be accused of ageism. They will force them to float, not give them 40 hours a week, cut their benefits. They will use their metrics as a mechanism to do all of these things and slowly but steadily they will thin the herd.


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Click to expand...
I still feel like older pharmacists get the better stores, benefits, hours, security, etc. Newbies are the ones floating and not getting the hours.
 
PAtoPharm said:
If a pharmacist loses their license, can they apply for one in another state? Or are you done with pharmacy altogether? Surprised that the pharmacist who lost their license and ended up working in a restaurant didn't at least try to get a job teaching at a university.
Click to expand...

At the very minimum if apply for another license in another state or you renew your license in other states you have to answer truthfully that your license was revoked in another state.
 
PAtoPharm said:
Why isn't it realistic to expect to work for 30 years as a pharmacist? Because the work will be too difficult to manage to continue doing by then, or because there won't be any jobs left at that point?
Click to expand...
I'm leaning towards there just not being enough jobs in the future. We keep finding new and better ways to reduce the burden of the pharmacist under the guise of freeing them up for clinical duties, but I feel like this is just a Trojan horse to eventually slash the workforce.

Tech-check-tech removes the need for a pharmacist to actually inspect products leaving the pharmacy. Programs like DoseEdge allow for remote IV verification, again pulling a pharmacist out of the IV room. A decent EMR can streamline medication ordering and greatly reduce the time and number of pharmacists required to handle a given patient load.

Ok, so you've found a way to basically pull all but the legally required minimum number of pharmacists out of the pharmacy so that they can practice clinical pharmacy on the floors. Great, everyone thinks this is awesome. They are living their pharmacy school dream. What happens when the hospital has financial problems? Massive budget cuts? These ancillary pharmacists are now just a bonus and are not necessary. Hospital administrators will slash and burn these positions once they realize how lean they can run the pharmacy.

The above scenario is why I feel much more comfortable with a hybrid clinical staffing model. You still get to make your clinical interventions and hopefully work in an area that interests you, but it keeps you rotating through the central pharmacy. You do a little bit of everything and end up developing a broader skill set.

It's also a big reason why I have moved away from clinical pharmacy towards informatics. I really feel like that will be a long-term secure position for the future. I still maintain a per diem on the side to keep my inpatient skills fresh in case provider status comes true and transforms the nature of pharmacy, but I won't be holding my breath on that.
 
PAtoPharm said:
If a pharmacist loses their license, can they apply for one in another state? Or are you done with pharmacy altogether? Surprised that the pharmacist who lost their license and ended up working in a restaurant didn't at least try to get a job teaching at a university.
Click to expand...

Not usually for revocation. Most other states respect suspensions and revocations issued by other states. And if you do get a disciplinary action in another state in the old days, you're supposed to inform the others, although the NABP system I think does it automatically now.

If you get even probation, it's harder to transfer licenses as the destination will ask you to normally appear before the board to explain your past transgressions.

As for working 30 years in pharmacy, take a look around you and notice how many pharmacists are in their 60s right now. There aren't too many at retail, most are institutional. In both areas though, It's not as many as you thought. And the pharmacist labor projections have been wrong ever since 2000 as the ones that are still around have largely not retired. The business changes from time to time, and when it does, it usually eliminates a bunch of us. In terms of computerization. I remember when I was an intern and Intercom first came out, that it eliminated a bunch of pharmacists that wouldn't adopt to it from a typewriter. When I graduated in 2004, the CPOE systems got rid of a bunch of physicians who wouldn't adapt to the changing circumstances and also the billing system changes forced many into group practice. The present day equivalent is the bum deal that the new grads are getting with only 32 hours of work. I'm not sure if I'd stay in the profession if I had that kind of debt and I couldn't get the number of hours I wanted to work. Even you stay a pharmacist for 30 years, you'll change you career anyway as practicing in the 60s isn't practice in the 80s, and practice in 04 is definitely not the same as practice in 16. If I were still in the line, I'd be very worried about how the practice environment would change next and to figure out how to adapt to those changes. I think the main one for retail was the elimination of the pharmacist to technician ratio and the application of Taylor KPIs to everything. For the hospital, it was the mechanization and hospital computer systems in the short time (12 years) I've been licensed.
 
I'd call my connections and look for another job in a more desirable area. Then if that failed, I'd look for a healthcare related job that didn't require patient contact. Maybe pharmaceutical sales or medical supplies sales.
 
PAtoPharm said:
If a pharmacist loses their license, can they apply for one in another state? Or are you done with pharmacy altogether? Surprised that the pharmacist who lost their license and ended up working in a restaurant didn't at least try to get a job teaching at a university.
Click to expand...

Why do some people assume that people who don't want to actively practice (as a pharmacist, or anything else, health care or not) are going to want to teach, or even be able to do so? She wasn't cut out to be a teacher, believe me. I see this a lot, here and elsewhere.

The guy that I think has Asperger's never had a steady job that I know of; he always did relief work until he was caught engaging in the offense that cost him his license.
 
nextyearrx said:
That will be the happiest day of my life!!🙂
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3rd this. They will be doing me a favor. I am just doing some time - clock in, go home (i.e., prison mode). I saved up 10X of my gross salary, my expenses is 15% of my yearly income.

Getting another job is probably easy if I choose to do that as long as I am not too picky (anything that pays 60/hr as rph - every rph job in CA basically). If my license is revoked, I'd probably switch career altogether to where I am in control of the direction of the business (not as an employee). It would be something of value that I could scale up, not a local business tied to specific geography (think online). If I am really desperate for some spare change to live on, I'd drive for Uber for some food/rent money.
 
rph3664 said:
Why do some people assume that people who don't want to actively practice (as a pharmacist, or anything else, health care or not) are going to want to teach, or even be able to do so? She wasn't cut out to be a teacher, believe me. I see this a lot, here and elsewhere.

The guy that I think has Asperger's never had a steady job that I know of; he always did relief work until he was caught engaging in the offense that cost him his license.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't want to be a teacher (and am probably not cut out for it) either, but if I was a pharmacist who ended up losing his license, I would definitely rather teach at a university and make at least $40k plus benefits instead of relegating myself to working minimum wage dead-end jobs.
 
I would like to take a few months off and travel.

What I would really do: I'm going to cry probably for 5 minutes because I am a little bi***. I'm going to spend a couple days in bed and really think over what happened, what I should have done, what I shouldn't have done, etc. After the shock of being fired goes away, now that's the time when I start making moves. The first thing I am going to do make sure I can pay my bills. I saved enough money for a few rainy day funds. I want to make sure my mortgage gets paid without missing a single payment, and all my other bills get paid on time. I'm going to go down my contacts list on my phone and call all my pharmacy contacts and let them know I am going to be available for work immediately. I'll probably work at a few independents until the major company job comes into play.

When the independent I worked for closed last year, I took 2 months off from real work. I would work at different independents a few days a week and have time off to do whatever I wanted. That was the best 2 months of my life.
 
PAtoPharm said:
I wouldn't want to be a teacher (and am probably not cut out for it) either, but if I was a pharmacist who ended up losing his license, I would definitely rather teach at a university and make at least $40k plus benefits instead of relegating myself to working minimum wage dead-end jobs.
Click to expand...

Assuming you could get a job as a professor with a revoked pharmacy license? Really? Maybe at one of the pop-up diploma mills.
 
confettiflyer said:
Let's curve the question because "find another job" is too easy. What would you do if your pharmacy license was revoked?
Click to expand...

That's when I thank god I did dual majored in undergrad and worked for Pfizer as a medicinal chemist. Completing a BS degree is a safety net. Might not make you 6 figures, but earning a middle class living isn't a problem. (unless it's in something like art history, LOL).
 
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