"Salaried" - Staying Late/Coming In Early

[josh6718]

For pharmacists out in California that get paid hourly, how is it possible to get everything done without working off the clock?

For those pharmacists that are "salaried"- where do you draw the line between coming in early and staying late?

Our store had well exceeded scripts budget for last year, but still ended up losing all of our pharmacist overlap and a LOT of tech hours. PIC is now staying over almost 3 hours after each of his scheduled shift and is expecting other pharmacists to do the same because we are 'salaried' (even if all the readyfills are done).

Apart from having things do outside of work/personal life, I don't think its worth the risk to stay over that much (i.e. making mistakes from exhaustion) and that it only shows corporate that the store doesn't need hours if we are constantly getting everything done when the hours are being cut.

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[JamesL1585]

I did it, for my patients, and did it consistently until my District manager stopped appreciating it. Then I stopped. I think that's one good marker. When people stop appreciating, I don't know if giving more of yourself is the right answer.

For pharmacists out in California that get paid hourly, how is it possible to get everything done without working off the clock?

For those pharmacists that are "salaried"- where do you draw the line between coming in early and staying late?

Our store had well exceeded scripts budget for last year, but still ended up losing all of our pharmacist overlap and a LOT of tech hours. PIC is now staying over almost 3 hours after each of his scheduled shift and is expecting other pharmacists to do the same because we are 'salaried' (even if all the readyfills are done).

Apart from having things do outside of work/personal life, I don't think its worth the risk to stay over that much (i.e. making mistakes from exhaustion) and that it only shows corporate that the store doesn't need hours if we are constantly getting everything done when the hours are being cut.

 

[ValeRx]

When I was hourly, they would only schedule us up to 39 hours per week to help account for any early/late clocking. Obviously nobody showed up right at 8am or gets to leave right at closing. I never made it over 40 hours so I'm not sure how that would have worked. I guess technically it would have been overtime?

 

[MrBonita]

I use to work for a grocery store pharmacy. The previous pharmacist who worked before me would leave a mess. I would start an hour early to go over the phone messages left overnight and finish all the refills that were ordered overnight or uncompleted from the previous day. I also stayed an hour over to double check scripts I verified and filed them away, throw away the trash, and refill the vials and bags. The pharmacy would have 200 sold a day and there was no tech. Me and this pharmacist took turns working on the weekends and it worked. The situation you are in was common when I worked at a retail pharmacy. Due to my habit of making the pharmacy better off than when I arrived, I had no issues getting more hours and complements from pharmacy managers.

 

[Sine Cura]

Just set boundaries. Most chains provide mediocre to **** service anyway so customers can transfer to another competitor and experience the same hurried indifference.

What are they gonna do, write you up for leaving on time? I never tell RPH to stay after. Just leave

 

[PumpkinSmasher]

I will stay late to help a patient or colleague in the moment but if it is not something that needs to be done at that moment, then I leave on time 90% of the time. My life outside of work is much more important to me. I will never apologize or regret spending more time with my family and friends.

 

[mentos]

Why work for free? Your PIC only cares about his bonus, not you.

 

[deleted480308]

Other than 5 min to finish an individual task, get paid or don’t do it

 

[Deja]

is this legal? I feel like there can be a class action lawsuit from this lol

 

[alpha12]

Don't ever do it if you aren't getting paid. They have actually done studies and giving your company free time doesn't it make it more likely you will get promoted or make you a better employee. In fact it's a negative. If you do it for long enough the company will just expect you the work extra hours. Show no employer any loyalty. Pharmacist know first hand that employers don't show them loyalty. Us millennials have watched our parents that have worked for their companies for decades only to get laid off and get their pensions taken. When I graduated college we were in the great recession and when the economy improved I promised myself that I will only work for what I am getting paid for and if my wage stagnates I am bouncing and finding a new employer. It's worked well for me and many millennials.

 

[Timbo]

Don't ever do it if you aren't getting paid. They have actually done studies and giving your company free time doesn't it make it more likely you will get promoted or make you a better employee. In fact it's a negative. If you do it for long enough the company will just expect you the work extra hours. Show no employer any loyalty. Pharmacist know first hand that employers don't show them loyalty. Us millennials have watched our parents that have worked for their companies for decades only to get laid off and get their pensions taken. When I graduated college we were in the great recession and when the economy improved I promised myself that I will only work for what I am getting paid for and if my wage stagnates I am bouncing and finding a new employer. It's worked well for me and many millennials.

Link to those studies?

 

[alpha12]

Link to those studies?

Read it years ago and can't find it now. I will keep searching for you. I did find this.

Is Working Longer Hours the Key to Getting Promoted? 78% of Employees Think So -- The Motley Fool

"According to a Stanford University study, employee productivity actually starts to decline once a given worker puts in 50 hours within the same workweek. Not only that, but productivity falls off a cliff once the 55-hour mark is reached in a given workweek -- meaning that someone who puts in 60 hours in the same week won't be any more productive than someone who puts in 55. Not only can working longer hours end up being nothing more than a waste of your time, but it can also compromise your physical well-being, leading to increased absences and poor concentration, neither of which will help your standing at the office"

 

[MrBonita]

I will give my observations of salaried pharmacist from my experience. What does that mean. The salary is paid to do a task. I have worked with salaried pharmacist (ie managers and project managers). They get 20,000 bonuses, make 200k a year. Some head project managers even make 400k a year. Do you expect them to work just 40 hours just like a typical pharmacist? I observed a project manager work 16 hour days and only go to his car to sleep 8 hours. He was paid well, but he was assigned to complete a task and he was not going to miss the deadline. He was also hired on a 5 year contract basis. Don't get the job done, no contract renewed. That is the price paid if you want to be a project manager and not deal with customers.

 

[Mr. Corporate Pharmacist]

For pharmacists out in California that get paid hourly, how is it possible to get everything done without working off the clock?

For those pharmacists that are "salaried"- where do you draw the line between coming in early and staying late?

Our store had well exceeded scripts budget for last year, but still ended up losing all of our pharmacist overlap and a LOT of tech hours. PIC is now staying over almost 3 hours after each of his scheduled shift and is expecting other pharmacists to do the same because we are 'salaried' (even if all the readyfills are done).

Apart from having things do outside of work/personal life, I don't think its worth the risk to stay over that much (i.e. making mistakes from exhaustion) and that it only shows corporate that the store doesn't need hours if we are constantly getting everything done when the hours are being cut.

I come in 30 mins early for my own sanity and starting my day in silence behind closed doors.

I try never to stay late (of course we all have those really terrible days).

My team and I all know how to multi-task (i.e. ring out 2 patients using two separate registers, use multiple screens to type and resolve insurance rejections, and can fill at least 5 scripts per minute while talking to patients on the phone.

If we can't handle the workload, I know that demand is too high. And I can justify overspending on tech payroll.

Throughout the day, I will monitor scripts to ensure I'm converting to sales.

Then I will check weekly and monthly, plus profit and loss.

My boss let's me run my pharmacy and trusts my judgement because I execute on the bottom line year after year.

I went over tech payroll this month by 50 hours so far. Not a peep from him.

Using the profit and loss is how I draw the line, and its important to measure real time results.

When you say your store exceeded budgets for last year, are you expecting the new budgets to reflect current demand?

The new budgets are arbitrarily adjusted on paper, but rarely reflect real time demand.

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[PharmDBro2017]

I come in 15-30min early so I can get in the groove, but I bust my ass all day to make sure that I never stay after hours.

 

[Mr. Corporate Pharmacist]

Must not work for a chain

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I work for CVS

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[M0df]

Mr. Corporate reminds me of NateRobinson.

So all those things are great until
- Your boss changes
- Your boss can't make any adjustments because his boss told him not to
- Your team members turnover faster than you can train them.

From my experience with CVS, they try to automate their payroll demand as much as possible. Why should any single store be any different from 10000 stores they operate these days. (and btw, techs shouldn't have to use multiple registers to compensate for lack of staffing. You don't see that in normal retail)

Maybe you don't work for them or any of the retailers that seem to train their District Leaders and managers in the same chocolate factory but from what I have seen, there is a thin line between great working conditions and absurdity.

 

[Mr. Corporate Pharmacist]

Mr. Corporate reminds me of NateRobinson.

So all those things are great until
- Your boss changes
- Your boss can't make any adjustments because his boss told him not to
- Your team members turnover faster than you can train them.

From my experience with CVS, they try to automate their payroll demand as much as possible. Why should any single store be any different from 10000 stores they operate these days. (and btw, techs shouldn't have to use multiple registers to compensate for lack of staffing. You don't see that in normal retail)

Maybe you don't work for them or any of the retailers that seem to train their District Leaders and managers in the same chocolate factory but from what I have seen, there is a thin line between great working conditions and absurdity.

You're right. Morale and turnover are dependent on having the right leader in place.

Different leadership styles produce different results. For bottom line focused supervisors, I'm sure they're raking in the big bucks.

For other districts, turn over is low, teams are happy and go home on time, and pharmacy managers have the autonomy to own their businesses without forced culture.

You're right that healthcare professionals shouldn't have to work in such high stress environments.

But if the pharmacists and technicians are happy, engaged, get to take their 30 min lunches and 15 min breaks, I don't see anything to complain about.

There will always be good managers, bad managers, good work environments and terrible ones.

We have no control over externals, but how we choose to operate is entirely up to us.

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[Modest_anteater]

I will give my observations of salaried pharmacist from my experience. What does that mean. The salary is paid to do a task. I have worked with salaried pharmacist (ie managers and project managers). They get 20,000 bonuses, make 200k a year. Some head project managers even make 400k a year. Do you expect them to work just 40 hours just like a typical pharmacist? I observed a project manager work 16 hour days and only go to his car to sleep 8 hours. He was paid well, but he was assigned to complete a task and he was not going to miss the deadline. He was also hired on a 5 year contract basis. Don't get the job done, no contract renewed. That is the price paid if you want to be a project manager and not deal with customers.

" only go to his car to sleep 8 hours"

Did he at least have a nice car to sleep in? Sedans are horrible to sleep in. Hopefully he had a SUV or a minvan or van or truck.

 

[owlegrad]

You're right. Morale and turnover are dependent on having the right leader in place.

Different leadership styles produce different results. For bottom line focused supervisors, I'm sure they're raking in the big bucks.

For other districts, turn over is low, teams are happy and go home on time, and pharmacy managers have the autonomy to own their businesses without forced culture.

You're right that healthcare professionals shouldn't have to work in such high stress environments.

But if the pharmacists and technicians are happy, engaged, get to take their 30 min lunches and 15 min breaks, I don't see anything to complain about.

There will always be good managers, bad managers, good work environments and terrible ones.

We have no control over externals, but how we choose to operate is entirely up to us.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using SDN mobile

Cool website bro

 

[Modest_anteater]

Mr. Corporate reminds me of NateRobinson.

So all those things are great until
- Your boss changes
- Your boss can't make any adjustments because his boss told him not to
- Your team members turnover faster than you can train them.

From my experience with CVS, they try to automate their payroll demand as much as possible. Why should any single store be any different from 10000 stores they operate these days. (and btw, techs shouldn't have to use multiple registers to compensate for lack of staffing. You don't see that in normal retail)

Maybe you don't work for them or any of the retailers that seem to train their District Leaders and managers in the same chocolate factory but from what I have seen, there is a thin line between great working conditions and absurdity.

by chocolate factory did you mean poopoo factory?

 

[Mr. Corporate Pharmacist]

Cool website bro

Thanks for visiting. I'm still learning and trying to figure things out

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[mentos]

Can't you get fired for using two registers at once? You should only be signed into one. Are they using the pharmacist's credentials to sign into the other?

I can see a dispensing error happening one day, mixing two patients meds cause they were rung out at the same time.

 

[Mr. Corporate Pharmacist]

Can't you get fired for using two registers at once? You should only be signed into one. Are they using the pharmacist's credentials to sign into the other?

I can see a dispensing error happening one day, mixing two patients meds cause they were rung out at the same time.

I don't see a problem with being logged into two registers if they use their own credentials.. but I am always open to learning new things.

I think risk is very low because each terminal has it's own verification protocols. I'm sure someone can mess that up though.

I'm not saying this should be the standard practice, but rather showing one person's resourcefulness in times of need.

You're absolutely right that safety should come first, and there's probably even better ways to service patients than how we do it.

The challenge is making patients feel valued when there's long lines.

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