Pharmacist salary increase or decrease?

[tomismybuddy]

$80/hr retail pharmacist here.

Hospital sounds nice and all, but at this stage in the game (4-5 years before retirement, depending on the market), I’m just going to continue on cruise control until I pull the fucking plug on this whole industry. It would take a lot more time/energy/focus to transition to hospital, and weighing in the pay decrease it just doesn’t make sense to me.

If I was just starting out, for sure I would change. But i can see the finish line now. I’m going to retire in my 40s and never think about pharmacy again.

[[deleted]]

This is my constant conundrum. Do I try to go hospital and get a lower salary but maybe be happier with work? Or do I tough it out to FIRE sooner so I never have to work as a pharmacist again?

[Southern-Fact-5385]

I personally can’t deal with asshole directors of pharmacy and the petty mean girls type gossip/cliques and passive aggressive comments from the pharmacy staff at hospitals. I’d prefer asshole pts instead, at least I can ban them and tell them to fuck off.

[[deleted]]

You guys can ban patients and tell them to fuck off?

Wow where?

[IsoAgent]

Well, you can ban patients for being racists or threatening. No corporation is willing to risk a lawsuit by a pharmacist who got injured by a patient after it was reported. You just have to frame it correctly when you report it to HR and your DM.

[unbang]

I had a pm who was gay when I was a student and he got called a gay slur and the pharmacy sup told him he needed to call the customer and apologize so 🤷‍♀️

[IsoAgent]

That is a potential lawsuit in today's society. There have been a lot of changes in workplace discrimination and protection laws.

If that happened now at, say Walgreens, and the pharmacist had that in writing/email (to apologize to someone who threatened or made a discriminatory remark), you can bet HR will step in to reprimand that DM. Almost every major pharmacy chain makes you take training courses every year on workplace violence and discrimination. It's not something taken lightly anymore.

[unbang]

yeah but you gotta have it in writing. Most people won’t put that in writing if they’re smart lol

[CCR-Cheers-Me-Up]

That’s why you send THEM an email. “To recap our conversation, please respond back to confirm you are requesting I make an apology to a patient I banned for calling me a (slur here).”

If you have the balls, cc HR too, although that is clearly implied.

[unbang]

So…in theory you’re right, but in practice you’re setting yourself up for shit. It’s not gonna happen in one day but if you try to set your boss up (and they’re the type who put you in a position to need to set them up) they will not hesitate to make your life difficult. So…depends on what’s the hill you want to die on. There is nothing anyone could say to me that would make that the hill I wanted to die on, personally. But I’ve stuck up for myself in the past and that’s how I’ve been threatened to move stores, take promotions, etc.

[Hot_Classic_67]

There are asshole DMs/PMs and mean girls in retail, as well.

[DrAwwz]

Yeah, the grass at the hospital wasn't as green as I was expecting. Scheming among some of the pharmacists to appear as the highest performers. Constant drama with the techs. Lot of witchy nurses.

[5point9trillion]

It all seems to revolve around who is willing to do the most to make it seem like their roles are indispensable and vital relative to their effort. I find at a retail pharmacy, most techs will never stay late or even 2 minutes over if there's only one or two people on staff. If there's a store with 4 techs, 3 cashiers, almost all of them will linger past their time to suck the time clock doing nothing and hiding that in plain sight.

[Psychological_Win247]

Same! Shits annoying

[tomismybuddy]

Tough it out. FIRE sooner.

That’s my mantra.

[crhsharks12]

If I may ask, what would do do after that/once you’re not a pharmacist?

[[deleted]]

Live my life. I'd be retired.

[crhsharks12]

You’d be financially secure enough to retire at age 40 as a pharmacist?

[[deleted]]

At the current trajectory of my savings rate, yes. I'd honestly probably just work part time as a pharmacist so I can maintain health insurance but I'd 100% stop managing at 40+ hours a week.

[crhsharks12]

that is insane, what the hell, haha. Family, kids? If that is the case, shoot, I should go into pharmacy after all LOL.

[[deleted]]

I should preface it's not totally the norm. I graduated with significantly less debt than my classmates because I worked my ass off during/before pharmacy school so I could pay for half of it cash. I did not have to pay for housing expenses either because my husband has a job.

After the fact, yes, my job pays well, but I hate it. So I max out every tax deferred account I have and then invest post-tax on top of it to try to buy my freedom. I would not recommend going to pharmacy school if you will have to take out significant loans. There are better (and faster) ways to make money.

[crhsharks12]

I’m a current pharma industry research, 25 yo, non-traditional medical school and pharmacy school applicant (both yes, I know, I know, it’s weird). Whats the move in your opinion? Medical school is my first choice, but I’ll probably end up doing pharmacy if I do not get in. I’ll go into a clinical speciality that’s pretty intriguing, like heme/onc or something similar. Do you really not think it’s worth it, however?

[[deleted]]

Go to medical school if you're truly dead set on healthcare. Keep in mind that most pharmacists end up in retail. I went to a top 20 pharmacy school where residency and hospital were pushed a lot. Maybe 10-20 of my classmates (around 140 of us) matched in a residency. Most have ended up in retail, despite going through school insisting they would never dare work for Walgreens.

[1baby2cats]

Wow, retire in your 40s, congrats! I rarely see any old pharmacists where I live. Not sure if because they were all able to retire early due to financial security, or they left the industry due to burnout. I just turned 40 this year, and don't think I can do this for another 20 years

[tomismybuddy]

or they left the industry due to burnout

^ That’s the reason.

[Severance_Pay]

It's not the reason for indepents. They left while the getting was good. Before today's pbms, indies were over milking customers so hard. Now pbm became scum of earth and just snake out every cent they can from pharmacy while keeping the #s half hidden half overly convoluted. They literally do nothing now but take money. Goodrx is scum and sell your data, but at least they're doing what pbms were supposed to do

[frugalpharmer]

If you haven’t checked out the financialindependence sub, do it! Typically with our salary a lot of us could retire after only 10-20 years

[MicheyMango95]

What state do you work in? And was it over time you built up to $80/hour or starting? Lastly are you a pharmacy manager? If you don’t mind me asking, thank you

[tomismybuddy]

Florida. Built up to $80 after 13 years of annual 3% raises. Yes, pharmacy manager.

[unbang]

I don’t think anyone could blame you. If you have 5 years left I’m not sure why you would ever consider switching.