Riding the Roller Coaster

Haven't been able to pull together a blog post for a few days because I'm just beat up and tired. Not for the usual reasons (relentless phones, customers and problems in the relentless world of pharmacy) but because with only a few days' warning we went through some staff reductions and other cuts to improve our organization's financial outlook. Suffice it to say that rumors flew, tears were shed, some overdue decisions were made, and some head-scratchingly puzzling decisions were made. I've never been through anything exactly like that before -- the secrecy is intimidating and kind of weird (like what do they think we're going to do, set the place on fire?) Yes, there was some dead weight that was shed, and there were also some good people who won't have health insurance for much longer. I survived, but I can sure identify more with what's going on all around the country now.

There was so much uncertainty that I was playing out all the scenarios in my head. Right now the Classifieds aren't full of the usual pharmacy jobs, not because there isn't a need but because many companies have hiring freezes. Where would I go? I don't want to work in hospital again, and all of the pharmacists I work with who've come from the big chains say "Stay far, FAR away", unless you luck out with one good store and a really good staff.
It was an interesting exercise for me but I'm glad I didn't have to follow through on it.
Not yet, at least. But having the same workload with fewer people is going to be... interesting.

I do know that some of my co-workers were terrified of losing health coverage for themselves or their kids. That is something we've GOT to change -- health care shouldn't be a matter of being 'lucky' to have a job. That roller coaster's gotta stop...... I felt that way before and I'm sure of it now!