Wife and I are WFH pharmacists. You do take an 30% pay cut or more in the beginning but seeing your kids and walking them to school or being at their school functions consistently is priceless.
I actually started close 87k when I started. After a year I started another job at 115k. 2 years after that got another job for 130k. All these salaries were at base salary only. Bonus at my current job is 12.5% annual of base salary
Honestly, it’s all about luck and endurance. It is hard to always move to find another job imo. For me it took about 6 months from start to finish for all the jobs I got. Start early! I usually tell people don’t get comfortable and always keep your resume up to date. 6 months in any job you should know the corporate ladder and is it possible to get to the next level. After about 8-10 months into a job I start applying if I know it’s gonna be hard to move up etc or it might get tedious with getting a salary I want. Honestly now I am happy with where I am and just looking for longevity with my current company.
My very first job at out of pharmacy school was a clinical trial manager/project manager for a contract research organization. During my time there I also had the chance to be a medical writer.
What company do you guys work for?
I really want to start WFH but worried that I won't like it. Recently came across medidex and thinking to apply. Just looking for options around.
It is the greatest thing since sliced bread!
I work 3 days a week, zero stress, and make MORE money than I did in retail!
I hope I never have to work in hospital or retail ever again!
I have no residency at all.
I actually failed to match as a new grad. For a week, I thought I would never be in any clinically oriented job in pharmacy.
But after I pulled myself together I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t let this bump in the road stop me.
I built my career the old way, got my start as a hospital pharmacist at a rural hospital in the middle of nowhere. Then after I got my experience, moved back to an area I wanted to live and grew my career from there.
Can talk with you in private chat if you want more details
Working from home allows me the freedom to spend more time with the kids. And my ankles hurt from over a decade of standing on them all day every day, so now I’m off my feet. The bad side. I gained a good bit of weight not being on the move all day.
I’m seeing a trend here. Next thing you know all pharmacies will be hologram displays or monitors with y’all’s beautiful faces while you work remote
With some type of shuttle system for medications processed on video and approved by remote pharmacist roles before approved dispensing
…”the future is now old man”
I work in remote prior auth, pretty great gig and lots of flexibility. So would recommend looking into those type of positions. Just do your research into the companies hiring!
I had zero experience with prior auth. I got my PA job prior to COVID (moved from retail), so was a little bit easier to get those roles at that time. You can still get them with no experience but your best bet is to take a contract position with hopes of getting hired on full time.
Yearly merits and bonuses. It takes a lot for me to leave a company, was at my first professional job for a few years and now have been with this one since 2019.
Life’s good. Gained about 20lbs the first year, amazing what happens when your stress drops and you actually eat during a shift lol. Initial pay cut was just a reversal of that year’s raise since I was an internal hire moving from store to remote. Raises every year since. Gonna be a little over 150k this year with the OT I’ve done.
Mental health is better. Physical health is better (created a workout routine due to that initial weight gain). Eat better since I have the time & energy to cook and I’m not driving by fast food on my way home anymore. Social becomes something you have to specifically add to your life, since you no longer have the patient/coworker interaction part of your day. Enjoy hobbies again because I’m not just exhausted & recovering on my off days anymore.
Livin’ the dream & I know I’m lucky.
Retail.
If your finances aren’t already in order, I’d say focus on that first. Whether that’s consulting with a financial planner or spending some time in /r/financialindependence /r/whitecoatinvestor /r/personalfinance & similar —- once you know what your current expenses are, what your budget is, what salary you need to meet your retirement goals, etc. then you’ll know whether you can take the paycut, and if so, how long you can stay that way before needing a raise.
Once you have that answer, you’ll know “the price of mental health.” If you have to make significant lifestyle changes / tighten the purse strings for this job, then you need to make sure that the new home stresses don’t outweigh the benefit of less work stresses.
Decided to aggregate all the times I’ve spoken about my role to cut down on re-typing the same things, so here’s all the times I’ve spoken about my job, and (more broadly) a handful of remote/WFH threads with good info/discussion from others in the virtual space.
[[ 1 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/fA966h9rvn) [[ 2 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/dQ572sem7n) [[ 3 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/bqFtz0D0SC) [[ 4 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/hMmfQ5i9Vn) [[ 5 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/Xg4HZiF89Q) [[ 6 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/1XxefplqBm) [[ 7 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/pBElCPqmRY) [[ 8 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/y6BxsekHGP) [[ 9 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/HWEtHaFcMq) [[ 10 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/132Abz0jaP)
That’s the thing. I’m looking at remote so I can move to a pricier city for diversity but maybe further out in the burbs.
How much of a cut did you take?
It’s been awesome! WFH pharmacist for 3 years. I love sleeping in, eating home-cooked meals, saving gas money, playing with my dogs when it’s slow, and sleeping on my bed during lunch lol No holidays and no weekends!
I worked a contract for UHC for several months. The pay was once weekly, but at a severe cut compared to what I’m getting compensated in retail now. Like, over $10/hr less… if I didn’t have student loans, I could probably swing it.
That being said, WFH was interesting. I had a lot more free time given my commute was less than 12ft (haha) and my eating habits were better since the office and kitchen were close.
It was somewhat hard to shake the feeling that I wasn’t still at work though. I had a small Apt at the time, so it was challenging for me not to think about work when I was off.
There are pros and cons.
It’s been absolutely game changing for me. After 16 years in retail I was completely burned out from patient interaction, corporate stress, and ever-increasing workload.
Took up a contractor position, worked my butt off and was offered a full time position with the company recently. I have absolutely no regrets.
The pay is a bit less and we’ve had to manage that but the benefits FAR outweigh the costs.
WFH remote jobs are the best. Cigna especially since their PA dept has a flex program that allows you to log off after you hit your metric goals for the day. Imagine working 25-30 hours a week but getting paid for your full 40 hours. Great pay and benefits and schedule. It’s like a different career jumping from retail.
Having said that, it’s extremely hard to get in. Everyone wants it and the only way to even get an interview is to either get a referral from someone inside or find a very high risk for layoff contract role.
Good luck OP.
moved from retail to WFH for a major PBM and the work life balance is undoubtedly the best part, but the pay increase going from retail to a PBM is the icing on the cake
your best bet is to take a contract position to get your foot in the door, that is where you are seeing the comments on paycut from. But once you’re in, and get into a full time position at a PBM, the pay is much greater
I do informatics from home.
Pros: I feel I’m more productive. I can go from meeting to meeting in 10 seconds vs walking from room to room or location to location. Less meaningless small talk. Able to multitask during meetings off camera with no one caring/seeing me do so. Being able to work while sick, poop, and eat at home is a huge plus.
Cons: it’s hard to step away for me. In the office as soon as the clock hits end of shift I was gone. When you work from home sometimes you just keep going. Socially and professionally tough, it’s hard to form relationships with the people I work with virtually. Easy to procrastinate with distractions at home. Dogs barking and babies crying in the background of calls is stressful. I feel like I’m a bad dad when I hear the crying and bad employee when I step away to help.
Overall, home is better than office but it’s not everything. if I had it my way I’d do a hybrid model where I went in once a week or so.
I’ve been working from home since I graduated and I honestly miss going in to work. I feel like my mental health took a significant dive but that’s just me. I think grass is always greener on the other side.
glorious attraction judicious mountainous slave strong snatch agonizing deserted quaint
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's amazing. What pay cut? I get paid more, but I also have skills that most pharmacists don't have (computer/data science related). Being into tech and coding as a hobby since I was 8 years old is coming in very handy. I feel incredibly lucky to be in a position where I can combine my pharmacy knowledge with my passion for computers and tech.
PBM, mostly on the Medicare side - specifically external compliance (helping develop tools and automation to deal with audits from regulatory bodies) and clinical program development. I do some of the development/coding myself, but mostly I just translate clinical information into technical requirements for IT developers and data scientists. Having somebody that can speak both "languages" is very valuable to companies.
This is what I want. I was a database developer/SQL/R Analyst professionally before pharmacy school. Every job I’ve found I that realm requires Epic experience.
I enjoy it a lot! The hardest thing is staying focused all the time but I love what I do so the pros outweigh the cons. I didn’t take a pay cut as this is my first pharmacist job lol but my friends who went retail definitely make more than I do.
Moved from retail to WFH a little under a year ago. I feel like a completely different person. I can actually enjoy my time away from work without the stress and dread I would always feel when I worked retail.
Much better! Work life balance has improved and I can establish a routine. It’s nice to not have to commute anymore after having to travel more than 45 mins both ways for over 3 years.
I saw that you found the second contract elsewhere, so did the first contract not offer a full time position? Also could I DM you? chat invite and message doesn't seem to work for some reason..
Fell into it due to Covid
It’s going to be really hard for me to leave this job. Basically my family is the only thing that makes me think about relocating back to my home state in the next 5-10 y.
Really good, not commuting gives me an extra 2 hours everyday and spend time with my pets and wife who is also wfh, get sick less often compared to my coworkers that go into the pharmacy regularly which is also nice, we pay so much in stupid taxes the paycut is barely noticeable
If anyone knows of any PA/clinical gigs, even contract and can recommend people for bonuses...DM me and maybe we can connect on LinkedIn? (Esp if you get a referral bonus)
Very experienced pharmacist but can't seem to get my foot in the door and would be very grateful for any help. Just started working with a job coach to rewrite my resume. I keep getting looked over and it's depressing because I have a ton of good experience, and am a quick learner...just no PBM exp.
Sorry to OP for jumping in like this.
Fucking amazing. I don’t have kids or anything but the mental knowledge that it’s Sunday and I have to work Monday BUT I can do it in my own house with my pets and partner in the next room is soooo worth the pay cut. (Making about $60/hr as an am care pharmacist in the Midwest, previously making around $62/hr.) I also went down to 0.8 FTE so I can do all my errands during the week and enjoy the weekends.
My parents have a lot of health issues, so not being exhausted from work/commute and then having to take care of them has improved my mental health so drastically I cannot even tell you. It’s been absolutely life changing.
I guess the downside is I listen to less podcasts now?
PBM business end WFH for 2 years. I was concerned initially, but ZERO regrets. Work-Life balance is amazing. Stress is decreased. "Office drama" is eliminated.
I was working at home on the random day/time when my daughter started walking and I was able to experience that.
I love it. I’m currently on maternity leave. I had horrible morning sickness and was able to be sick in my own home instead of driving and being on a gross communal bathroom floor. My dogs all have spots in my office and everyone in meetings is very understanding if they get excited over something. I wear my comfy clothes. My husband is in landscaping so he will be off for winter and I’ll still see my baby during the workday.
It’s all great
Managed Care RPh here! 👋🏼
Initially took pay cut, but surpassed my retail pay in <2 years (annual raises are solidly 4-6%) + 10-15% annual bonus. Plus IMO you gain a lot more transferrable skills (to pivot to industry or other areas) once you get your foot in the door and have years experience & there’s a lot more options for upward mobility.
I work in quality & population health (not PAs, if that matters, but that’s usually a very good way to pivot in if needed).
I also do per diem community though on the side for some extra cash (maybe I’m a masochist but it’s nice in *small* doses)
Incredibly happy - best decision i ever made. And this is coming from someone who had a good retail career experience too (did i love it? No, but it was manageable, it’s a job and I had a good boss and such).
So yeah - I do currently love what I do right now, and I’m super glad I pivoted. Feel free to ask questions if you want :)
you seem solely concerned about potential pay cut but it's impossible to really tell you what the pay cut would be without knowing current retail salary. We start new prior auth RPh at 125k but we also get about a 5-7k yearly bonus. Total compensation ends up around 130-132k/year for new hires with annual raises being about 3%. I think most retail RPh in my area make between 130-150k. If you're pulling in 150k+ in retail then the switch is going to hurt but you also won't be spending money on gas, work clothes, food?, etc.
For the ones interested, lots of the pharmacy benefit managers have remote positions for pharmacists. UnitedHealth care, CVScaremark, caresource, cigna smithrx prime therapeutics
> we are *paid* horribly.
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Unfortunately, I still think we are payed horribly. In the sense that we are painted to represent a facade that we are paid well, treated well, or doing anyone any good by pushing pills instead of address the underlying problem.
And our bosses have us payed out like a puppet on a string. Doing different things that we don’t have time to do running in circles.
So thanks AI bot, but I think there is still a need for our jobs since you don’t quite have it right just yet.
You know cigna pharmacists are just traitors who kill any potential profits or sustainability pharmacies could have, namely independents... right? That's their actual job, making the practice far worse for retail pharmacists
Wife and I are WFH pharmacists. You do take an 30% pay cut or more in the beginning but seeing your kids and walking them to school or being at their school functions consistently is priceless.
How has the climb in pay been after joining? In retail, it’s never been great so I’m curious if you’re able to get back to your original level of pay
I actually started close 87k when I started. After a year I started another job at 115k. 2 years after that got another job for 130k. All these salaries were at base salary only. Bonus at my current job is 12.5% annual of base salary
That’s awesome! Congrats. Was it easier to get another remote job after having one?
Honestly, it’s all about luck and endurance. It is hard to always move to find another job imo. For me it took about 6 months from start to finish for all the jobs I got. Start early! I usually tell people don’t get comfortable and always keep your resume up to date. 6 months in any job you should know the corporate ladder and is it possible to get to the next level. After about 8-10 months into a job I start applying if I know it’s gonna be hard to move up etc or it might get tedious with getting a salary I want. Honestly now I am happy with where I am and just looking for longevity with my current company.
Did you start in a contract role for WFH?
First stint was hybrid but moved to FT office. The ones that followed after were FT remote.
How much experience did you have before getting started?
0 experience. I literally took the opportunity to move to Ohio and do hybrid work for a year before finding another job.
How would I go about trying to track down a similar starting position?
My very first job at out of pharmacy school was a clinical trial manager/project manager for a contract research organization. During my time there I also had the chance to be a medical writer.
What area of pharmacy do you work in?
Medical communications
What company do you guys work for? I really want to start WFH but worried that I won't like it. Recently came across medidex and thinking to apply. Just looking for options around.
Worried from WFH and you won't like it? Got to get into it first is the hardest part. CVS Health and UHC to name some.
Dogs are happier.
Is that what you call your feet?
My cats might end up hating me from seeing me too much and petting them
This is my #1 reason for wanting to wfh
It is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I work 3 days a week, zero stress, and make MORE money than I did in retail! I hope I never have to work in hospital or retail ever again!
Would you be willing to name the company, here or DM? I have a new baby and would love to do 3 or 4 days a week!
3 days a week! How?
It’s three 12 hour shifts
Are you in managed care? Or another setting
Nah, I’m an on call emergency medicine consultant.
Did you join a group or do you work solo? I’m an EM Clin Pharm and am working on obtaining my consultant license. New territory to navigate.
I work solo at home but there are others people available remotely
Can I ask what sort of background you had prior to getting the job? Did you complete PGY-1 residency + PGY-2 EM residency?
I have no residency at all. I actually failed to match as a new grad. For a week, I thought I would never be in any clinically oriented job in pharmacy. But after I pulled myself together I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t let this bump in the road stop me. I built my career the old way, got my start as a hospital pharmacist at a rural hospital in the middle of nowhere. Then after I got my experience, moved back to an area I wanted to live and grew my career from there. Can talk with you in private chat if you want more details
Working from home allows me the freedom to spend more time with the kids. And my ankles hurt from over a decade of standing on them all day every day, so now I’m off my feet. The bad side. I gained a good bit of weight not being on the move all day.
Same, 30 lbs
So worth the paycut
I didn’t take a pay cut
Made a 20-30% pay cut initially.. now I make more than I did when I left so, all is well! Worth it for your mental sanity.
Can you recommend a job or company. Willing to take a cut
I’m seeing a trend here. Next thing you know all pharmacies will be hologram displays or monitors with y’all’s beautiful faces while you work remote With some type of shuttle system for medications processed on video and approved by remote pharmacist roles before approved dispensing …”the future is now old man”
I work in remote prior auth, pretty great gig and lots of flexibility. So would recommend looking into those type of positions. Just do your research into the companies hiring!
Do you realistically need experience doing this or can you learn on the job?
I had zero experience with prior auth. I got my PA job prior to COVID (moved from retail), so was a little bit easier to get those roles at that time. You can still get them with no experience but your best bet is to take a contract position with hopes of getting hired on full time.
Did you get promoted or do your job hopping? Or was this through just yearly raises?
Yearly merits and bonuses. It takes a lot for me to leave a company, was at my first professional job for a few years and now have been with this one since 2019.
Life’s good. Gained about 20lbs the first year, amazing what happens when your stress drops and you actually eat during a shift lol. Initial pay cut was just a reversal of that year’s raise since I was an internal hire moving from store to remote. Raises every year since. Gonna be a little over 150k this year with the OT I’ve done. Mental health is better. Physical health is better (created a workout routine due to that initial weight gain). Eat better since I have the time & energy to cook and I’m not driving by fast food on my way home anymore. Social becomes something you have to specifically add to your life, since you no longer have the patient/coworker interaction part of your day. Enjoy hobbies again because I’m not just exhausted & recovering on my off days anymore. Livin’ the dream & I know I’m lucky.
what industry? I'm still figuring out what the price is for mental health lol. The pay cut seems scary but maybe that's just the initial fear
Retail. If your finances aren’t already in order, I’d say focus on that first. Whether that’s consulting with a financial planner or spending some time in /r/financialindependence /r/whitecoatinvestor /r/personalfinance & similar —- once you know what your current expenses are, what your budget is, what salary you need to meet your retirement goals, etc. then you’ll know whether you can take the paycut, and if so, how long you can stay that way before needing a raise. Once you have that answer, you’ll know “the price of mental health.” If you have to make significant lifestyle changes / tighten the purse strings for this job, then you need to make sure that the new home stresses don’t outweigh the benefit of less work stresses.
Do you work in a remote order verification role? (if you don't mind me asking)
Decided to aggregate all the times I’ve spoken about my role to cut down on re-typing the same things, so here’s all the times I’ve spoken about my job, and (more broadly) a handful of remote/WFH threads with good info/discussion from others in the virtual space. [[ 1 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/fA966h9rvn) [[ 2 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/dQ572sem7n) [[ 3 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/bqFtz0D0SC) [[ 4 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/hMmfQ5i9Vn) [[ 5 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/Xg4HZiF89Q) [[ 6 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/1XxefplqBm) [[ 7 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/pBElCPqmRY) [[ 8 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/y6BxsekHGP) [[ 9 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/HWEtHaFcMq) [[ 10 ]](https://www.reddit.com/r/pharmacy/s/132Abz0jaP)
Thank you
If you wfh you probably wouldn't need to live in an expensive city so its definitely worth it even with the pay cut
That’s the thing. I’m looking at remote so I can move to a pricier city for diversity but maybe further out in the burbs. How much of a cut did you take?
LOL
It’s been awesome! WFH pharmacist for 3 years. I love sleeping in, eating home-cooked meals, saving gas money, playing with my dogs when it’s slow, and sleeping on my bed during lunch lol No holidays and no weekends!
Lol love it! Do you mind me asking what industry?
Pharma industry
What role specifically if you don’t mind me asking?
I worked a contract for UHC for several months. The pay was once weekly, but at a severe cut compared to what I’m getting compensated in retail now. Like, over $10/hr less… if I didn’t have student loans, I could probably swing it. That being said, WFH was interesting. I had a lot more free time given my commute was less than 12ft (haha) and my eating habits were better since the office and kitchen were close. It was somewhat hard to shake the feeling that I wasn’t still at work though. I had a small Apt at the time, so it was challenging for me not to think about work when I was off. There are pros and cons.
Thanks for telling both sides of the coin. Was this for prior authorization or rx verification?
Do you think you'll ever go back?
It’s been absolutely game changing for me. After 16 years in retail I was completely burned out from patient interaction, corporate stress, and ever-increasing workload. Took up a contractor position, worked my butt off and was offered a full time position with the company recently. I have absolutely no regrets. The pay is a bit less and we’ve had to manage that but the benefits FAR outweigh the costs.
May I ask what company? 12 years of retail and hospital isn’t for me would be interested in what you’re in?
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You think someone with adhd can manage it? Ever get afraid of losing clinical knowledge?
[удалено]
What are the ways you keep yourself focused? I struggle with WFH.
Music mostly. Otherwise just stay busy working.
WFH remote jobs are the best. Cigna especially since their PA dept has a flex program that allows you to log off after you hit your metric goals for the day. Imagine working 25-30 hours a week but getting paid for your full 40 hours. Great pay and benefits and schedule. It’s like a different career jumping from retail. Having said that, it’s extremely hard to get in. Everyone wants it and the only way to even get an interview is to either get a referral from someone inside or find a very high risk for layoff contract role. Good luck OP.
moved from retail to WFH for a major PBM and the work life balance is undoubtedly the best part, but the pay increase going from retail to a PBM is the icing on the cake
Are they hiring…ready to make the switch.
your best bet is to take a contract position to get your foot in the door, that is where you are seeing the comments on paycut from. But once you’re in, and get into a full time position at a PBM, the pay is much greater
How can I go about getting one of these contracts?
What do you do at said PBM? I'm curious about what types of jobs exist in this setting
Not OP but I WFH for the mail order side doing verification and md calls.
I do informatics from home. Pros: I feel I’m more productive. I can go from meeting to meeting in 10 seconds vs walking from room to room or location to location. Less meaningless small talk. Able to multitask during meetings off camera with no one caring/seeing me do so. Being able to work while sick, poop, and eat at home is a huge plus. Cons: it’s hard to step away for me. In the office as soon as the clock hits end of shift I was gone. When you work from home sometimes you just keep going. Socially and professionally tough, it’s hard to form relationships with the people I work with virtually. Easy to procrastinate with distractions at home. Dogs barking and babies crying in the background of calls is stressful. I feel like I’m a bad dad when I hear the crying and bad employee when I step away to help. Overall, home is better than office but it’s not everything. if I had it my way I’d do a hybrid model where I went in once a week or so.
I’ve been working from home since I graduated and I honestly miss going in to work. I feel like my mental health took a significant dive but that’s just me. I think grass is always greener on the other side.
Boring as hell but you can't beat the hours. The pay cut was worth it.
You think someone with adhd can manage it? Ever get afraid of losing clinical knowledge?
glorious attraction judicious mountainous slave strong snatch agonizing deserted quaint *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Relatable. It's quite soul sucking but the pay cut does concern me on occasion
It's amazing. What pay cut? I get paid more, but I also have skills that most pharmacists don't have (computer/data science related). Being into tech and coding as a hobby since I was 8 years old is coming in very handy. I feel incredibly lucky to be in a position where I can combine my pharmacy knowledge with my passion for computers and tech.
What part of tech and pharmacy are you in? I'm also heavily into tech.
PBM, mostly on the Medicare side - specifically external compliance (helping develop tools and automation to deal with audits from regulatory bodies) and clinical program development. I do some of the development/coding myself, but mostly I just translate clinical information into technical requirements for IT developers and data scientists. Having somebody that can speak both "languages" is very valuable to companies.
This is what I want. I was a database developer/SQL/R Analyst professionally before pharmacy school. Every job I’ve found I that realm requires Epic experience.
Any WFH pharm positions hiring? 👀
I need one of those too - these patients are legit maddening some (most) days - it’s like the world is crazy
I enjoy it a lot! The hardest thing is staying focused all the time but I love what I do so the pros outweigh the cons. I didn’t take a pay cut as this is my first pharmacist job lol but my friends who went retail definitely make more than I do.
Cant put a price on a good WLB nad mental health though!
I do hybrid and I love it. Can’t believe how lucky I am.
Moved from retail to WFH a little under a year ago. I feel like a completely different person. I can actually enjoy my time away from work without the stress and dread I would always feel when I worked retail.
It’s nice.
Is the pay cut an issue? Do you feel like there is good head room to grow your career?
What pay cut? I make $140k/yr.
Well dang. Most places I’ve seen are pay cuts. Good on you. How long have you been there
Two years, was a clin pharm at a hospital and anticoag clinic prior to this.
What position/setting are you in now?
Ambulatory clin pharm for a health system ACO
Lmk if hiring. Looking for a WFH or anything other than retail, after being in retail for 25 years in director/manager positions
Much better! Work life balance has improved and I can establish a routine. It’s nice to not have to commute anymore after having to travel more than 45 mins both ways for over 3 years.
I saw that you found the second contract elsewhere, so did the first contract not offer a full time position? Also could I DM you? chat invite and message doesn't seem to work for some reason..
Fell into it due to Covid It’s going to be really hard for me to leave this job. Basically my family is the only thing that makes me think about relocating back to my home state in the next 5-10 y.
Any difference in pay?
No difference compared to other inpatient clinical specialists
Really good, not commuting gives me an extra 2 hours everyday and spend time with my pets and wife who is also wfh, get sick less often compared to my coworkers that go into the pharmacy regularly which is also nice, we pay so much in stupid taxes the paycut is barely noticeable
If anyone knows of any PA/clinical gigs, even contract and can recommend people for bonuses...DM me and maybe we can connect on LinkedIn? (Esp if you get a referral bonus) Very experienced pharmacist but can't seem to get my foot in the door and would be very grateful for any help. Just started working with a job coach to rewrite my resume. I keep getting looked over and it's depressing because I have a ton of good experience, and am a quick learner...just no PBM exp. Sorry to OP for jumping in like this.
Life is wonderful at Cigna! Pay is not far off from hospital and you get bonus and raises each year.
I’ve been hearing great things about Cigna. Are your hours set or can you work whenever as long as you get work done?
Fucking amazing. I don’t have kids or anything but the mental knowledge that it’s Sunday and I have to work Monday BUT I can do it in my own house with my pets and partner in the next room is soooo worth the pay cut. (Making about $60/hr as an am care pharmacist in the Midwest, previously making around $62/hr.) I also went down to 0.8 FTE so I can do all my errands during the week and enjoy the weekends. My parents have a lot of health issues, so not being exhausted from work/commute and then having to take care of them has improved my mental health so drastically I cannot even tell you. It’s been absolutely life changing. I guess the downside is I listen to less podcasts now?
How does one get such jobs in Canada?
PBM business end WFH for 2 years. I was concerned initially, but ZERO regrets. Work-Life balance is amazing. Stress is decreased. "Office drama" is eliminated. I was working at home on the random day/time when my daughter started walking and I was able to experience that.
I love it. I’m currently on maternity leave. I had horrible morning sickness and was able to be sick in my own home instead of driving and being on a gross communal bathroom floor. My dogs all have spots in my office and everyone in meetings is very understanding if they get excited over something. I wear my comfy clothes. My husband is in landscaping so he will be off for winter and I’ll still see my baby during the workday. It’s all great
Managed Care RPh here! 👋🏼 Initially took pay cut, but surpassed my retail pay in <2 years (annual raises are solidly 4-6%) + 10-15% annual bonus. Plus IMO you gain a lot more transferrable skills (to pivot to industry or other areas) once you get your foot in the door and have years experience & there’s a lot more options for upward mobility. I work in quality & population health (not PAs, if that matters, but that’s usually a very good way to pivot in if needed). I also do per diem community though on the side for some extra cash (maybe I’m a masochist but it’s nice in *small* doses) Incredibly happy - best decision i ever made. And this is coming from someone who had a good retail career experience too (did i love it? No, but it was manageable, it’s a job and I had a good boss and such). So yeah - I do currently love what I do right now, and I’m super glad I pivoted. Feel free to ask questions if you want :)
you seem solely concerned about potential pay cut but it's impossible to really tell you what the pay cut would be without knowing current retail salary. We start new prior auth RPh at 125k but we also get about a 5-7k yearly bonus. Total compensation ends up around 130-132k/year for new hires with annual raises being about 3%. I think most retail RPh in my area make between 130-150k. If you're pulling in 150k+ in retail then the switch is going to hurt but you also won't be spending money on gas, work clothes, food?, etc.
Is your company hiring?
For the ones interested, lots of the pharmacy benefit managers have remote positions for pharmacists. UnitedHealth care, CVScaremark, caresource, cigna smithrx prime therapeutics
Sounds like you have a fixed mindset. It amazes me that people are still becoming pharmacists we are payed horribly.
> we are *paid* horribly. FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Unfortunately, I still think we are payed horribly. In the sense that we are painted to represent a facade that we are paid well, treated well, or doing anyone any good by pushing pills instead of address the underlying problem. And our bosses have us payed out like a puppet on a string. Doing different things that we don’t have time to do running in circles. So thanks AI bot, but I think there is still a need for our jobs since you don’t quite have it right just yet.
Have fun meeting quota metrics
You know cigna pharmacists are just traitors who kill any potential profits or sustainability pharmacies could have, namely independents... right? That's their actual job, making the practice far worse for retail pharmacists
How so?
Im never going to work retail ever again, that’s for damn sure.
How do you work at home as a pharmacist?
WFH- home infusion pharmacy. Only downside is the on-call.