This is why I love having a set schedule, but you have to remember I work overnights 7 on/7 off with 15 paid vacation days on top of that. So keep that in mind cuz this is what it gets you!
The Joys of a Set Schedule
1. I always know my schedule, including major holidays, a year in advance. I have ample time to be up to no good.....idle hands do the devil's work....
2. I always know where I am supposed to be without Mapquest or Google, which is a good thing because I am terrible with directions...
3. It is easy to plan your life out in a little black planner....
4. I know where everything is in the pharmacy so I don't feel like a moron when a patient asks for something and I scramble around to figure out where that Easter egg has been hidden.
5. I know most of my customers and for the most part they like me better than the other staff and frequently remind me so I am all warm and fuzzy without alcohol.
6. My night staff is fun (they all work up front and serenade me along with the easy listening selections...and gossip, lots of gossip and tabloid talk...we could work for E!)
7. Super HOT police officers frequently drop in to check on us because I have had a gun in my face at McDruggie's...it is like I have died and gone to sexy police heaven...or a Playgirl calendar shoot...
8. I get minimal phone calls!!!!! I can't stand the constant ringing. Even with 6 people standing there answering them during the day, the ringing never stops...
9. TIVO always has a great selection of time-wasting programming for me to flip through when I get home. God forbid I miss a new episode of Reno 911...
10. It is okay to have a cocktail before noon if you have been at work all night!
Reasons to not like a set schedule:
1. Your boss is a pompous douche-bag...(not all bosses are created equal)
2. Your techs are incompetant (mine are great but some pharmacists are not so lucky)
3. Your job is repetitive and tedious...all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy...
4. The schizpohrenic patient that wants you to answer the same 20 questions also wants financial, dietary, and American Idol advice and no matter what your answers he keeps calling and calling and calling and calling and calling and calling and calling...(You get the picture, right?)
5. Your co-workers conversational skills and listenbility resemble dry white toast, a blob of Jell-O and a cocktail shrimp with its head cut off...not very appealing or entertaining when you are exposed to it for 8 or so hours per day...(my staff is crazy so there is always some drama going on...)
6. One sick co-worker has coughed and mucused on every surface of the pharmacy and you didn't know it until it was too late....hand sanitizer can only accomplish so much. It would be more productive to wipe everything down with everclear and light it on fire than to work sick....and the keyboards harbor mold and bacteria..ew..not to mention the restroom that someone artistically sprayed fecal matter all over..ew..maybe that should be burned also...
7. You haved planned out your entire life in a little black planner...how pathetic to see your meaningless existence splayed out like an overeager lover waiting to be experienced..."Let me pencil you in."...
8. Responsibility and accountability. I hate getting yelled at. When you float it doesn't matter because you won't see that person ever again and if the pharmacy manager has a problem with you because he/she doesn't like the fact that you didn't fill the prescriptions in the computer but read the entire magazine rack there ain't sh*t they can do about it...
9. I babysit machines all night long and work when they tell me to....beep beep beep (printer out of paper), ring ring ring (phone), blink blink blink (parata vial filling machine out of pills), ding ding ding (god damned drive-thru again), gggrrrrr (labels printing, time to fill), beep (scanned label), beep (scanned pill stick bottle), beep beep (okay to fill), bink (scanned for verification)....b.o.r.i.n.g.
10. Holy crap, does he ever sleep? Now he wants to know if he forgot to take a Nexium and took another one would it hurt him? AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I just want to tell him where else he can stick his Nexium and rip the phone out of the wall!
Yes, a set schedule is good if you can deal with the rediculous. Some days I wonder if I accidentally landed on the set of the Twilight Zone. Anyway, I don't at all feel bad about this week. I work Tuesday and Wednesday then abuse some vacation time so I have the next 25 (yeppers 25) days after that before I next set foot at McDruggie's. Woo Hoo!!!
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6 comments:
So, don't you ever get tired of the mundane, predictability and never knowing anything new, always having your work planned out for you and no hand in the decision-making process? Always feeelingg tired and draggy whether end or beginning of workshifts, or even in the middle of 7 days on, and like someone could pick up off the floor with a wet mop, going in when it's dark, and coming out before light? Don't you ever wish you had a different type of customer than all those strange people that shop at midnight? ;)
It's always interesting to hear the habits the people who work the overnight shifts. My store, and most around here are reg hours, so I have never had the chance to do it (even though I am curious about it if the chance arises in the future). So do you sleep on a regular schedule? Even when you are on the 7 off days, or do you switch to non-vampire mode?
Sleep for me has never been consistent so I exist on a series of naps (my cats are my inspiration) usually dictated by my work schedule. I do end up with more day hours when off but I am still up mainly at night. Carpe Noctem!
Bastard.. what drive thru rx do you work for? graveyard f*cking rules! that being said we will most likely die earlier, and the f*cked up night shift is h@ll on a normal social life (the week that we work at least). just discovered your blog though TAP. sh*t, and all i do is count/pour/(lick)/stick and vent all night.. and by vent i mean spew profanities/mutter under my breath/be a general @$$hole while keeping a smile on my face and making customers believe i'm being as helpful as possible... God I love my job... =X
I worked this same shift (7on, 7off) for about three and a half years and stopped just last summer. Now, I'm starting to really miss the shift: the freedom of the days off, the ability to travel when wanted, peace and solitude of the night, etc. In fact, I think we actually work for the same FAST FOOD Pharmacy judging by the Parata, scanning and verification and Drive-thru comments. We'll see if I go back as there's always opportunities in my district. (Have not missed the night time schizos, though)... Peace!
I have worked hospital graveyard for almost 2 years - don't know how much longer I can take it!
Rude nurses, constantly fixing others mistakes, endless order entry....so repetitive and boring.
I do it because I generally dislike everyone who works in the day, I can avoid managment, and I get paid more. I DO like the set schedule, but it is such a hassle to try and get anyone to cover for vacation - our management thinks we have to find someone to do it.
I think my health is starting to feel the effects of sleeping 3-4 hours some days....
on the 7 off I try to go back to normal, but end up waking up at 2:30-3am for the first couple nights.
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