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How does your job affect your general lifestyle ?

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Cameron’s Answer

A job definitely takes up the majority of your day and week. Most full time jobs require 8-9 hours of work each day. As a clinical research assistant, I work from 9 am to 5 pm. But sometimes when I see patients, I work much longer hours, often from 7 am to 6 pm. However, I believe that I have a great work-life balance as an RA! The great thing about work is that once you leave for the day, you typically don't have to work anymore and can focus on hanging out with your friends and family, exercising, participating in your hobbies, or just relaxing with a book or watching some TV.
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Miranda N.’s Answer

Honestly, your job is the biggest piece of your life...so yes, it has a big impact on your lifestyle. For 8-10 hours per day, you'll be working, and additional hours that revolve around your job will go on top of that: commuting, decompressing after work, etc. If you have a job where you work nights, your entire schedule will be impacted, as will your social life. If you have a job that pays a lot of money, you'll find many more things are accessible to you. Your job doesn't determine everything about you, but it determines about half of what you interact with in the world.

To give you an idea...I work in property management, working in a downtown building full-time. As a result, most of my social life happens on the weekends. My hobbies are moderately pricey (reading, video gaming) and definitely a privilege, but they are not so expensive that I need to largely limit them.

On the other hand, a close friend of mine is a software engineer. His schedule is more flexible, so he often sees friends over lunch or at happy hours. He takes expensive vacations, but he spends much more time working. His hobbies are largely related to software engineering.

Everyone is different--look to the adults in your life and see how their job manifests in their daily actions. But know that your career does not determine everything about who you are.
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Anthony’s Answer

Hi Dey’ja,

This is a good question. Because pharmacists work in so many different settings, the answer to your question can vary greatly. However, I can provide some background.

First, I want to be very clear: people get sick at all times and every day of the year. I know it may sound like a silly point, but it is critical to accept that you will potentially have to work any day of the year as a healthcare professional. With that being said, many companies and hospitals have policies to allow their staff to trade for holidays and days off and force them to alternate holidays yearly. Another uncomfortable reality to accept is that it is very often that pharmacists do not leave on time. As a result, you will find yourself staying late probably more often than not, especially if you are practicing in a retail setting.

Currently, I am practicing as a retail pharmacist to discuss my work schedule. I work a very popular schedule among pharmacies where pharmacists trade days off. It is important to also note in this situation, you are the only pharmacist working, so your “partner” pharmacist is there on opposite days as you, also meaning that you very rarely work with them. It may sound not very clear at first, but it is much easier to grasp when you break it down.

Currently, I work every Monday and Thursday and every weekend. If I work Sunday, I also perform the following Wednesday. The schedule looks something as follows where 1 and 2 represent alternating pharmacists.
S M T W T F S
1 2 1 1 2 1 2
2 2 1 2 2 1 1

As mentioned in another post, there is also a format of this schedule where each pharmacist works half a day on Wednesday rather than the full day.

As you can see, every other week, I work back-to-back weekdays. However, I also have a three-day weekend every other weekend.
Now, discussing how it affects my lifestyle is honestly quite the burden on my social life. Although having a three-day weekend every other weekend may sound fantastic, it can be frustrating when you miss out on plans when the plans do not fall on a weekend you have off. You can, of course, request off with enough notice or trade with your partner pharmacist, but this is not guaranteed. With that being said, this schedule also allows you to take one vacation day and get off for five days in a row if timed correctly.

Often, I find myself missing a lot of time with friends and family due to my schedule. However, I will mention that I work about an hour from my home. This commute weighs on my social life, as I could see my friends and family if I arrived home earlier.

Best,
Anthony
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Tia’s Answer

Since your job is roughly 8-9 hours of time each day, it is definitely all about a balance. With my previous job as a clinical pharmacist in hospital, I work 8 hour days and if it was my weekend to work, I will have a day off during the week. In addition, I work some mandatory midnights and holidays as well. With my current job, I work 8 hours a day (Mon - Fri) and off on the weekends. I change to this current job because I wanted more time with my kids and extended family. I think in the health profession alot of positions are not Mon-Fri unless you are working for a Mon-Fri company (e.g. health plan for myself) or you are in management (salary) so your schedule is Mon-Fri. I think as a newly out of school pharmacist, it was slim pickings on finding an optimal job that would be benefical to my general lifestyle. I did hospital for 12 years before switching to a better schedule for my general lifestyle. So there are times where I may have to work over to complete a task but I feel good contributing to the team and getting the job done. I hope this helps.
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nicole’s Answer

A job is the main part of our daily life. On average a job requires at least 8 hours of our daily lives, this is if you don't have to work overtime. So working has a huge impact on your life and choosing a job that you like and are happy working in is really important. You should know how to balance between work and personal life and know that in life there are other things than your job and work. I had a colleague in my previous job who used to tell me: "you don't live to work, you work to live".
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Dinah’s Answer

Your job takes up a majority of your time, but you need to create a work and life balance. It also depends on the job you are in. A pharmacist in a retail setting roughly works from 9-8 or 9-3 if another pharmacist is coming to finish the shift. They usually two weekends in the month, unless a floater pharmacist can't be scheduled and the staff pharmacist is unable to come in. Some companies do operate on a Monday-Friday bases, but most retail companies are a 9-5 and weekends. Health professional job hours vary, so you have to find what job and hours suit you and your needs, especially if you have a family or planning on having a family of your own. There are always job descriptions and what the company is requiring of you before you apply.


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Krystyna’s Answer

Like others have stated, your job does take up a large portion of your life - so it will definitely affect your lifestyle. Work-life balance was a huge part of why I chose the job I am currently in, as I have more flexibility and have weekends off. However, I know a lot of people who work in healthcare and enjoy having days during the week off. When considering a career definitely look into the different areas you can go into, and consider how they may fit into the lifestyle you prefer as well as the lifestyle you might want in the future. Balancing this out with a job you like to go to every day so will definitely help!
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