See Ya, CVS... Hello, Roadrunner!

Today is Clay's first official day as a compounding veterinary pharmacist at Roadrunner Pharmacy! We are so excited for this change in our lives. 

While this is a long time coming, it seems like it all happened at once. Clay submitted his resume to Roadrunner back in May but we didn't hear anything until the end of July. He went in for an interview, went back for a trial work day, was offered the job that same day, and had 24 hours to accept. 

I'll preface this by saying that I know there are plenty of people who have it far worse than Clay did, and we are grateful for the fact that he was offered a job right out of school, but we are happy to be moving on.

We have come to learn that retail pharmacies like CVS and Walgreen's offer new graduates sweet salaries right out of school, then pile on the work. Clay was getting paid to work fourteen hour days but usually ended up working between fifteen and sixteen. He was supposed to get two half-hour lunches during that time but rarely even had time to eat once while on the phone with patients. Most recently, the person they brought in from Macy's (yes, the department store) to help streamline operations decided that Clay (and all the other staff pharmacists) would start taking on half of the PIC (Pharmacist-in-Charge) responsibilities without getting any of the extra pay that they PICs earn for being the managers. Clay received this news via conference call after he had already given his notice... and he felt even better about his decision to leave. This is only a small sampling of the reasons Clay left CVS.

At Roadrunner, Clay will be working 8 hour days, Monday through Friday. He gets a 1/2 hour paid lunch every day... and actually gets to take that lunch! What?!? He will never work weekends. He will never work holidays. The company hosts frequent family activities like ice skating and BBQ's. They have been in business for 13 years and have a really low employee turnover rate. When Clay was touring the facility, he ran into someone that he had previously had several phone interactions with. This guy used to work for a different pharmacy. He and Clay transferred several prescriptions to each other's stores.  They each recognized the name on the other's name tag. This other guy has been with Roadrunner for a few months now (it had been a while since Clay had spoken to him... Clay wondered what had happened to him), and had nothing but good things to say about his new job. It seems that there is a great sense of job satisfaction at Roadrunner. Another random thing that Clay likes is the dress code. No more button-ups and ties for this pharmacist! Clay has the option of wearing khakis and a polo or scrubs.  I'm pretty sure that once we pick up his scrubs, we won't be able to get him out of them.

As far as our family life goes, Clay will leave for work a little before 8. He will be able to eat breakfast with us. The fact that the kids will get to see Clay before he leaves for work is so exciting! He will be home for dinner every day (except tomorrow, where management is treating him and all the pharmacists to a "work meeting" at a nice Italian restaurant.) He gets to leave as soon as his shift is over. Once his time is up, he clocks out. I had been stressing about church when the baby comes. Leila won't be in nursery until January so three hours of church with both girls while (hopefully) one is nursing every other Sunday by myself was making me nervous.  I'm so happy that Clay will be at church every single Sunday. He was recently given a calling in church, so this will be great for him to be able to fulfill that too.

The only downside (if you can call it that) is that the pay is significantly less. However, they offer regular raises and we were told that after a few years with the company, most of the pharmacists are making more than they were with retail. They also offer overtime whenever a big job comes in and they pay true time and a half. At CVS, when Clay worked overtime, he got his hourly wage plus $6 per hour (since Clay made more than $12 per hour, that was way less than time and a half).

If you want to know more about the actual job, you would be best served by asking Clay about it. I can tell you that it is strictly a mail-order (read: no dealing with the public) veterinary (read: no crazy insurance issues) compounding (read: science-y stuff) pharmacy.  They compound specialty medications for pets like dogs and cats and birds. They also contract with zoos around the country. In fact, during Clay's trial work day, he listened in on a phone call consulting a zoo in Florida about medication for a rhino.  Pretty cool, right?   
                 
A couple weeks ago, we went with Clay to go pick up all his new-hire documents. Roadrunner is a lot closer to our house than his previous store. It is also north of us which is nice since when we buy a house, we would like to buy a few miles north. That wasn't really a possibility before since that would add more time to his 11:00 p.m. commute. Anyway, the public isn't allowed so we waited in the parking lot for Clay to grab his stuff. The glass doors with the little picture of the roadrunner is the office.

The pharmacy is in a strip mall where you wouldn't even give it a second thought. Roadrunner takes up about 2/3 of the whole complex. The door on the left side in the picture below leads to the break area (where Clay gets to eat!!!! Such a novelty).

And finally, Clay obliged me as I took "first day of work" pictures this morning on his way out the door. He is so excited about this next chapter in his career. And needless to say, as Zane walked Clay down the driveway this morning, we are too.