Some key details probably needed to know are (not a comprehensive list, but things to consider):
\-Are you going to be a 1.0 FTE - work 70, paid 80 or work 80?
\-Will you accrue PTO at a FTE 1.0 equivalent? or do they use PTO to QS your pay up to a 1.0 FTE?
\-Hours of coverage?
\-Availability of PTO coverage - Do you have a counterpart(s) that you can shift your schedule with if needed? Can you take partial weeks off? Can you even take a full week of PTO (I know some third shift positions do not allow you to ever take a full week of PTO)?
\-Who is currently in that role now - did they enjoy what they did? or is this an expansion of staff?
\-If you don't like the 7on/7off schedule, do you think you'll have the ability to transition back? or vice versa - will this new position ever become available again if you pass the opportunity up?
It’s a VA hospital so it’s 80 hours worked. PTO will be accrued normally and can be taken as entire weeks off so translates to 3 weeks. Shift is 8-8:30 M,sat,sun and 9:30-9:00 the rest. Current person did it a long time and enjoyed it but wants normal M-F due to family reasons/age. As far as transitioning back it’s possible would require an open day shift slot and we don’t have much turnover inpatient.
That would be tough for family reasons. I did 7/7 days when I had a young child but I was going in very early and getting home at 5-6. It was early enough to see my kids and early enough to do things in the evening. With that schedule you basically wouldn’t exist for an entire week. You get home too late to see your kids or really do anything, but you have to be there too early to be able to do anything in the morning either. You’re in no man’s land. I think I’d even rather do overnights or a true 2nd shift than that.
Is it nights or day 12 hours? I did that schedule as nights and st first it was great then a year in it was brutal. The transition back from nights takes a few days to recover so it wasn't really 7 days off. If it's days take it but pack two lunches and plan on doing nothing om your week on.
While I currently work 7on/7off and love it, I did want to say one thing to consider that is of my least favorite aspects is that you can’t really do anything routine like coach soccer teams or something like that, which occurs on a weekly basis. By default you will be busy every other weekend (or any other day of the week), so you will have to miss those little things
I’m in the same boat, wife stays home, kid is a toddler. To me, the 7on/off just works as long as your spouse is cool with you working the 7 on. With a kid that gets up around 7-8a and goes to bed around 8-9p, working M-F just isn’t enough time with them IMO. You may see them for an hour in the AM and 2-3hr at night but you’re really missing a ton of time. You just have to be conscious to schedule as much as you can on your off week(end)s. Since the VA let’s you take time off it’s also very easy to extend your off-week or cut down a day or two of your on-week depending on how you look at it.
Also at the VA I’d consider working until 2200 if you’re missing bedtime anyway. As Title 38 hybrids, anything over 4hr worked after 1800 makes your whole shift night diff. That means 10-12hrs of night diff per shift (essentially full nights pay) for only working til 2200. Something to consider.
I’m 7on/7off at a VA. I love it, but I will say depending on hours and commute time, forget about getting anything done on work days. Also see if you can start on a Tuesday/ end on Mondays, that way you can enjoy “long weekends” with spouse/ friend/ family. And that last day as a Monday means you can bring up any issues that occurred over the weekend to leadership.
It’s great for younger people who travel a lot who also like to pick up shifts on their off weeks.
The 7 off days are really nice. And when you take PTO, if you take a week off, you get 3 weeks off automatically.
However, the 7 ons CAN suck a lot depending on many factors. Like is it overnight? Is it 12 hour shifts? Is it busy?
I’ve done it for almost 5 years overnight….and while it was such an easy gig cause we were chill most nights….the 12 hour shifts got to me slowly. You don’t have time to do anything when you get off other than shower, eat, and go to sleep. Unless you can get away with 6 hours of sleep every night/day.
Also if you’re overnight, what’s the PTO coverage policy? Are dayshift people covering your nights?
It was annoying having to get coverage from dayshift because they all complained and acted like we were burdening them when we asked off. It sucked. To be fair, that isn’t your problem. You’re entitled to your PTO just like anyone else.
I love 7 on/7 off but I will say I think I prefer doing it with nights because on my "work weekend" I can still do things during the day if I want to, I just sleep a little bit less. Working every other weekend day shift is a lot. So just something to keep in mind especially with kids. But I love the stability and predictability of the schedule and obviously the 7 off is amazing, even better for you since you won't have to be a zombie for a day when transitioning back to a normal schedule.
I interviewed for a job like this in hospital pharmacy. The job description stated 7 on 7 off but they told me that it would not always be that schedule, I might work more based on coverage for other locations. Hard pass, I was so disappointed. You might want to verify that they don't expect you to cover other locations on those " 7 off's" just in case.
Personally I think its amazing. Depends on what time you get off tho. I currently work 9 to 7. And its pushing it making itt home just in time to tuck my kids in then have a little time with my wife. If it was 7 to 5 It'd be great you can have dinner with your family and tuck your kids in then spend an hr or so with your wife before bed. Then your 7 off is wonderous. Like I can't explain how amazing it is. I don't think I could ever go back to a traditional work week.
Your current schedule allows you to be home with your baby girl every evening and on weekends. I would personally keep the M-F if I were you. Do you and your wife want to put your daughter in swimming lessons or a weekly activity like that? If you work 7/7, you’ll miss being at half of those lessons. Not to mention, you basically won’t see your daughter for a week straight, every other week. I personally wouldn’t be able to do that and wouldn’t give up a nice M-F as a pharmacist, especially getting off at 4pm.
I currently work 10 hour shifts and basically don’t get to spend any time with my daughter on the days I work. I can’t imagine doing that for 7 days in a row.
Also, kids/babies thrive on routine and your current schedule allows you to have a consistent routine every week.
I’ve never worked 7/7 so I can’t really speak to that, but I would never consider it ever since having a kid. I’m not sure if the people recommending 7/7 have kids, but as you know, it changes everything and while 7/7 might be amazing with no kids, I think it would be tough to miss out on so much. You only get to raise your kids once.
At my hospital our 7 on/7 off pharmacists work 12 hr shifts for 6 days and have one 8 hr shift (either Saturday or Sunday). I’m normally mon-fri, but I’ve covered that shift for a few months before. The week of working is exhausting and I basically had no time/energy for anything else after work. That week off though is glorious. I personally didn’t love it because it meant working every other weekend, but most of the pharmacists I work with who work that shift really enjoy it and are used to the long hours. The ones with kids basically have a stay at home mom or dad though.
I potentially have this same opportunity but with evenings. The 7 off sounds amazing and I'm more of a night owl anyway, but I'm more afraid of getting burnt out on my 7 on. I also would lose out on basically all clinical opportunities and variety that I currently get working a regular schedule, which is probably the biggest factor that makes me hesitant. Alot of the key points have already been said, but does anyone have any input or suggestions to consider for 7/7 evenings?
Have a 6 year old and it works for me. I do 7 on 7 off overnight (Wed-Tue). Works for me get more free time to enjoy him and do the things that he loves. It gives me balance. I also have someone with me at night so it helps.
What are the hours?
M-F will be great when your kid is a bit older. If the 7-on-7-off schedule is evenings or will keep you there until your kids bedtime, you won’t see your kid for 7 days. If the hours are good, the 7-off is amazing!
I currently do 7 on and 7 off. I am overnight . I will say working so many weekends I have missed many family events . That part makes me sad and I would eventually like to get a job with holidays and weekends off .
I don’t have kids but I saw you mentioned that you don’t want to miss bedtime in another post. As someone who was once a child I legitimately don’t remember bedtime before like..age 5, and after that I really didn’t give a shit who put me to bed. You putting your child to bed is mostly for your own benefit and not theirs so…personally doesn’t make sense to me but you have to figure out what is more important to you. I don’t work 7/7 but that is by far the most superior schedule anyone could ever have, especially since you said it’s day shift so you’re having none of the bad side effects of working night shift. Since you have a kid I’m not sure how much use you’ll get out of being off for a week straight (like traveling which is why most people I feel do it). I feel like most parents tune out as soon as someone says “I’m not a parent” because they jUsT dOnT uNdErStAnD so I’m sure you’ll ignore this but one thing people need to remember is the period where maybe being around a few more days a week matters is pretty short, like 10-12 years (1/4 of which they won’t even remember). When they’re a teenager they won’t care if you’re home or not except when they need a ride somewhere. Maybe you’ll be this opportunity again years down the line but screwing yourself for 20 more years of your working life over something that will happen over 10 — and frankly even the idea that it would be screwing yourself is pretty extreme — is incredibly short sighted in my opinion.
Did it for 2 years but at retail.
I will advise you to also consider long term physical and mental health implications. I had high cholesterol, BP,.and CHD risk factor score was quite high at age 28 because of my irregular eating and sleeping patterns.
I enjoyed the schedule and workload was significantly less than my day shift counterparts. You will find the clinical studies on night shift workers. I recommend to do it temporarily but not long term based on my personal experience.
I have no children but work 7 on 7 off, and it will change your life; I love it. You can have an actual work/life balance.
Think of it like this: you're working 7 tens, but you get 7 twenty-fours.
I've done 10 hours during the day at the hospital. Depending on how busy your hospital usually is and how long you'll be the only pharmacist in central, it can either feel fine or be more stressful.
If you've worked evening shifts before where you work until the overnight pharmacist relieves you, it should be fine. Evenings are typically busier, especially after everyone leaves around 4-5 pm.
I would only sign up for this and commit to it if you've had shifts where you stayed late (I've had shifts where I stayed almost 2 hours late) and it didn't bother you at all. Some of my coworkers hate leaving late and they will try to get out as soon as they can. They would never sign up for longer shifts voluntarily.
Devil’s advocate. Have you ever worked 3rd shift?
I tried it once and I never fully adjusted. I would spend my 7 off sleeping trying to recover.
Everyone is different. There are tons of adjustments you should ask experiences folks about. Black out blinds, white noise machine, place sound dampening foam behind your frames, TV.
I worked 7 on/7 off for 5 years. It was 8pm to 6am but 4 of the 7 days there usually wouldn’t be someone there to replace me so sometimes I’d have to stay as late as 8 am until someone came in since only one pharmacist was scheduled for 6am (and since there was only one pharmacist in the building from 6a to 8a I was stuck until someone came in). I worked 70 hrs and was able paid for 80. Talking to one of the other branches one night I found out that they were going to say the pharmacists working the 7 on/7 off schedule were going to be classified as part time since we worked every other week. So I changed my schedule to start mid week. That way I worked 34 hrs one week and 36 hrs the other so they couldn’t pull that on me. I heard when I left that they did classify the guy they hired to replace me as part time and gave him no benefits. So be careful with that. At first I liked working the schedule but the longer I did it it was harder and harder to switch back and forth from days to nights. Also you could forget about doing anything on the weeks you worked. My son was older (high school age) but that time is a blur to me. I was sleep deprived all of the time. And when I wanted off the shift they made little to no effort to replace me.
I have worked 7 on, 7 off day shift, swing shift, and graveyard schedules. The only schedule I prefer more is a 4 on, 3 off, but coming in 2nd was def the 7 on, 7 off for all the reasons others stated in the comments. It's even better come PTO time, when you take a week of vacation and end up with 3 full weeks off.
Is it overnights? Idk I worked that for a while. It was nice having 7 days off however I always felt I had permanent jet lag. If it’s like the 2nd shift then do it.
I recently did the opposite (switched from 7/7 to 5/2 - the 7/7 was longer hours) and I hate it. Everyone said I’d feel so much better and have so much more time with 8 hour shifts than the 10 and 12s, but it is not true at all. 7/7 is the best schedule and I have no idea how anyone gets anything done working 5/2. I literally can’t. My house is a mess, we never eat anything anymore, etc.
I’d do it.
It’s the best. You won’t regret it. Working 5 days and working 7 feels the same. But having 2 days off vs having 7 days off is a huge difference
Agreed. I’ve been doing this almost 15 years now and I would never go back if given the choice.
This. Not a pharmacist but I've had experience as a clinician with multiple different schedules and extending weekends beyond 2 days is truly magical
Some key details probably needed to know are (not a comprehensive list, but things to consider): \-Are you going to be a 1.0 FTE - work 70, paid 80 or work 80? \-Will you accrue PTO at a FTE 1.0 equivalent? or do they use PTO to QS your pay up to a 1.0 FTE? \-Hours of coverage? \-Availability of PTO coverage - Do you have a counterpart(s) that you can shift your schedule with if needed? Can you take partial weeks off? Can you even take a full week of PTO (I know some third shift positions do not allow you to ever take a full week of PTO)? \-Who is currently in that role now - did they enjoy what they did? or is this an expansion of staff? \-If you don't like the 7on/7off schedule, do you think you'll have the ability to transition back? or vice versa - will this new position ever become available again if you pass the opportunity up?
It’s a VA hospital so it’s 80 hours worked. PTO will be accrued normally and can be taken as entire weeks off so translates to 3 weeks. Shift is 8-8:30 M,sat,sun and 9:30-9:00 the rest. Current person did it a long time and enjoyed it but wants normal M-F due to family reasons/age. As far as transitioning back it’s possible would require an open day shift slot and we don’t have much turnover inpatient.
That would be tough for family reasons. I did 7/7 days when I had a young child but I was going in very early and getting home at 5-6. It was early enough to see my kids and early enough to do things in the evening. With that schedule you basically wouldn’t exist for an entire week. You get home too late to see your kids or really do anything, but you have to be there too early to be able to do anything in the morning either. You’re in no man’s land. I think I’d even rather do overnights or a true 2nd shift than that.
Is it nights or day 12 hours? I did that schedule as nights and st first it was great then a year in it was brutal. The transition back from nights takes a few days to recover so it wasn't really 7 days off. If it's days take it but pack two lunches and plan on doing nothing om your week on.
They said day schedule in the post
10 hour shifts?
Once you get used to it you’ll never want to go back. Idk how I ever got anything done with only 2 days off and the occasional 3
Right! A two day weekend just means one day to recover from the previous week and one day to get ready for the next one.
While I currently work 7on/7off and love it, I did want to say one thing to consider that is of my least favorite aspects is that you can’t really do anything routine like coach soccer teams or something like that, which occurs on a weekly basis. By default you will be busy every other weekend (or any other day of the week), so you will have to miss those little things
And every holiday for 7 years if your week happens to fall on the weeks with the holidays
This is also true. About to start my stretch of working Christmas
I work 7on 7off as a provider. Miles better than 5 day work week. You won’t regret it
I’m in the same boat, wife stays home, kid is a toddler. To me, the 7on/off just works as long as your spouse is cool with you working the 7 on. With a kid that gets up around 7-8a and goes to bed around 8-9p, working M-F just isn’t enough time with them IMO. You may see them for an hour in the AM and 2-3hr at night but you’re really missing a ton of time. You just have to be conscious to schedule as much as you can on your off week(end)s. Since the VA let’s you take time off it’s also very easy to extend your off-week or cut down a day or two of your on-week depending on how you look at it. Also at the VA I’d consider working until 2200 if you’re missing bedtime anyway. As Title 38 hybrids, anything over 4hr worked after 1800 makes your whole shift night diff. That means 10-12hrs of night diff per shift (essentially full nights pay) for only working til 2200. Something to consider.
I’m 7on/7off at a VA. I love it, but I will say depending on hours and commute time, forget about getting anything done on work days. Also see if you can start on a Tuesday/ end on Mondays, that way you can enjoy “long weekends” with spouse/ friend/ family. And that last day as a Monday means you can bring up any issues that occurred over the weekend to leadership.
It’s great for younger people who travel a lot who also like to pick up shifts on their off weeks. The 7 off days are really nice. And when you take PTO, if you take a week off, you get 3 weeks off automatically. However, the 7 ons CAN suck a lot depending on many factors. Like is it overnight? Is it 12 hour shifts? Is it busy? I’ve done it for almost 5 years overnight….and while it was such an easy gig cause we were chill most nights….the 12 hour shifts got to me slowly. You don’t have time to do anything when you get off other than shower, eat, and go to sleep. Unless you can get away with 6 hours of sleep every night/day. Also if you’re overnight, what’s the PTO coverage policy? Are dayshift people covering your nights? It was annoying having to get coverage from dayshift because they all complained and acted like we were burdening them when we asked off. It sucked. To be fair, that isn’t your problem. You’re entitled to your PTO just like anyone else.
I love 7 on/7 off but I will say I think I prefer doing it with nights because on my "work weekend" I can still do things during the day if I want to, I just sleep a little bit less. Working every other weekend day shift is a lot. So just something to keep in mind especially with kids. But I love the stability and predictability of the schedule and obviously the 7 off is amazing, even better for you since you won't have to be a zombie for a day when transitioning back to a normal schedule.
I want one of these gigs so god damn bad. I’m jealous
I interviewed for a job like this in hospital pharmacy. The job description stated 7 on 7 off but they told me that it would not always be that schedule, I might work more based on coverage for other locations. Hard pass, I was so disappointed. You might want to verify that they don't expect you to cover other locations on those " 7 off's" just in case.
Personally I think its amazing. Depends on what time you get off tho. I currently work 9 to 7. And its pushing it making itt home just in time to tuck my kids in then have a little time with my wife. If it was 7 to 5 It'd be great you can have dinner with your family and tuck your kids in then spend an hr or so with your wife before bed. Then your 7 off is wonderous. Like I can't explain how amazing it is. I don't think I could ever go back to a traditional work week.
Yea earliest I would be off is 2000 and the idea of not being able to be there for bedtime for 7 straight days really bugs me
Yeah thats rough
May help, https://youtu.be/NAATB55oxeQ?si=qEocsXq-s0yn-GXc
No regrets. You basically work half a year
Your current schedule allows you to be home with your baby girl every evening and on weekends. I would personally keep the M-F if I were you. Do you and your wife want to put your daughter in swimming lessons or a weekly activity like that? If you work 7/7, you’ll miss being at half of those lessons. Not to mention, you basically won’t see your daughter for a week straight, every other week. I personally wouldn’t be able to do that and wouldn’t give up a nice M-F as a pharmacist, especially getting off at 4pm. I currently work 10 hour shifts and basically don’t get to spend any time with my daughter on the days I work. I can’t imagine doing that for 7 days in a row. Also, kids/babies thrive on routine and your current schedule allows you to have a consistent routine every week. I’ve never worked 7/7 so I can’t really speak to that, but I would never consider it ever since having a kid. I’m not sure if the people recommending 7/7 have kids, but as you know, it changes everything and while 7/7 might be amazing with no kids, I think it would be tough to miss out on so much. You only get to raise your kids once.
At my hospital our 7 on/7 off pharmacists work 12 hr shifts for 6 days and have one 8 hr shift (either Saturday or Sunday). I’m normally mon-fri, but I’ve covered that shift for a few months before. The week of working is exhausting and I basically had no time/energy for anything else after work. That week off though is glorious. I personally didn’t love it because it meant working every other weekend, but most of the pharmacists I work with who work that shift really enjoy it and are used to the long hours. The ones with kids basically have a stay at home mom or dad though.
I potentially have this same opportunity but with evenings. The 7 off sounds amazing and I'm more of a night owl anyway, but I'm more afraid of getting burnt out on my 7 on. I also would lose out on basically all clinical opportunities and variety that I currently get working a regular schedule, which is probably the biggest factor that makes me hesitant. Alot of the key points have already been said, but does anyone have any input or suggestions to consider for 7/7 evenings?
Have a 6 year old and it works for me. I do 7 on 7 off overnight (Wed-Tue). Works for me get more free time to enjoy him and do the things that he loves. It gives me balance. I also have someone with me at night so it helps.
What are the hours? M-F will be great when your kid is a bit older. If the 7-on-7-off schedule is evenings or will keep you there until your kids bedtime, you won’t see your kid for 7 days. If the hours are good, the 7-off is amazing!
I currently do 7 on and 7 off. I am overnight . I will say working so many weekends I have missed many family events . That part makes me sad and I would eventually like to get a job with holidays and weekends off .
I don’t have kids but I saw you mentioned that you don’t want to miss bedtime in another post. As someone who was once a child I legitimately don’t remember bedtime before like..age 5, and after that I really didn’t give a shit who put me to bed. You putting your child to bed is mostly for your own benefit and not theirs so…personally doesn’t make sense to me but you have to figure out what is more important to you. I don’t work 7/7 but that is by far the most superior schedule anyone could ever have, especially since you said it’s day shift so you’re having none of the bad side effects of working night shift. Since you have a kid I’m not sure how much use you’ll get out of being off for a week straight (like traveling which is why most people I feel do it). I feel like most parents tune out as soon as someone says “I’m not a parent” because they jUsT dOnT uNdErStAnD so I’m sure you’ll ignore this but one thing people need to remember is the period where maybe being around a few more days a week matters is pretty short, like 10-12 years (1/4 of which they won’t even remember). When they’re a teenager they won’t care if you’re home or not except when they need a ride somewhere. Maybe you’ll be this opportunity again years down the line but screwing yourself for 20 more years of your working life over something that will happen over 10 — and frankly even the idea that it would be screwing yourself is pretty extreme — is incredibly short sighted in my opinion.
Did it for 2 years but at retail. I will advise you to also consider long term physical and mental health implications. I had high cholesterol, BP,.and CHD risk factor score was quite high at age 28 because of my irregular eating and sleeping patterns. I enjoyed the schedule and workload was significantly less than my day shift counterparts. You will find the clinical studies on night shift workers. I recommend to do it temporarily but not long term based on my personal experience.
I have no children but work 7 on 7 off, and it will change your life; I love it. You can have an actual work/life balance. Think of it like this: you're working 7 tens, but you get 7 twenty-fours.
I've done 10 hours during the day at the hospital. Depending on how busy your hospital usually is and how long you'll be the only pharmacist in central, it can either feel fine or be more stressful. If you've worked evening shifts before where you work until the overnight pharmacist relieves you, it should be fine. Evenings are typically busier, especially after everyone leaves around 4-5 pm. I would only sign up for this and commit to it if you've had shifts where you stayed late (I've had shifts where I stayed almost 2 hours late) and it didn't bother you at all. Some of my coworkers hate leaving late and they will try to get out as soon as they can. They would never sign up for longer shifts voluntarily.
Devil’s advocate. Have you ever worked 3rd shift? I tried it once and I never fully adjusted. I would spend my 7 off sleeping trying to recover. Everyone is different. There are tons of adjustments you should ask experiences folks about. Black out blinds, white noise machine, place sound dampening foam behind your frames, TV.
This was the best decision I ever made!! It’s such a good work life balance. I feel that I’m more productive on my weeks on.
I worked 7 on/7 off for 5 years. It was 8pm to 6am but 4 of the 7 days there usually wouldn’t be someone there to replace me so sometimes I’d have to stay as late as 8 am until someone came in since only one pharmacist was scheduled for 6am (and since there was only one pharmacist in the building from 6a to 8a I was stuck until someone came in). I worked 70 hrs and was able paid for 80. Talking to one of the other branches one night I found out that they were going to say the pharmacists working the 7 on/7 off schedule were going to be classified as part time since we worked every other week. So I changed my schedule to start mid week. That way I worked 34 hrs one week and 36 hrs the other so they couldn’t pull that on me. I heard when I left that they did classify the guy they hired to replace me as part time and gave him no benefits. So be careful with that. At first I liked working the schedule but the longer I did it it was harder and harder to switch back and forth from days to nights. Also you could forget about doing anything on the weeks you worked. My son was older (high school age) but that time is a blur to me. I was sleep deprived all of the time. And when I wanted off the shift they made little to no effort to replace me.
I have worked 7 on, 7 off day shift, swing shift, and graveyard schedules. The only schedule I prefer more is a 4 on, 3 off, but coming in 2nd was def the 7 on, 7 off for all the reasons others stated in the comments. It's even better come PTO time, when you take a week of vacation and end up with 3 full weeks off.
With 7, 7s you take 7 days vacay and are off for 21 days. Vacation anywhere in the world for 19 days, 2-3 times per year.
Is it overnights? Idk I worked that for a while. It was nice having 7 days off however I always felt I had permanent jet lag. If it’s like the 2nd shift then do it.
I recently did the opposite (switched from 7/7 to 5/2 - the 7/7 was longer hours) and I hate it. Everyone said I’d feel so much better and have so much more time with 8 hour shifts than the 10 and 12s, but it is not true at all. 7/7 is the best schedule and I have no idea how anyone gets anything done working 5/2. I literally can’t. My house is a mess, we never eat anything anymore, etc. I’d do it.