Struggling to hire/retain staff

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Anyone else finding their work is struggling to hire or retain staff. Where is everyone going?

I think it's causing a knock on effect because if people are leaving and then you're left to pick up your ex-colleague's workload until they can hire someone, it's going to cause additional stress.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Edit: Forgot to say I work in healthcare

 

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UPDATE: I've joined and handed my notice in, 3 months to go. Unfortunately I refuse to pick up the work of 3 people in 1 and expect to deliver more audits. On top of that a lack of career progression is evident.

 

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We found there were a significant number of people, who after covid - just decided to stop working, completely.

This is quite shocking, I know in my field (healthcare) people are leaving to work in GP surgeries or switch into data analysis/science.

So far I've done a 4 year degree and then 1 year of intensive training. Combined with several years of experience, so I'm no longer considered a junior.

Then to stand out from the crowd I've done almost 3 years of postgraduate studies and the result is I'm on £40-45k which is not good enough in my opinion. (I'm sorry if I sound ungrateful). Meanwhile I've spoken to people that have gone from 30k to 75k within 3-5 years of starting a new career in data or a field within I.T that is high in demand.

To add insult to injury some of these jobs are either remote working or hybrid working, during the pandemic pharmacists (along with other healthcare workers) were at the frontline. No days off (I couldn't even take annual leave due to staff shortages.) I used to see patients in the pharmacy in the consultation room, no bookings or appointments and not knowing if they had COVID, social distancing was not possible.

I'm sorry to come across really negative but if anyone has any relatives or family considering working in healthcare, unless they absolutely love it to bits DO NOT DO IT.

No wonder why people are switching careers and leaving the healthcare sector.

 

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At my department at work - we had 6 colleagues leave in 6 months - 2 retired, 2 sacked (non attendance and being very aggressive with physical contact with a customer) and 2 for other reasons. Plus got 2 on long term sick. Very dubious with one of them returning as she has had 7.5 months off already with different things. One of them was for feeling ill after a covid vaccine - was off 8 weeks! Plus she said to me the last time I saw her "I'm seeing my GP to get 3 months off sick for stress caused by staff shortages". Last week, she had another sick note for three months. She has no clue what stress we are going through. Plus when myself and a few colleagues saw our GPs for stress (from daughter having tough times during last weeks of pregnancy to bereavement) - we were give 2-3 weeks! The other colleagues that had time off sick for post vaccine unwellness had a combined 3 weeks off - including myself. Plus she turns up late every shift and makes mistakes.

Plus at the moment - its peak annual leave time. I'm off early next month.

No one has been replaced. We have to struggle and its affecting my anxiety and asthma all the time. Getting grey hairs 12-15 years younger than my parents. Does that say something? Customers don't understand this at all. Even one customer said that we should have our annual leave cancelled. What a bloody ridiculous thing to say. I am certainly need my annual leave. The rudeness, abusive and zero patience from customers is getting to me now. You see them walk to the kiosk and see a colleague or myself serving a customer and tut/sigh as have to queue. I even turned away a couple at the kiosk wanting me to serve them with their 50 items. I said I am sorry, you have far too many items - we accept 5 or fewer or a bit more if they are buying tobacco or doing lottery/scratchcards. They moaned that there was only one till open. I said, no one else has tried to come to me before and queue up like everyone else. If I did serve them, what would have happened was 1. Other customers will think its OK to be served by me with a trolley full and 2. Say "when I came in you were serving a customer with lots of shopping" then feel reluctant to serve them. Then another customer sees me doing this....

I am wanting to leave retail after 15 years. The covid pandemic has brought the worst in some people and have to endure it everyday. Customers say why can't we ring colleagues asking them to go into work? No overtime at the moment, need colleagues at scheduled times and colleagues have plans outside work.

This is why everyone needs to work in retail for a minimum of 6 months.

This sounds awful, not worth it if it's affecting your health. Even if you're being paid mega £ I still wouldn't do it long term. Assess the situation if it isn't going to get better anytime soon then I would hand my notice in.

 

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Doctors are paid "OK" once they become consultants.
Teachers are not unless they are head teachers.


To be honest it sounds like you've only done a few years of actual work so >£40k is not that bad. It's not a junior salary. 3 years of PG study (do you have an MSc yet?) is all well and good but that in itself doesn't make the powers that be fall over themselves to hand over big wedges of cash. I did 4 years of PG study but didn't expect that to give me more money, it didn't suddenly make me significantly better at my job or more intelligent. Pharmacists are relatively well paid (band 8?) for healthcare compared to nursing etc.
I sound a bit negative here and you're self-aware enough to acknowledge that you may sound ungrateful but I guess the point I'm making is that your nearly 8 years of study and intensive training doesn't give you a divine right to a £50k+ job. If it's public sector(?) then it's a fait accompli anyway you are stuck with whatever the band/increments say and you'll never break out of that no matter how many letters after your name or pieces of paper you can flourish. If it's private sector then you need to look at what a realistic target role is to get the money you think you deserve is. It won't come knocking on your door, you need to go out and find it, and keep in mind if the state of healthcare is as you describe there may be a dozen other applicants in the same boat all wanting some progression for that tiny number of senior roles, they tick all the boxes, they've got MSc this and PhD that, they've written relevant papers, they've got a 2:1 or above and straight As at A-level.

The boom in junior progression in data/IT is a relatively new phenomenon, it used to take longer to move up that ladder but for sure there are a lot of shortcuts being taken now. What took 10 years in the noughties/deccies takes 5 years in the deccies/twenties.

The reason why I mentioned sounding ungrateful is because I know some people out there have been struggling to find work. However I disagree with the way the system is. What price do you put on health?

Surely that comes 1st, so why doesn't it pay the best? Why are nurses, pharmacists etc getting shafted? Used to be the case of being underpaid but at least we had enough staff. Now it's being underpaid and being understaffed. The number of pharmacist and pharmacy technician roles available at the moment is alarming.

Yet it doesn't follow the basic economic laws of supply and demand due to it being public sector. As for private work, it's almost non-existent for pharmacists. I have only met one pharmacist that has worked for a private hospital and even then the pay is around the same.