"I'm a pharmacist. Here's what happened when I tried to call in sick to work."

For years in my career as a community pharmacist, I’ve spent a countless number of days going into work when I was sick.

The culture among pharmacists is such that you never get sick and – if you do – grin and bear it.

Once I was at work “grinning and bearing it” with a twisted ovary at eight weeks pregnant.

To give some context, that pain was worse than my labour pain but I took phone calls, dispensed and checked scripts, all whilst being doubled over in pain in the dispensary.

In that circumstance I ended up a few days later in emergency, with many vials of morphine and gowned up for an operation to remove my ovary and I was advised I could possibly lose my baby.

Fortunately my baby is now five and a half years old. I did not lose my ovary and, in a miraculous turn of events, it untwisted.

The point of this story is to emphasise that despite the intense pain I was in and the possible medical emergency, I still dutifully went to work, as I felt like a pharmacist cannot be sick.

I ultimately put my job before my unborn child... which was why, in a recent scenario, I was left despondent and sad at the lack of empathy some pharmacy owners can have to pharmacist illness.

I agreed to a weekend locum shift (a locum is a person who temporarily fulfils the duties of someone else) at a local pharmacy in a busy community, which had three other pharmacies in very close proximity. I had worked there before and have always been punctual and respectful to the business.

The night before the shift, as usual, I went to bed early at around 8pm.

At around 9pm, as I turned the lights off, I felt a little queasy and hot but thought nothing of it. I struggled to get to sleep and at around 10:30pm I was violently ill.

I immediately messaged the pharmacist whose shift I was covering to ask for the owner’s phone number so that I could contact him to advise him that it may be unlikely I would be there for the shift.

I proceeded to be violently ill at least 10 more times, as it turns out until 9am (when the shift was meant to start at 8am). I had vomited so much that my throat was burnt. I had been so ill, I couldn’t keep Hydralyte down.

At 5:45am, I finally was able to obtain the owner’s number and messaged him to advise of my illness. I then proceeded to call him four more times, he answered on the fourth. His response was cold and terse.

His words were, “I need you to work, I don’t have anyone else”, “this doesn’t look very good for you”, “why didn’t you let me know sooner” and “can you tell me if you are going to work tomorrow?”

Quite soon after, I was referred to (on a public Facebook group, although nameless) as an “unreliable Locum who cancels on the morning of the shift”.

Listen to the latest episode of Mamamia Out Loud. Post continues below.

I think some of the issues in this scenario are common to the general culture of pharmacy.

Why is it that pharmacists are unable to be sick or, to put it another way, why are we forced to put our own health on hold to make sure the business is still making money?

Don’t get me wrong, I can understand from a business owner’s point of view the frustrations of staff unreliability. But when you choose to become a business owner, this is part of the deal. Shouldn’t you always have a back up?

Why wasn’t the owner in a position to cover the shift if his other key staff were away?

And what was the alternative, that I go to work, take an ondansetron illegally from the shelf and carry on, with the risk of throwing up in the dispensary and potentially infecting the rest of the staff and furthermore, customers... in the times of COVID? Not a good look.

Owners need to take more responsibility, have empathy for illness and an understanding that these situations can arise and when they do, always have back up for your back up, and don’t make it anyone else’s problem except your own.

They should always ensure that the locum has the appropriate contacts (including their own) and a procedure in place for unforeseen circumstances.

Ultimately, owners should take responsibility for their own business and not demand that any staff member work when they are clearly not fit for work.

Having had this experience, I have at this stage decided that I no longer want to partake in locum work, and I am quite happy with my choice to no longer be working in community pharmacy.

What will it take to change the culture of pharmacy when it comes to illness?

This story first appeared on AJP and was republished here with full permission. 

Feature Image: Getty.